How do I go from reading plans to writing land use policy?

Reading a plan and writing policy are different skills, so it makes sense the second overwhelms you. Reading, you follow someone else's thinking. Writing policy, you face a blank page and a whole community's future, no wonder it feels like too much to hold. It is overwhelming because you are trying to answer everything at once. Policy is not one grand decision; it is a stack of smaller ones, what are we trying to protect, what to encourage, what to prevent, each answerable on its own. Break the giant question into those pieces and the fog starts to lift. Small step: take one goal you care about, say keeping housing affordable, and draft policy for just that one thing. Small and focused. Then build out. You already understand plans deeply. Writing them is just that same understanding, turned around and applied one piece at a time.