The key to the Youngstown effort was a technical and financial plan, one sufficiently credible to attract investors, gain the support of the steelworkers, and warrant federal grants and loan guarantees.

Through the agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, developing “the plan” became the responsibility of the National Center for Economic Alternatives. For approximately the first half of 1978, the plan was in the process of gestation in Washington. The Coalition in Youngstown focused its energies largely on the campaign, while waiting for the plan fashioned by the experts to descend from the nation's capital. The NCEA was to get feedback from Youngstown on a preliminary report and to hear advice from Campbell workers on improving productivity and from local business people on the structure of the new community corporation. But the division of labor for at least the first six months called for the Washington consultants to do the thinking and the Coalition to do the leg work. From January through September, the posture of the Coalition with regard to the plan was essentially a passive one. Such a posture, it should be noted, was to some extent dictated by the terms of the agreement with HUD. The research contract was signed directly between HUD and Alperovitz. The Coalition was given only a kind of informal oversight and had no contractual authority over the planning process or its result.

In the summer and fall of 1978, the plan developed by the NCEA ran into trouble. From September on, a major revision of the plan was conceived and worked out largely in Youngstown, with the aid of volunteer consultants.