Glossary of Planning Terms:
Click here to look up common planning terms.
Anytown, USA:
Take a look at this chart of a typical town's process towards land development.
1. Preliminary Planning
Developers, rather than simply turn in applications, will meet with planners in advance to aid in the applications process and avoid costly mistakes. After an initial meeting with staff, developers will submit application and pay any associated fees.
2. Staff Review
Planning staff in our community will review applications and meet with other Anytown departments. These might include Parks and Recreation, building officials, police and fire, etc.
Many times the developer will meet with staff again, to discuss and changes to the plan brought up through the staff review process. If revisions are necessary, the developer will revise the application and return it to planning staff. The staff then completes its final report.
3. Planning Commission
The Planning Commission is a citizens group (usually appointed by the city council or mayor) that decides if an application meets with town codes and laws [variances and zoning rules] as well as the Anytown Comprehensive Plan.
- If it does: they'll recommend approval by the city council.
- If not, they'll suggest the developer re-do the application, or simply recommend the city council reject it.
This Meeting is open to the public, and takes into account local resident input. Anytown residents can attend this meeting to let their views and opinions be heard.
4. City Council
The City Council in Anytown has final say over whether or not the development will be built. They take into account the Planning Commissions recommendation, input from state and county authorities, and public input prior to and during the city council meeting itself.
Since the Council needs public support, they listen closely to the views and opinions of the townspeople. If they want the project and it meets all our planning & zoning laws, the council will approve. If its clear that the community opposes the project, the City Council can deny the application. Its up to the townspeople to let their voices be heard.
What is planning, anyway?
Planning is how towns decide how they'll grow, operate, and govern themselves and their land. The heart of community planning is the Comprehensive Plan, which lays out how the town will run. This includes everything from signs and police to open spaces and wetlands.
Comprehensive plans are the tools towns use to govern their growth and ensure that the community's values and priorities are maintained.
The Comprehensive Plan
The Comprehensive Plan is the basic guiding document for the city and the city is required to comply with it. It lays out the city's plans for gow they will operate and grow. It also contains the city's goals for various elements such as housing, natural resources, economic development, transportation, etc. Comprehensive Plans (comp plans) also include maps showing current and desired future uses of land. This tells the community how and where growth will occur.
The Metropolitan Council requires all cities in the Metro Area to have a Comprehensive Plan, and it reviews them for compliance with its Blueprint for Regional Growth 2030.
Goals
Goals in the Comp Plan text and housing densities on the map can give you an idea of how much the city wants to sprawl. Comp Plans also usually have statements about natural resource protection that citizens can use to try to get the city to protect its own resources.
Zoning Ordinance
The Zoning Ordinance is a more specific document than the Comprehensive Plan, and it is supposed to carry out the Plan's goals. It divides the city into zones, each of which has certain permitted uses with requirements such as lot size, number of housing units per acre, setbacks of buildings from streets, height limits, etc. This document tells the town what sorts of buildings and land uses can go where.
If a property owner wants to use the land in a different way than its zoned, he or she would have to get it rezoned to another use such as residential, commercial, industrial or institutional. The city will rezone the land to a use that was specified in the Comp. Plan. Sometimes the proposed use is not the same as what was proposed in the Comp. Plan; in that case the Comp. Plan might be amended, or the town might just say no.
Zoning ordinances are where development is codified.
By requiring large lots, separation of uses, large roads and big setbacks, many zoning ordinances guarantee low density, auto-oriented development. Fortunately, many cities are now zoning some areas for more compact, pedestrian oriented uses. Zoning ordinances also have performance standards, which is where you will find requirements for things like tree protection and steep slope protection. If your town wants to protect these features the best way to do that is to augment its zoning ordinances.
Parks and open space
Parks and open space are often created as part of a development process. The developer might decide which acres to donate as park land, or the city might already have the land designated for a future park, trail, or open space. If there is high quality natural land in your area, your community should identify this as future park land. Open space can be owned by the city or it can be private open space, owned by the homeowners in a development.