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The comprehensive plan, sometimes called the master plan or general plan, serves as a formal statement of the com-munity’s goals and objectives. The plan establishes policies and procedures relating to the community’s future growth, including new development of land and maturation of ex-isting neighborhoods. The plan represents the collective in-put of public and private sector attitudes, needs, and desires. Its recommendations are based on extensive anal-ysis of economic, social, demographic, and other forces ev-ident in the community. The plan attempts to provide an adopted vision of the community for some distant point in time, perhaps 10 or 20 years. The comprehensive plan

pro-2 䡲 COMPREHENSIVEPLANNING ANDZ^ONING 35 vides valuable guidance for those making important

eco-nomic decisions, including local officials, land developers, existing and prospective residents, employees, and business operators. In most states, the comprehensive plan is a guide that is advisory in nature and not a legally binding regu-lation, such a zoning ordinance, which indeed is law. How-ever, in a minority of states, the comprehensive plan is directive in nature, requiring conformance, and rises to the level of law.

To government officials, the comprehensive plan serves several purposes. It defines a general pattern of projected land use for the community. It recommends policies that alternatively encourage desired development or discourages inappropriate use or intensity of development. It establishes and reinforces community standards for appearance, de-sign, delivery of public services, and protection of the en-vironment, and it serves as an important guide for allocating resources used for the provision and distribution of public facilities and services. The overall objective of the compre-hensive plan is to establish and achieve goals that result in a high quality of life for both the residential and business communities.

Land development, infrastructure management, and the operation of community services involve extreme public, private, and personal investment. As a result of this invest-ment, the court systems have placed increased importance on the comprehensive plan as either a guide for develop-ment or a binding source of legally mandated land use reg-ulation. Therefore, most local officials rely heavily on the plan. Its recommendations form the basis for making rea-soned and predictable decisions about land use and budg-ets, rather than those that may be challenged in the courts as arbitrary and capricious.

To the community’s residents, the comprehensive plan represents a blueprint for the quality of life they expect to enjoy. It creates identity for the neighborhoods in which they live and defines the services they expect to receive.

The decision to move to a community and purchase a home is perhaps the most important of personal investments made, and the comprehensive plan is viewed as a way to predict the soundness of that investment. It identifies the location of new neighborhoods, office and retail centers, new roads, and schools that may affect that investment. The plan offers more certainty and provides a way of anticipat-ing intrusion or impacts that could reduce property value.

For the business sector, the comprehensive plan is an essential source of information on potential new markets.

The future locations of new centers of employment or res-idential communities are particularly important to businesses operating support, supply, and service establish-ments. The plan provides information that can be used to determine the potential customer base available to the busi-ness community. Large employers in need of properties with room for expansion also rely on the comprehensive plan for guidance. Existing and future labor force and sales mar-kets can be determined from the plan. At the same time,

businesses and employers look to the plan for an expression of long-term commitment to business. Like the residents, the land developer also views the comprehensive plan as a protection of property value. It suggests what decisions will be made that are beyond his or her control. More impor-tantly, however, the developer uses the plan to identify new opportunities. The developer is in the business of convert-ing raw or underutilized land to new uses. The land de-velopment consultant and the developer use the comprehensive plan to determine the suitability of pur-chasing specific land for new projects based on the planned land use and their particular development program.

Many land developers specialize in a specific land use and product; therefore, the plan is an important tool in identifying the area, and sometimes the specific parcels, that are best suited for the particular development program be-ing pursued. The availability of public facilities and services is an important part of identifying the potential of a piece of property. Similarly, the compatibility and impact of ad-jacent use is an important factor in selecting property for development. Just as a homeowner is concerned with the neighborhood, so too is the developer concerned about the character of the community. For example, a luxury office developer may not believe that an adjoining industrial or warehouse facility is a suitable neighbor. The plan helps define the market area of a site. The developer uses this information to determine whether there are sufficient em-ployees, residences, or customers to make the project a suc-cessful venture. Later chapters discuss market analysis and project feasibility in detail.

As the developer’s agent, the land development consult-ant is responsible for understanding the comprehensive plan and its various components. The consultant must also be familiar with the planning process itself. The information used in planning and the events that lead to the plan’s adop-tion form an important foundaadop-tion for project design. The consultant must understand not only the impact of the plan’s recommendations to the land use, but how the juris-diction will enforce its recommendations.

The plan provides other critical information without which the application of other regulatory tools could be meaningless. This information relates to general design re-quirements imposed on a project beyond simple use and scale. These include conditions for reducing environmental and service impacts of the development. The plan also aids the developer by projecting when public and private infra-structure and services will be available to the site.

Community Planning: A Participatory Process

Since the plan is intended as a reflection of community attitudes and desires, the process usually involves several opportunities for citizen participation and input. The pro-cess that some municipalities follow to adopt or revise the comprehensive plan is often lengthy and controversial. Even when this is not the case, it is important for the land de-velopment team to become involved in that process.

