The importance of a CP is that its broad aims/objectives are then translated into the municipality’s land use regulations

The task is to review, summarize (6 slides = 2 pages?), highlight the themes of (who/what/when/etc), and comment on a municipality’s Comprehensive Plan.

– Comp Plan overview…

•A Comp Plan or CP (for short) is a formal document that most municipalities prepare. It expresses, in very general and very broad terms, the current state of the community and its ambitions for the future (typically a 20-year vision).

•The CP becomes official municipal policy when the Town Board (the legislative body of a municipality) votes to approve it – and not before.

•The importance of a CP is that its broad aims/objectives are then translated into the municipality’s land use regulations (Zoning, Subdivision rules, etc.) – which has major $$$ consequences for individual property owners

•http://dallascityhall.com/departments/pnv/strategic-planning/Pages/comprehensive-plan.aspx

Present as if your audience is a newly-elected set of Town Board members who now have power over land use policy.

•The objectives of this task are threefold:

1.Familiarize you with the process, contents and style of municipal Comprehensive Plans

2.Develop your skills of summarizing lengthy, formal documents into a concise, focused, content-rich synopsis

muncipilities you can choose from ( only these are required )

•Fiscal health (e.g. impacts on taxes, especially property taxes)•Public health

•Public safety

•Circulation / Traffic

•Economic goals

•Environmental protection (and environmental constraints: Note the two-way interactions)

•Redistributive goals (Environmental Justice – see: http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/

•Length of document, who prepared it, when (duration of process? When adopted/approved?)

•Does the document describe what has changed since previous Comp Plan?

•What are several key Plan objectives? What are key proposed actions to achieve these objectives?

•Attitude towards cars/bicycles/pedestrians/transit, towards suburban sprawl / multi-family construction

•Are you able to locate a contemporary news article discussing the Comp Plan (try google news) – if so, what does it discuss?

•Are there any obvious controversies? (There are always controversies, but in many cases they are hidden away rather than written into the Comp Plan. Contemporary news articles may help.)

•When making reference to the CP document, use footnotes to cite individual page numbers.please see the websites for the comp plans its usually a long document that will give a good view on municipilities …