This chapter provides guidance for completing each element of
the comprehensive plan. Communities should refer to section
110-12-1-.02(1) of
these rules or the Department's recertification schedule to determine which
plan elements are required for their jurisdiction. For any of these plan
elements, it is certainly acceptable and encouraged to draw from a previously
prepared plan that addresses the guidance below into the comprehensive plan in
lieu of preparing a new plan element. Each community is also encouraged to add
optional elements to their comprehensive plan to address specific local needs
(refer to the list of optional plan elements in the Supplemental Planning
Recommendations for suggestions).
(1)
Community Goals. (Required for all local governments, updates at
local discretion.) The purpose of the Community Goals element is to articulate
a long-term strategy for creating the set of conditions judged, by the
community, to be best suited to maximizing the collective wellbeing of its
residents. The Community Goals element details the overarching concepts which
should guide local day-to-day decision-making for five, ten, even twenty years
into the future. As such, the Community Goals shall be developed through a very
public process of involving community leaders and stakeholders. The Community
Goals are intended to generate local pride and enthusiasm about the future of
the community, thereby leading citizens and leadership to act to ensure that
the plan is implemented. The result must be an easy-to-use document readily
referenced by community leaders as they work toward achieving this desired
future of the community. Regular update of the Community Goals is not required,
although communities are encouraged to amend the goals whenever appropriate.
The Community Goals must include at least one or a
combination of any of the four components listed below:
(a)
General Vision Statement.
Include a general statement that paints a picture of what the community desires
to become, providing a complete description of the development patterns to be
encouraged within the jurisdiction.
(b)
List of Community Goals.
Include a listing of the goals the community seeks to achieve. Review the
suggested community goals in the Supplemental Planning Recommendations for
suggestions.
(c)
Community
Policies. Include any policies (such as,"New development will be
encouraged to locate on in fill sites closer to town, whenever possible.") the
local government selects to provide ongoing guidance and direction to local
government officials for making decisions consistent with achieving the
Community Goals. Refer to suggested policies listed in the Supplemental
Planning Recommendations for suggestions.
(d)
Character Areas and Defining
Narrative. This option lays out more specific goals for the future of
the community by community sub-areas, districts, or neighborhoods, and may be
prepared using the guidance provided for the Land Use Element at
110-12-1-.03(6)(a).
(2)
Needs and
Opportunities. (Required for all local governments, updates required
every five years.) This is the locally agreed upon list of Needs and
Opportunities the community intends to address. In contrast to the long-term
focus of the Community Goals element, the Needs and Opportunities element
conveys the relatively short-term imperatives which will require direct
attention from the community in the following five years. The list must be
developed by involving community stakeholders in carrying out a SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) or similar analysis of the
community. The community may opt to designate specific needs or opportunities
as "high priority" indicating that they must be followed-up with corresponding
implementation measures in the Community Work Program. The following resources
may also be enlisted to help stakeholders identify local Needs and
Opportunities:
(a)
Supplemental Planning
Recommendations. Review the list of typical needs and opportunities
provided in the Supplemental Planning Recommendations and select those that are
applicable for the community.
(b)
Analysis of Data and Information. Check for potential needs and
opportunities by reviewing and evaluating demographic, economic, housing,
transportation and other data and information about the community. When
evaluating this data and information, focus on:
· Whether it verifies needs or opportunities
identified previously;
· Whether it uncovers new needs or opportunities not
previously identified;
· Whether it indicates significant local trends that
need to be considered in the planning process.
In order to ensure a concise and readable comprehensive plan,
it is not recommended to include the data and information provided on the
Department's website in your plan, nor is it required to include evaluations,
data, or maps to substantiate or illustrate the identified needs or
opportunities. However, if the community finds it worthwhile, it may include
charts, graphs, and/or tables illustrating the data-points which are most
critical to its planning process in an appendix to the plan.
(c)
Analysis of Consistency with
Quality Community Objectives. Evaluate the community's current policies,
activities, and development patterns by comparing with the Department's Quality
Community Objectives and the supporting Best Practices available on the
Department's website. Use this analysis to identify any community needs and
opportunities for adapting local activities, development patterns and
implementation practices to the Quality Community Objectives.
