All Aboard Planning
Domain 4 · Plan and Policy Development

Comprehensive plans, elements, and consistency

What a comprehensive plan is (and isn’t), typical elements, area and functional plans, and the consistency doctrine.

Lesson 16 of 40 · about 22 minutes · Outline areas: 4.3 Familiarity with states' and federal laws; 4.12 Community character and form; 4.14 Conversance with related disciplines

Learning objectives

  • Define a comprehensive plan and explain how it differs from a zoning ordinance.
  • List the elements commonly found in comprehensive plans, and explain what makes a plan internally consistent.
  • Explain the consistency doctrine and the range of legal weight plans carry across states.
  • Distinguish comprehensive, area, functional, regional, and strategic plans, and choose the right one for a situation.
  • Describe how community character and form are addressed in a plan.

Key concepts

What a comprehensive plan is

A comprehensive plan (also called a general plan or master plan) is a community's long-range policy guide for its physical development. It's:

  • comprehensive: it covers the whole jurisdiction and all the topics that shape physical development;
  • long-range: it typically looks 20 years ahead;
  • general: it sets direction and policy rather than lot-by-lot rules; and
  • officially adopted by the governing body after public hearings.

A comprehensive plan is not a regulation. The zoning ordinance is the regulation that implements the plan. The plan says where the community wants housing, jobs, parks, and infrastructure; the zoning code sets the rules that apply to each parcel today.

A key tool inside the plan is the future land use map, which shows the intended pattern of land uses over the plan horizon. It's often confused with the zoning map, which shows the regulations in force now. The two will differ where the plan anticipates change.

The same sixteen blocks mapped twice, colored for homes, shops, industry, and park. The zoning map, the rules in force today, shows four industrial blocks in one corner. The future land use map, where the plan wants to go, shows three of those blocks as homes and one as shops; the four blocks that differ are circled.
The circled blocks are where the plan expects change; until they're rezoned, today's industrial rules still apply there.

6 more sections follow in the full lesson.

Key terms

  • Comprehensive plan: An adopted, long-range, general policy guide for a community's physical development.
  • Future land use map: The plan's map of intended land use over the planning horizon.
  • Zoning map: The official map of zoning districts in force now.
  • Element: A topical chapter of a comprehensive plan.
  • Internal consistency: Agreement among a plan's elements, maps, and policies.
  • Consistency doctrine: The requirement in some states that zoning and approvals conform to the adopted plan.
  • Area (small area) plan: A detailed plan for a neighborhood, corridor, district, or station area.
  • Functional plan: A plan for a single system, such as transportation or parks.
  • Capital improvements element: The plan element linking policies to facility investments and financing.
  • Community character: The distinctive physical qualities that give a place its identity.
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