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CD - Long Range Planning

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1. What is long range planning?

Long range planning is a strategic process that addresses the needs of communities in a purposeful way. Planning helps guide how a community grows and develops. Community issues are examined from all viewpoints including physical, social, environmental and hazardous. Planning looks at the big picture assessing the community’s current and future needs. Planning helps maintain a positive quality of life for citizens and can help revitalize communities. The planning process involves the gathering of data, identification of community issues, examination of possible future trends, development of possible future scenarios, selection of a preferred scenario and creating a plan for implementation. Ideally, planning involves a variety of public participation methods allowing citizens to voice their ideas about the future of the community.

2. Why do long range planning?

Planning is a way to be proactive rather than reactive in shaping a communities future. It makes good sense for a community to anticipate change in order to shape it and to take action to solve problems before they appear. An uncoordinated pattern of community growth will produce adverse effects on commerce, housing, streets and public facilities and make communities undesirable places to live. Planning can be an economic development tool determining what types of businesses the community would like to attract. Community priorities are established which can guide capital improvement planning. In addition, plans provide the legal basis for land use regulations and programs.

3. What is a comprehensive plan?

A comprehensive plan is a policy document that provides the vision for what a community wants to become and the steps that need to be taken to reach that vision. The plans are documents that provide guidance and direction to local leaders who are responsible for implementing desired changes and charting the future of the community. Comprehensive plans should be prepared with the involvement of citizens, property owners and businesses in the community.

An important aspect of a comprehensive plan is to capture the community’s sense of place, what makes it special from other communities. A plan should point to the need to protect unique physical resources and reinforces the fact that generally communities are shaped by development over a long period of time. Key factors that make a plan comprehensive are that it covers all the land area of the local jurisdiction preparing the plan, it includes all matters related to the physical development of the community such as land use, transportation, economic development, parks and open space and community character and design, and the plan must consider a relatively long time horizon such as 10 to 20 years.

Comprehensive plans are adopted as official policy documents by the local governing body.
City of Wheat Ridge Comprehensive Plan

4. What authority does the comprehensive plan hold?

While this varies depending on individual state statutes, in most cases, comprehensive plans are advisory documents meaning they are not legally enforceable. The plans are documents that set forth major policies concerning the desirable future physical development of the community. While plans may be advisory, they do serve as the statutory basis for adoption of legally enforceable ordinances that shape physical development such as a zoning ordinance or subdivision regulations.

5. What are the benefits of planning?

Planning can help create more desirable places to live by ensuring that land uses are sited in a way that benefits citizens. Planning is a way of aiming for effective and efficient change that will make a community a better place to live. Planning helps determine where buildings, businesses, homes and roads will be located, maintains neighborhood character, reduces environmental impacts, preserves parks and open space, and provides protection from natural and human made disasters. Planning can make a difference in how you get to work whether you drive, take mass transit, walk or bicycle. Where you live, in the downtown, suburbs or a rural community can be influenced by planning. Planning also encourages regional cooperation among communities. Many issues need to looked at and addressed on a regional basis such as transportation and air quality.

6. What are subarea plans?

Subarea plans are plans prepared for limited geographic areas within a community. These can be neighborhoods, corridors, downtowns or special districts. Because of the narrower focus of such plans, they typically encourage a greater level of participation from property owners and residents than a comprehensive plan. In addition, subarea plans generally include a greater level of detail than a community-wide plan. Geographically focused plans deal with many of the same issues as a comprehensive plan. Any special plan needs to be considered within the context of the community as a whole. City of Wheat Ridge Subarea Plans

7. Can plans be revised?

Plans can be revised as needed to address changing circumstances within the community. Any revisions made to plans generally require a public hearing before the governing body. Possible reasons for amending plans include new development opportunities, new infrastructure needs or a change in community priorities.