Comprehensive or Master Plans are policy documents developed at the municipal level that establish goals, objectives, and actions to facilitate the desired land use and development outcomes the community desires. Comprehensive planning has been a tool for nearly a century. It was regulated at the federal level with the passage of the Standard City Planning Enabling Act in 1928. But it has been a widely used tool in cities, towns, and counties only since passage of the U.S. Housing Act of 1954.
COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLAN - The traditional community comprehensive plan focusing on land use and services and possibly including a capital improvements element--particularly with an impact fee system.
POLICY PLAN - Policy planning is based on development of a series of interconnected policies that guiide growth and development of a municipal corporation. The land use data collection process is generally not a part of this type of document.
GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN - Growth management plans are specifically designed to assess threats and opportunities that urban growth poses (both inter- and intra-municipally, and develop a plan to shape growth in a manner least disruptive to the community over time. It also makes policy recommendations designed to implement specific proactive growth strategies that can be carried forth in a public manner.
STRATEGIC PLAN - is a community planning process that defines and develops a strategy, or direction, and makes decisions on allocating municipal resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and human resources. A strategic plan is differentiated from a comprehensive plan in its specificity regarding a strategic focus rather than broad comprehensiveness. Several business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ) and PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis).
RELOCALIZATION PLAN - Relocalization plans are specialized hybrid land use and strategic plans that focus on strengthening local assets to be optimally prepared to flourish in a energy uncertain future. These types of plans are also often designed to address climate change, local economic challenges, and are a key method to implement sustainability goals and objecives. Relocalization plans may incorporate indicators to provide an ongoing assessment tool that allows the community to be aware of how it is doing. Indicators should embody sustainability and resilience principles and can include:
While local long-range planning must never be rigidly structured, there are some common steps that occur...
Comprehensive planning needs in a community may vary from the desire to create a new plan to updating or polishing up an existing successful plan. It is recommended that communities that have not included energy in a current or prior planning process revise their plans to include the impact of energy scarcity on the future planning process.
Generally, we recommend that if you are hesitant to commission a full relocalization plan that at minimum you consider a set of relocalization strategies to enhance local economic and ecological resilience.