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GreenStep City Best Practices Land Use

Comprehensive Plan and Implementation
no. 6

Adopt a Comprehensive Plan and tie regulatory ordinances to it.

  Best Practice Actions    [See action tools, guidance, city reports]

  1. Adopt/have an adopted comprehensive plan OR, Category B and C cities may simply adopt a land use plan that was adopted by a regional entity or the county.
  2. Demonstrate that regulatory ordinances comply with the comprehensive plan including but not limited to having the zoning ordinance explicitly reference the comprehensive plan as the foundational document for decision making.
  3. Include requirements in comprehensive and/or other plans for intergovernmental coordination addressing land use and watershed impacts, infrastructure, economic development and city/regional services.
  4. Include ecologic provisions in the comprehensive plan that explicitly aim to minimize open space fragmentation and/or establish a growth area with expansion criteria.
  5. Adopt climate protection/adaptation or energy independence goals and objectives in the comprehensive plan or in a separate policy document, and link these goals to direct implementation recommendations.
benefits  
  • A comprehensive plan allows the city to formally integrate sustainability or climate protection goals within a statutorily-recognized policy document.
  • A comprehensive plan provides a legal foundation for a variety of local government actions, including regulatory tools such as zoning, fiscal tools including capital improvement plans, and programmatic efforts including economic development initiatives.
  • Comprehensive plans are both a document and a process - comprehensive planning provides local governments an opportunity to engage the entire community in a discussion about what long-term goals are important, how residents want to see development or preservation occur in the city, and what fiscal priorities should be set.
  • Growing Wealthier: Smart Growth, Climate Change and Prosperity (Center for Clean Air Policy: 2011) shows, through case studies, how application of smart growth principles can improve the bottom line for businesses, households and governments by increasing property values, cutting fuel and infrastructure costs, creating jobs, enhancing public health and strengthening communities.
  
REQUIRED for all cities
All Category A, B and C cities must implement this best practice by completing action 1.

Category A and B cities must also complete action 2.
summary
Land uses delineated in comprehensive plans provide the foundation for city government and private actions that have a substantial long-term effect on whether our cities move toward carbon neutrality and energy efficiency or accelerate climate change and increase energy costs. Land development decisions are infrastructural - once made, they are extremely difficult and expensive to undo. Consequently, land use plans either enable other best practices, or hinder their effectiveness. In order to have public support and legal validity, land use strategies, zoning and regulatory ordinances must be grounded in a comprehensive plan.
greenstep advisor
Matthew Dyrdahl, Active Transportation Coordinator, MN Dept. of Health: 651/201-5491, Matthew.Dyrdahl@state.mn.us
connection to state Policy

  • Comprehensive plans are required every 10 years for cities within the seven-county Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.
  • Comprehensive plans are a foundational document for meeting Environmental Impact Statement and Environmental Assessment Worksheet review.
  • All cities are empowered to complete comprehensive plans under Minnesota State Statutes and directed to implement the plans thorough zoning and other means.