21st Century Comprehensive Plan: Role

By Silvia Vargas, AICP, LEED AP, and Nancy O'Neill, AICP, LEED GA

Until about the middle of the last decade, the role of the comprehensive plan was still seen primarily as managing community growth through land-use policy. But that's changing, with a whole new generation of plans taking on much more expansive and influential roles.

Following the global recession, budget cuts, the increasing need for cities to operate efficiently, and an upward tick in partnership development, the function of the comprehensive plan changed in significant ways. Indeed, cities, counties, and regions are now not only using comprehensive plans for new purposes, they are also increasingly recognizing the intrinsic value of the planning process itself. And as always, cities continue to use plans to respond to shifting demographics and preferences that dictate where people and jobs want to locate.

So what is the role of the comprehensive plan of the 21st century? Several trends are helping to redefine this evolving document.

Lafayette's plan for its center city, part of its comprehensive plan effort, focuses on the character of public spaces. Additionally, three small area plans model urban, suburban, and rural areas. Source: Development + Design Center, Downtown Development Authority, Lafayette Downtown Action Plan

Piecing the Puzzle Together

Today's comp plans are more than high-level policy documents, often tackling issues at multiple scales simultaneously. This new generation of plans is bringing various types of community plans together.

That is just what the recently adopted PlanLafayette (tinyurl.com/pqajj3v) does. One of the smallest parishes in Louisiana, Lafayette has experienced robust economic growth over the last two decades, and has attracted many new residents, students, and visitors to the community. But most of the growth has occurred in the areas surrounding the city core, and these areas are growing faster than the city.

This is one of the reasons why PlanLafayette includes a Downtown Action Plan that examines questions about development and public space character in the core of the city. The action plan asks, "What do we need to do to draw attractive, convenient new residential development and amenities to downtown?" and "How can we create better, more vibrant public spaces for people to enjoy throughout downtown?"

Also folded into the PlanLafayette process was the development of three small area plans that provide a planning model for urban, suburban, and rural parts of Lafayette Parish. Priorities set by the community during the plan's visioning stage served as the foundation for these smaller-scale plans, which are given the weight of policy by being integrated into the comprehensive plan.

The Seattle Comprehensive Plan (and ongoing Seattle 2035 update) (2035.seattle.gov) takes a different multiscale planning approach. That plan includes an Urban Village Strategy that identifies specific areas where growth can be concentrated to "build on successful aspects of the city's existing urban character" and a Neighborhood Planning element that incorporates 33 neighborhood-tailored plans to "make the Comprehensive Plan relevant at a local level."

Likewise, the 2015 comprehensive plan for Southlake, Texas, Southlake 2030 (cityofsouthlake .com/index.aspx?NID=524), contains fine-grain elements such as a Public Art Master Plan and a Wayfinding Sign System Plan, which identifies key destinations throughout the city, recommends sign design concepts, identifies potential sign locations, and provides a priority installation list.

"I think that this two-pronged planning approach is critical, especially in communities that do not have a long planning history," says Cathie Gilbert, planning manager of the newly formed Comprehensive Plan Office in Lafayette. "The overall comprehensive plan vision is necessarily complemented with an incremental, targeted, and more detailed effort on the ground. The synergy of this effort involves neighborhoods, businesses, and public agencies that can deliver projects that the community can see and say, ‘We want more of that.'"

Local governments are also leveraging planning processes to identify interface points between the comprehensive plan and other existing or ongoing planning efforts like mobility plans and parks and recreation master plans. In these cases, the role of the comprehensive plan is to integrate those separate efforts into a cohesive, interconnected framework of policies and actions.

In the recent preparation of Plan Houston (planhouston.org) — Houston's first citywide planning framework, which was approved just last year — nearly 150 independent plans, visions, and studies were reviewed and evaluated for alignment with the city's vision, goals, and strategies. CONNECT Our Future (connectourfuture.org), a planning framework for guiding growth and investment in the bistate, 14-county region surrounding Charlotte, North Carolina, incorporates and coordinates dozens of studies prepared by eight different work groups.