Whether or not projects are underway or envisioned, it is important to participate in the process because the results will shape or constrain development opportunities for years to come. The information gathered and attitudes voiced are an invaluable resource for preparing future proposals.

Although in some cases a close monitoring of the plan-ning process is sufficient, full participation in the process may be preferable. Coming from residential citizens of the municipality and members of its business community, the team’s input is a critical and rightful component of com-munity thinking. The policies and subsequent regulations and procedures that the plan will recommend must reason-ably coincide with development practice and not serve as a hindrance to future success. Where communities are en-couraged to accept the practical expertise offered by devel-opment professionals, the plan and its policies are more effective in achieving the community’s goals.

Most medium- and large-sized municipalities employ a professional planning staff that coordinates the overall plan-ning effort, while smaller communities often retain outside consultants for this purpose. The governing body relies heavily on the recommendations of its planning staff, al-though decisions about the plan and policies will ultimately be its own. A timetable for the plan and framework for the analysis will be prepared. Sometimes working with an ad hoc task force composed of the community’s civic, business, and political leaders, the staff undertakes extensive data col-lection. The staff will compile the demographic and eco-nomic inventory statistics needed for the analysis, as well as review existing development patterns and activity.

The comprehensive planning process often provides for a period of open nominations, during which citizens can suggest new or revised development policies and specific parcel recommendations for inclusion in the plan. For the land development design team, this is perhaps the most important part of the planning effort. During this period, it may be possible for citizens to recommend, and the gov-erning body to consider, new or revised land use designa-tions for properties under the control of the developer. This could result in a downplanning, or reduction in the land use or development intensity recommended in the compre-hensive plan. Conversely, this forum provides the land de-velopment design team with the opportunity to suggest a different and perhaps more intensive use of the property and strive to have the comprehensive plan recommendation revised accordingly. Depending on existing parcel zoning, future projects could be drastically altered if development intentions are not confirmed or defended by the land de-velopment design team during this nomination period.

As stated above, this nomination period also provides an opportunity for citizens as well as landowners to introduce new proposals for future development of the holdings of the developer. Circumstances unforeseen in prior plans, such as expansion of an airport, revitalization of a business center, decline of a neighborhood, or influx of new industry, may justify a change. Similarly, assembly of smaller parcels into a large development tract may also suggest an

oppor-tunity for a project of grander scale than anticipated in the plan. The planning staff and other involved groups consider these proposals in preparing the plan. The planning staff and other involved groups consider these proposals in pre-paring the plan. Supporting documentation and testimony presented by the development team form an important component of the analysis.

As the planning staff prepares preliminary drafts of the comprehensive plan, the governing body often schedules town meetings, informal public hearings, or similar forums to allow public input and comments. The purpose of these meetings is to gain a sense of the community’s reaction to the plan. Frequently, the planning staff compiles testimony and comments presented at these meetings and responds with an analysis of issues and conflicts. As the process draws to a conclusion, formal, statutorily mandated public hearings will be held by either or both an appointed plan-ning commission or similar board and the goverplan-ning body of the municipality. Throughout these hearings, the infor-mation presented by all segments of the community pro-vides an important record upon which to base subsequent land development decisions.

Depending on the size of the community, the entire pro-cess can take several months to several years. To spread the demanding workload, many municipalities update their comprehensive plans, or portions of it, on a cyclical time-table. Some state legislation mandate the time within which the jurisdiction must review and update the comprehensive plan, such as every five years. Opportunities for property owners to seek out-of-turn or off-schedule plan amend-ments may be limited. The land development consultant must be familiar with local practice to advise development clients properly.

Composition and Characteristics of the Comprehensive Plan

Most comprehensive plans consist of six major parts:

1. Statements of the community’s goals and objectives 2. Inventories of its existing characteristics, features, land uses, and facilities

3. Projections of trends expected within the life of the plan

4. Text describing policies to be applied in order to achieve the plan’s goal

5. Maps and text depicting and discussing the com-munity, showing current and future land use, the loca-tion of future public facilities, environmental resources, and other features

6. Text describing how the community intends to carry out the goals of the plan

The statement of goals and objectives is a reflection of attitudes towards the elements that interact to form the built environment. Typically, these elements include:

2 䡲 COMPREHENSIVEPLANNING ANDZ^ONING 37

䡲 Recreation and open space

䡲 The environment and natural resources 䡲 Public utilities, services, and facilities Many communities add goals addressing:

䡲 Economic development 䡲 Social or human services 䡲 Historic preservation

䡲 Major institutional uses, such as airports, colleges, or government installations

䡲 Other important indigenous issues or land uses, such as agriculture, mineral production, or maritime activities

䡲 Intrajurisdictional and intraregional relationships and responsibilities

Establishment of Goals and Objectives

The goals statements themselves are usually broad. They are often criticized as being innocuous ‘‘motherhood and apple pie’’-type assertions. For example, in 1978, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, adopted a new comprehensive plan with three goals described as ‘‘the foundation for this Plan.’’ One of the goals, the overall social goal, was to ‘‘provide the best possible opportunities for all of the people to earn a living, to have a comfortable home, and to enjoy physical and emotional health, personal security and safety, access to new skills and knowledge, and control over their own lives’’

(Anne Arundel County, 1978). Certainly the goal is impor-tant. However, it offers little in the way of advice for those making development decisions, either in the public or pri-vate sector.