(3)
Community Work
Program. (Required for all local governments, updates required every
five years.) This element of the comprehensive plan lays out the specific
activities the community plans to undertake during the five years following
adoption of the plan as provided at section
110-12-1-.04(1)(j)
to address its Needs and Opportunities while steadily moving toward the
realization of its Community Goals. This includes any activities, initiatives,
programs, ordinances, administrative systems (such as site plan review, design
review, etc.) to be put in place to implement the plan. (Note that general
policy statements should not be included in the Community Work Program, but
instead should be included in the Community Goals element, perhaps in a section
devoted specifically to Community Policies.) The Community Work Program must
include the following information for each listed activity:
· Brief description of the activity;
· Timeframe for initiating and completing the
activity;
· Responsible party for implementing the
activity;
· Estimated cost (if any) of implementing the
activity; and
· Funding source(s), if applicable.
(4)
Broadband Services Element.
(Required for all local governments, updates at local discretion.) Each local
government must include in its Local Comprehensive Plan an action plan for the
promotion of the deployment of broadband services by broadband service
providers into unserved areas within its jurisdiction. The action plan must
describe steps for the promotion of reasonable and cost-effective access to
broadband to parts of the local government's jurisdiction designated by the
Department as unserved areas. The local action plan required pursuant to this
element may include, but shall not be limited to, any assessments, studies,
ordinances, and/or goals to achieve certification as a Broadband Ready
Community or designation of facilities and developments as Georgia Broadband
Ready Community Sites. Each local comprehensive plan should contemplate and
seek to implement this element in a manner which stresses the importance of
broadband deployment across this state, and that broadband services should be
considered as important as other necessary utilities.
(5)
Capital Improvements
Element. (Required for local governments that charge impact fees,
optional but encouraged for all other local governments. Updates required every
year.) For communities that charge development impact fees, a detailed Capital
Improvements Element prepared to meet the Development Impact Fee Compliance
Requirements (DCA Rules 110-12-2) is required. As such, it is not necessary to
embed this element directly into the comprehensive plan document; however, it
must be consistent with and reflective of the other components of the
comprehensive plan.
(6)
Economic Development Element. (Required for local governments
included in Georgia Job Tax Credit Tier 1, optional but encouraged for all
other local governments. Updates at local discretion.) Identify community
goals, needs, and opportunities related to economic development and vitality of
the community, and Community Work Program activities for addressing these needs
and opportunities, considering such factors as diversity of the economic base,
quality of the local labor force, effectiveness of local economic development
agencies, programs and tools. The analysis produced for the Comprehensive
Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) for the region or a similar local economic
development plan may be substituted for this element's analytic requirements
(and should be provided appropriate reference/citation); however, applicable
community goals, needs and opportunities, and work program items, as provided
in sections (1) through (3), above, must be explicitly integrated into the
Local Comprehensive Plan.
(7)
Land Use Element. (Required for local governments with zoning or
equivalent land development regulations that are subject to the Zoning
Procedures Law, optional but encouraged for all other local governments.
Updates required every five years.) The Land Use Element, where required, must
include at least one of the two components listed below:
(a)
Character Areas Map and Defining
Narrative. Identify and map the boundaries of existing or potential
character areas (see definition in Chapter
110-12-1-.05) covering the entire
community, including existing community sub-areas, districts, or neighborhoods.
Refer to the list of recommended character areas provided in the Supplemental
Planning Recommendations for suggestions. Note that community improvement
districts, tax allocation districts, Livable Centers Initiative planning areas,
designated redevelopment areas and the like are good candidates for delineation
as character areas.
For each identified character area, carefully define a
specific vision or plan that includes the following information:
· Written description and pictures/illustrations that
make it clear what types, forms, styles, and patterns of development are to be
encouraged in the area. Refer to recommended development patterns listed in the
Supplemental Planning Recommendations for suggestions.
· Listing of specific land uses and/or (if appropriate
for the jurisdiction) zoning categories to be allowed in the area.
· Identification of implementation measures to achieve
the desired development patterns for the area, for example: more detailed
sub-area planning, new or revised local development regulations, incentives,
public investments, and infrastructure improvements. Refer to recommended plan
implementation measures listed in the Supplemental Planning Recommendations for
suggestions.
(b)
Future Land Use Map and Narrative. Prepare a Future Land Use Map
that uses conventional categories or classifications to depict the location
(typically parcel by parcel) of specific future land uses. If this option is
chosen, prepare the Future Land Use Map using either of the land use
classification schemes described below and include a narrative that explains
how to interpret the map and each land use category within the context of the
community producing the plan.
1.