And the ongoing Imagine Boston 2030 (imagine.boston.gov) process assumes a similar role: It seeks to reconcile a number of major planning efforts, ranging from the City's Climate Action Plan to a High School Redesign initiative. The list goes on.

Momentum for movement

These days, citizens are more hands-on in the planning process and are more invested in its outcomes. Dwindling municipal budgets are making the public take a greater interest in understanding how money is being spent, and in keeping local governments accountable for producing concrete results that align with the comprehensive plan. This, in turn, is leading to plans that are increasingly action- and project- oriented, as well as more performance-focused.

Back to Plan Houston. Its implementation will rely on two mechanisms: An annual work plan — prepared with input from the mayor, city council, city departments, and the public — will identify major project priorities for each budget year, assign responsibilities, and set project schedules. And a series of performance indicators will track progress and inform both policy making and the preparation of the annual work plan.

In South Lake, Texas, a Strategic Management System(cityofsouthlake.com/DocumentCenter /View/4573), adapted from business and industry's "Balanced Scorecard" tool, governs and monitors the activities of the city and helps to maintain alignment with its comprehensive plan. The SMS guides the way the city does business and helps determine how time and resources are invested. Finally, it gives the city a framework for demonstrating results in a measurable way through the publication of an easyto- read annual "dashboard report."

"Our Planning Department has expanded its traditional role by linking its comprehensive plan to the city's strategic management system," says Ken Baker, AICP, planning director for the city of South Lake. The associated measurement tools ensure timeliness and accountability, he adds.

Tracking and demonstrating progress also helps maintain planning momentum after adoption. Planners know that the hard work really begins once the plan is adopted — but keeping up the pace, excitement, and engagement that drove the planning process can be a challenge. Tools such as Houston's annual work program and South Lake's dashboard report, tied to the cities' comp plans, are essential in showcasing incremental success and keeping those plans fresh and at the forefront of the public's mind.

There are other tools for monitoring, coordinating, and communicating progress on plan implementation. The need has grown in recent years as it becomes more urgent for planners to deal with rapid change and engage the public in creative ways.

• The Lafayette Consolidated Government honors its comprehensive plan (and identifies next steps) annually during PlanLafayette Week. Stakeholders host events and national planning experts are frequent guest speakers.
• Austin's interdepartmental work groups meet once a year to establish priorities and assess progress vis-a-vis the performance metrics established in Imagine Austin. The city also hosts an educational speaker series for residents, a practice it began during the planning process.
• In addition to preparing an annual progress report, the Washington, D.C. Office of Planning has developed a database to track completion of action items from the District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan (planning.dc.gov/page/comprehensive-plan) and to coordinate more efficiently with other agencies involved in plan implementation.
• Philadelphia issues online annual reports on its plan, Philadelphia 2035 (phila2035.org), but those reports also can be distributed as calendars for the upcoming year: an original way to inform and keep reminding the public of what has been done and what is coming up. "The [planning] commission staff is very interested in not only completing district plans but seeing to their implementation, working closely with various organizations and city agencies to see recommendations come to fruition. The calendar allows the city to mark progress of all district plans and present a status update that keeps the public interested and engaged," says Eleanor Sharpe, deputy executive director of the Philadelphia Planning Commission.

Nexus to budgeting

Increasingly, the new generation of comp plans are helping communities do fiscal planning, driving the development of capital improvement plans and municipal budgets. That function helps everyone understand the return on investment of both public and private projects and prioritize spending.

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission coordinates the development of a six-year capital program and budget. Philadelphia's Planning Commission is fairly unique in that it is chartered to prepare and recommend an annual capital program and budget.