In some jurisdictions, however, the goals are very fo-cused. They reflect strong attitudes about shortcomings or conflicts in prior comprehensive planning efforts or the rate of growth being experienced in the community. The Fairfax County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors in 1987 appointed 20 civic and business leaders to a countywide Goals Advi-sory Commission. The action was a response to a divisive conflict over the county’s explosive growth and government efforts to control it. The panel spent 11 months in intense analysis and dialogue about county and industry past prac-tices. In addition, 11 months of controversial public hear-ings were held by the commission, the county’s Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors. The resulting

18 goals formed the basis for a 3-year, multiphased review of the county’s comprehensive plan. In contrast to the Anne Arundel goal, a typical goal in the adopted Fairfax plan follows:

Transportation—Land use must be balanced with the sup-porting transportation infrastructure, including the regional network, and credibility must be established with the public and private sectors that the transportation program will be implemented. Fairfax County will encourage the develop-ment of accessible transportation systems designed, through advanced planning and technology, to move people and goods efficiently while minimizing environmental impact and community disruption. Regional and local efforts to achieve a balanced transportation system through the de-velopment of rapid rail, commuter rail, expanded bus ser-vice and the reduction of excessive reliance upon the automobile should be the keystone policy for future plan-ning and facilities. Sidewalks and trails should be developed as alternative transportation facilities leading to mass transit, high density areas, public facilities, and employment areas.

(Fairfax County, 1990)

Whatever the form of the goal statements, they set a standard against which the actions of both the land devel-oper and local governing body are judged. In preparing the client’s plans, the land development consultant must con-sider how those plans address these overriding goals. The team representative will likely be called upon to justify the proposal and must be sure the plan is characterized as a solution rather than an exacerbation of a problem identified in the plan.

Inventory and Trends

Inventory and trends analysis provides a starting point or snapshot of the community and its citizens’ mindset. The inventory is a valuable resource to the development team because it includes a demographic analysis of the popula-tion of the community. It shows statistics such as age dis-tribution, household formation, income, labor force, and home and automobile ownership. Along with a large-scale map showing existing land use, the plan describes land use characteristics, including a breakdown of number and type of housing units, structural condition, and land and build-ing area of nonresidential uses. The plan also provides ec-onomic data, such as retail sales and manufacturing output.

Many plans contain information on real estate absorption and conversion rates, property sales, and leasing activity, while others also offer statistics on commuting patterns and transportation use. With the help of the land development consultant, the developer uses the inventory to determine the needs of residents and business, and their financial ca-pacities and limitations.

The premise of comprehensive planning is that, by iden-tifying growth patterns and adapting land use and economic controls, it is possible, if determined good public policy, to alter the patterns. The application of these controls may involve redistribution of public resources in accordance with reordered priorities. Strict controls and disincentives

may be considered to prevent or deter specified develop-ment actions. Conversely, policies may be adopted that pro-vide incentives to land developers and users that succeed in altering their actions to achieve the goals of the plan.

Incentives may simply take the form of public support for a desired change in zoning. Policies contained in the plan may suggest density or other bonuses that provide financial incentive to the land developer in exchange for public benefit. The plan may suggest that public funds be applied to critically needed public works improvement pro-jects in areas where growth is desired. It may recommend the timing of development to keep pace with those im-provements.

Land Use Maps

Accompanying the comprehensive plan text is the proposed land use map. Often color-coded or shaded, the generalized land use maps of the community represent a graphic de-piction of the relationship of existing and future land uses and facilities. The map divides geographic areas into desired and projected uses and intensity. These areas usually rep-resent the broad categories of land use, such as residential, commercial, industrial, and other employment centers.

Subcategories of development intensity show the gradation of land use patterns. For instance, the map may show that an area of high-density residential is a desirable future use adjacent to an existing commercial center. The map defines the boundaries of the area and provides a range of relative densities. The map frequently shows the proposed location of significant facilities, such as transit centers, proposed freeway interchanges, regional shopping malls, and schools.

It offers a snapshot of what the community would like to be at a distant but determined point in time. Figure 2.1 provides an example of a section of a comprehensive plan

It offers a snapshot of what the community would like to be at a distant but determined point in time. Figure 2.1 provides an example of a section of a comprehensive plan