Comprehensive Planning Fundamentals Mike Koles

G3746

verybody plans. People make make decisions in a manner that may financial plans, work plans, and not be in the best interests of local Eeven grocery lists to efficiently residents. “Change is the law of life. achieve their goals. Planning helps Planning encourages a community And those who look only each of us work toward accomplishing development process that initiates objectives in an orderly, step-by-step action rather than one that simply to the past or present are fashion. It also helps a community reacts to events. But comprehensive avoid costly errors by allowing for a planning is not easy. Before it is certain to miss the good look at the issues. Communities attempted, the concept, purpose and that fail to plan are like people who process of planning must be clearly future.” shop without grocery lists—they understood.This fact sheet is a com- John Fitzgerald Kennedy spend too much on junk food and not prehensive planning primer intended enough on what is actually needed. to raise awareness and start to The comprehensive planning process prepare the community for planning. encourages governments to think strategically about all aspects of their Comprehensive community and the way these planning history elements interact. Planning allows us The comprehensive plan has its roots to take a look at where the commu- in the governmental reforms of the nity has been, how it got to this point, late 19th and early 20th centuries.The where it wants to go, and how it can U.S. Department of Commerce get there.Without a clear picture of Advisory Committee on Planning and citizen goals, policy makers must often Zoning institutionalized comprehensive planning in the Standard Zoning Enabling Act of 1926 and the Standard City Planning Enabling Act of 1928. In 1920, Milwaukee became the first Wisconsin municipality to adopt zoning, which was upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1923. By the end of the decade, many cities and villages across the state had developed zoning ordinances. Zoning was originally a safeguard against incom- patible uses, such as factories and residential areas, locating near each other. In 1929, the legislature expanded the use of zoning to allow for the man- What is planning? Planning is not: agement of rural areas.This was ■ Planning is an orderly, open ■ An attempt to replace market largely a response to mismanagement approach to determining local forces of supply and demand. It of rural lands, especially by lumber needs, setting goals and priorities, helps shape and channel market companies in northern Wisconsin. and developing a guide for action. forces by establishing certain In the sometimes hasty, reactive ■ Planning is a concentrated effort guidelines or rules to manage response to land use problems, by a community to reach a balance development. planning and zoning were often con- between the natural environment ■ Action. A plan is only a guide for sidered the same thing. Many individu- and residential, commercial, indus- action and implementation. als and communities still hold this mis- trial and agricultural development. ■ An instrument of immediate conception.The new Comprehensive ■ A plan is a guide for public officials change. Change will occur incre- Planning Law in Wisconsin works to and private citizens to use in mentally as the plan is imple- clear up this confusion. making informed decisions that mented. will affect their community. ■ A silver bullet. Planning provides a Change is inevitable. Planning is a limited set of options for commu- process that helps a community nities to slowly foster change. prepare for change rather than react ■ Static or only conducted one time. to it.The process involves working Good planning requires continual citizens through four basic questions: review of implementation suc- 1. Where is the community now? cesses and failures, citizen desires 2. How did the community get here? and the surrounding environment so that the plan can be adjusted as 3. Where does the community want needed. to go? ■ Zoning. A comprehensive plan is a 4. How does the community get foundation and guide for many there? tools that can be used to implement the plan. Zoning is one of those tools. Planning is not zoning Planning is focused on the future and establishes community goals, objectives and policies regarding future use, development and conservation of land. Planning is visionary and identi- fies where and how citizens would like to see the physical development of the community take place. Zoning is one tool that helps a community implement the plan. Zoning divides an area into districts, which are subject to different regulations that cover the current type and intensity of land use. A zoning ordinance defines which parcels of land belong in a par- ticular zoning district. Planning and zoning work best together.The plan is the long-term foundation that guides today’s zoning decisions. ■ Achieve predictability.Good When communities fail to THE PLANNING PROCESS: planning provides private plan effectively, they may ■ Explores diverse community landowners and developers with a opinions and fosters consensus- guide that defines where and what experience: based decision-making that incor- ■ type of development the commu- Negative fiscal impacts. porates shared values. nity desires.This information Development may not always be ■ Takes every opportunity to gain allows individuals to plan for the good for the community’s bottom public input. purchase and use of property con- line. It requires a plethora of ■ Teaches citizens about their sistent with community goals. services, including police, fire, shared resource base and how sewer, water, schools, and school ■ Produce positive economic each component of the commu- buses. Residential development, development. Planning helps a nity is interconnected within a for example, often pays less in community retain existing busi- social web. taxes than it demands in services. nesses and industries while attract- ■ Relies upon technical analysis of When development is low density, ing new ones. It is often used as a data, trends, maps and public further from the central city, or tool to revitalize downtowns and input to strike a balance between leapfrogs across rural areas, the create vibrant mainstreets.The different