Comprehensive planning
[3] This resulting document expresses and regulates public policies on transportation, utilities, land use, recreation, and housing.
Comprehensive plans typically encompass large geographical areas, a broad range of topics, and cover a long-term time horizon.
Each city and county adopts and updates their plan to guide the growth and land development of their community, for both the current period and the long term.
[4] This "serious document"[5] is then the foundation for establishing goals, purposes, zoning and activities allowed on each land parcel to provide compatibility and continuity to the entire region as well as each individual neighborhood.
Local governments had simple powers which included maintaining law and order and providing basic services.
People began to understand the environmental and social impacts of building cities and developed ways in which to further lower the spread of deadly diseases.
The White City was created for the exposition which embodied the visions of the movement with neoclassical designed buildings set against landscaped streets.
In 1898, Ebenezer Howard published his book entitled "Tomorrow, a Peaceful Path to Reform," in which he developed the idea of a Garden City.
After the turn of the twentieth century, American cities began to see the need for local development and growth plans.
The original plan called for grid iron laid streets crossed by diagonal boulevards, squares, plazas, parks, monuments, and sculptures.
A comprehensive plan has significant benefits for a whole community as it helps to identify, define and protect important existing resources while also providing a blueprint for future growth that ensures equity and resilience for all stakeholders.
By following this process, planners are able to determine a wide range of interconnecting issues that affect an urban area.
Outcomes of the data collection process include population projections, economic condition forecasts, and future housing needs.
A typical comprehensive plan begins by giving a brief background of the current and future conditions found in the data collection step.
The City Council may choose not to adopt the plan, which would require planners to refine the work they did during previous steps.
State statutes usually provide the legal framework necessary for those communities choosing to participate while allowing others to disengage themselves with the process.
A community's ordinances must be amended in order to legally implement the provisions required to execute the comprehensive plan.
[12] Each general plan must include the vision, goals, and objectives of the city or county in terms of planning and development within eight different “elements” defined by the state as: land use, housing, circulation, conservation, noise, safety, open space, and environmental justice (added as an official element in 2016).
[13][14] Local governments are continually implementing green measures[15] into their general plans to promote community-wide sustainable practices.
Introducing green elements and environmental resource elements[16] can help local governments reach goals by lowering greenhouse gas emissions, reducing waste, improving energy and water efficiency and complying with state and nationwide standards such as California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
