What is a Comprehensive Plan?
So, what is a Comprehensive Plan?
A Comprehensive Plan is a visioning and guiding document for managers and land use decision makers that identifies what kind of place Federal Heights wants to be. It uses a lattice of goals, strategies, and actions in order to achieve that vision. It includes topics like land use, transportation, housing, economic vitality, sustainability, and community resiliency. It also includes a Future Land Use Map that more specifically identifies where and how Federal Heights might change over time. The City's current plan is the 1997 Comprehensive Plan. While the vision for the City may be similar to the vision from 1997, many of the goals identified in that plan have been achieved, the land development and retail markets have changed along with labor and materials costs for municipal service delivery. Additionally, cities exist within an ever-increasing landscape of regulations and requirements. It's worth re-assessing the values of 1997 and considering new options, strategies and goals for moving forward towards the community's vision for the City.
The Comprehensive Plan can help communities answer the following questions:
- Where should the City look to encourage development or re-development of residential, commercial, industrial, mixed, institutional and other land uses in the future?
- What do these recommendations for the future look like? How can the City integrate that vision it into the existing urban fabric?
- How can the City provide adequate services for the current and future population?
- How can the City boost the economy and become more fiscally sustainable?
- How do demands for additional housing regionally fit with the vision, and are parts of the housing market are over saturated?
- What transportation and mobility options should be considered to enhance circulation and increase safety?
- How does the plan foster fiscal and environmental sustainability into land use decision-making?