That process typically entails considerable interagency coordination and partnership with the city's Budget Office and other operating agencies, with the end result ensuring that public investments are consistent with the physical development goals of the comprehensive plan, notes John Haak, aicp, director of Planning Policy and Analysis. The district plans contained in Philadelphia 2035 play a key role in prioritizing those expenditures.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, the 2030 Comprehensive Plan (www.raleighnc.gov/cp) requires major capital projects "not tied to immediate life safety or capacity deficiencies" to undergo ROI analysis. Analysis of a project's return on investment is an important element of the city's CIP criteria.

Wichita-Sedgwick County in Kansas makes clear the connection between the comprehensive plan and the budget: Its new plan is explicitly framed as a Community Investments Plan (tinyurl.com/arpe8zy) — "a policy framework to guide future public investments in municipal buildings and infrastructure" in an era of diminishing revenues and increasing fiscal constraints. The plan introduces a trilevel evaluation process to facilitate decision making on new, upgrade, or replacement projects that includes detailed project analysis; project selection and funding; and capital improvement programming.

The Government Finance Officers Association acknowledges the role of comprehensive plans in capital improvement planning and recommends, among other things, that:

• Plans should provide a vision for capital project plans and investments.
• Local governments should make capital project investment decisions consistent with their comprehensive plans.
• Local finance officers should be part of the comprehensive planning process from the onset, to ensure a balance between aspirations and fiscal realities.

Local governments also use the comprehensive plan process to kick-start projects and engage community members as partners in implementation. Shrinking or stagnant fiscal budgets, combined with increasing service costs, mean that communities need those partnerships more than ever.

When concerns about obsolescence and disinvestment in Lafayette's older neighborhoods and commercial corridors emerged as one of the community's top priorities during the planning process, the Lafayette Consolidated Government launched Project Front Yard to bring together individuals, businesses, government, and media partners in promoting community beautification through education. The project takes its lead from more than 40 action items — some individual, some collective — spelled out in PlanLafayette, including litter removal programs, river cleanup days, education initiatives, public art programs, and gateway revitalization and improved streetscape efforts.

In its first year, Project Front Yard attracted local and regional business partners, including over $1 million in in-kind media coverage from 14 local media outlets, which has helped to mobilize the community to participate in tree planting, litter collection, and storm drain cleanup events. Since it was adopted, the program has even picked up regional momentum, gaining adoption in neighboring Acadia, Iberia, and St. Martin Parishes.

Platform for dialogue and building trust

Finally, local governments are increasingly appreciating the usefulness of the planning process as a backdrop for open, honest conversations about difficult community issues. These conversations help launch good relationships that can lead to more systematic consultations, continued beyond plan adoption. In Lafayette, the city-parish commitment to ongoing community engagement and visible, onthe- ground-improvements is helping to build trust.

Communities are also recognizing the need to involve broader audiences in the planning process to ensure equitable and full representation of the issues, as well as to strengthen the credibility of the process and get buy-in for adoption and implementation. For Portland, Oregon's 2035 Comprehensive Plan (portlandoregon.gov/bps/57352) process, staff set up neighborhood "drop-in" sessions for residents to come learn, at their convenience, how plan changes might affect them. A Comp Plan Helpline fields call from citizens, and the plan's mobile- and tablet-friendly Map App, which allows users to see proposed land-use and zoning designations and details about transportation projects on a parcelby- parcel basis, has been viewed more than 120,000 times.

Open communication in an iterative planning process has become especially critical in building trust with the community, especially to show process participants how their input is used and assimilated at each step. Portland staff used a database to track comments received on each draft plan product. The database is updated after each public outreach event. The compiled public input and comments is made available to the public and advisory committees on an ongoing basis, while the staff briefs commissions and officials on how the project responds to public feedback. Planners are now getting ready to roll out an interactive, searchable version of the database using GIS, which will allow the public to review comments on specific sites or areas of the city.

Silvia E. Vargas is a senior associate at WRT, and Nancy O'Neill is an associate there. Alyssa Garcia, a WRT intern and a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania in City and Regional Planning, provided research assistance.