opinions. effect on service costs is even planning process allows a commu- greater. nity to consider workforce, educa- With effective planning, tion and local infrastructure ■ Negative agricultural impacts. capacity, among other things, so Urban development in the rural or communities can: rural fringe areas of the state often ■ that appropriate economic devel- Make informed decisions. The directly conflicts with agricultural comprehensive planning process opment strategies can be developed. operations. Nuisance and trespass provides facts on existing condi- complaints and traffic incidents are ■ Adopt a balanced approach. Any tions and trends and helps a com- more frequent in areas where con- local government function involves munity understand the potential flicting uses clash with one political, personal, and community positive and negative impacts of another. Land values often values. Comprehensive planning managing growth in different increase, making farm expansion and managing future growth ways.This provides a basis to make almost impossible. Implement involve balancing the community informed decisions and allows a dealers and support services lose interest and the private interest. community to coordinate individ- business as farm operations Planning encourages a balanced ual developments so that they decline. complement rather than detract approach as the community from each other. develops, thus ensuring that com- ■ Develop and preserve commu- munity rights and private property nity character. Can anyone privileges are both protected. envision Door County without cherry trees, or the Wisconsin Northwoods without a vibrant forest- and water-based tourism economy? Planning for the physical design of a community facilitates the preservation of the cultural, economic and environ- mental features that help make a community a special place. Planned growth can be used as an ingredient to expand the community’s unique character. ■ Negative water impacts. Wetland ■ Negative air impacts. All this time loss, increased levels of impervious in our automobiles means we are WISCONSIN IS GROWING surface, encroachment upon envi- using more fuel and spewing more AND CHANGING ronmental corridors, and paving emissions into the atmosphere. ■ Wisconsin will add 430,000 house- over groundwater recharge areas Cars are major contributors of holds between 1990 and 2015— all have detrimental effects on carbon dioxide, which causes an increase of 24%. both ground and surface water. For global warming, and a cocktail of ■ Wisconsin has lost 47% of its communities that want to keep other chemicals that lead to smog wetlands, about 5 million acres. In their feet dry (rather than wet and respiratory health problems. some southern counties, wetland during a flood), want to provide a loss is greater than 75%. safe and reliable drinking water Planning limitations ■ Eighty-five percent of the food supply, and depend upon recre- Planning for a community’s future produced on farms in Wisconsin ation and tourism, especially does not come without certain costs comes from urban areas or water-based, failing to plan can and limitations. It requires a tremen- adjacent counties where develop- have significant consequences. dous expenditure of social capital. If ment pressure is the greatest. ■ Possible negative impacts on the an effective plan is to be developed, private property owners. How citizens, organzations and elected offi- gap exists between the plan and would you like to have your cials must spend a lot of time and implementation, the planning process neighbor open a junkyard? Would energy throughout the planning has essentially failed. Ultimately, a you prefer to live next to a single- process. Leadership is required as community must weigh the costs and family home or a 1,000-cow farm? plans are developed and imple- benefits of planning and not planning. What if your well, the source of mented. Leadership, especially on drinking water, was polluted by the potentially divisive issues, requires the neighbor’s consistent misuse of expenditure of political capital. References American Farmland Trust. (2000). Cost their property? Local governments Many communities also require pro- of community sevices study. that fail to plan neglect to protect fessional assistance in the form of a http:// www. farmlandinfo.org/ citizens and the community from new public planning employee or a fic/tas/tafs-cocs.html the whims of individuals. private planning consultant. Obvious Daniels,T.L., J.W. Keller, M.B. Lapping. ■ Negative transportation financial costs do result. Planning is (1995). The small town planning impacts. As we move further out not only limited by the resources that handbook. American Planning from where we work and play, the are attributed to the effort, but is Association, Chicago. number of hours we log in our cars normally only effective at accomplish- and road miles traveled increases ing incremental change on the Frank, J.E. (1989).The cost of alterna- significantly. Not only do we need margin.The market economy is still tive development patterns: A to spend more money on the driving force in any community. review of the literature. In Kelly, increased road maintenance and Finally, planning is only as good as the E.D. (1993). Managing community new highway development, implementation measures put into growth: Policies, techniques, and people spend more time in their action to achieve what has been laid impacts. Praeger,Westport, cars and less with their families. out in the plan. If an implementation Connecticut.

Author: Mike Koles is the community resource development educator in Winnebago County. Illustrations by Carol Watkins. Photos courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin–Extension, Cooperative Extension. University of Wisconsin–Extension provides equal opportuni- ties in employment and programming, including Title IX and ADA requirements. © 2001 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. You can obtain copies of this publication from your Wisconsin county Extension office or from Cooperative Extension Publications, 45 N. Charter Street, Madison,WI 53715, 608-262-3346. Outside Madison, call toll free: 1-877-WIS-PUBS (947-7827). Before publicizing, please check on this publication’s availability. Comprehensive Planning Fundamentals (G3746) I-10-01-2M-180