Planning & Zoning

Change comes to all communities. This change can take the form of growth or decline, but nonetheless, it will occur. The question is how communities deal with change. Planning is a process developed to prepare for change or to correct an existing problem deemed by the community to be undesirable. The lack of affordable housing, traffic congestion or where best to locate land uses such as parks, industry and so on are examples of both.

Planning is also a means of organizing complex communities. It serves a role in helping to coordinate the operations of infrastructure, schools, parks, housing commercial development and more. This process of deciding where land uses go and how they relate to each other allows communities to define there own direction and create the quality of life they envision.

In order for planning to properly perform its function, it must employ tools such as a comprehensive plan and a zoning ordinance to implement its intent.

A comprehensive plan is a recommendative document, which principally sets out the goals and objectives a community believes are important to further the enhancement of their quality of life. These goals and objectives must be accepted by the community’s legislative body in order for the plan to be valid.  Beyond goals and objectives development, the comprehensive plan includes discussion of several broad areas like housing, economy, transportation and parks development which further describe specific strategies for accomplishing the goals and objectives.

The comprehensive plan deals with both physical (land use) and non-physical (social) development. Where best to place a park or industrial site are examples of physical planning. How best to create more affordable housing or how best to support services for senior citizens are examples of non-physical planning.      

For land use recommendations contained in the comprehensive plan to be implemented and legally binding, they must be incorporated into a legal ordinance know as a zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance contains both a map and text. The text describes each category of land use and provides specifications for their placement and the map graphically shows the land uses placed in those locations.  Zoning aims to place compatible land uses adjacent to each other and minimize the impacts of more intense land uses on less intense land uses, thus protecting property values and ensuring a community desired quality of life.