Standard Categories. More detailed categories used by communities
must be able to be grouped into one of the following industry-standard
categories:
·
Residential. The predominant use of
land within the residential category is for single-family and multi-family
dwelling units organized into general categories of net densities.
·
Commercial. This category is for land
dedicated to non-industrial business uses, including retail sales, office,
service and entertainment facilities, organized into general categories of
intensities. Commercial uses may be located as a single use in one building or
grouped together in a shopping center or office building. Communities may elect
to separate office uses from other commercial uses, such as retail, service or
entertainment facilities.
·Industrial. This category is for land
dedicated to manufacturing facilities, processing plants, factories,
warehousing and wholesale trade facilities, mining or mineral extraction
activities, or other similar uses.
·
Public/Institutional. This category
includes certain state, federal or local government uses, and institutional
land uses. Government uses include government building complexes, police and
fire stations, libraries, prisons, post offices, schools, military
installations, etc. Examples of institutional land uses include colleges,
churches, cemeteries, hospitals, etc. Do not include facilities that are
publicly owned, but would be classified more accurately in another land use
category. For example, include publicly owned parks and/or recreational
facilities in the park/recreation/conservation category; include landfills in
the industrial category; and include general office buildings containing
government offices in the commercial category.
·
Transportation/Communication/Utilities.
This category includes such uses as major transportation routes, public transit
stations, power generation plants, railroad facilities, radio towers, telephone
switching stations, airports, port facilities or other similar uses.
·
Park/Recreation/Conservation. This
category is for land dedicated to active or passive recreational uses. These
areas may be either publicly or privately owned and may include playgrounds,
public parks, nature preserves, wildlife management areas, national forests,
golf courses, recreation centers or similar uses.
·
Agriculture/Forestry. This category is
for land dedicated to farming (fields, lots, pastures, farmsteads, specialty
farms, livestock production, etc.), agriculture, or commercial timber or
pulpwood harvesting.
·
Undeveloped/Vacant. This category is
for lots or tracts of land that are served by typical urban public services
(water, sewer, etc.) but have not been developed for a specific use or were
developed for a specific use that has since been abandoned.
·
Mixed Use. For a detailed, fine-grained
mixed land use, or one in which land uses are more evenly balanced, mixed land
use categories may be created and applied at the discretion of the community.
If used, mixed land use categories must be clearly defined, including the types
of land uses allowed, the percentage distribution among the mix of uses (or
other objective measure of the combination), and the allowable density of each
use.
(c)
Land Based Classification Standards (LBCS). As an alternative to
the standard classification system, local governments may, at their discretion,
utilize the LBCS developed by the American Planning Association. The full
implementation of this alternative system includes five dimensions to describe
land uses, including activity, function, site development character, structural
character, and ownership. Local governments electing to employ this system must
at a minimum identify the function dimension of land uses in the analyses,
assessments, mapping, and other land use requirements of this
chapter.
(8)
Transportation Element. (Required for the portions of a local
government's jurisdiction that are included in a Metropolitan Planning
Organization, optional but encouraged for all other local governments. Updates
at local discretion.) The analysis provided in the Metropolitan Planning
Organization's transportation strategy for the region or a similar local
transportation plan may be substituted for this element's analytical
requirements (and should be provided appropriate reference/citation); however,
applicable community goals, needs and opportunities, and work program items, as
provided in sections (1) through (3), above, must be explicitly integrated into
the Local Comprehensive Plan. If, rather than using the analysis prepared in a
separate plan, a new Transportation Element is prepared, it must include the
following components:
(a) Evaluate the
adequacy of the following major components of the local transportation system
for serving needs of the community throughout the planning period:
·
Road Network. Identify roads, highways
and bridges. Also identify any significant issues with the road network,
including connectivity, signalized intersections or inadequate signage.
·
Alternative Modes. Identify bicycle,
pedestrian facilities and public transportation or other services for
populations without automobiles. Also identify areas of the community where
mode choice is limited. Evaluate how effectively mobility needs of the
community are met by these alternative transportation modes.
·
Parking. Identify areas with
insufficient parking or inadequate parking facilities (e.g., downtown, busy
commercial areas), excess or obsolete surface parking facilities in need of
retrofitting or redevelopment.
·
Railroads, Trucking, Port Facilities and
Airports. Identify freight and passenger rail lines, major rail
intermodal facilities, non-rail freight operations, seaports, harbors, and
commercial and general purpose air terminals. Evaluate the impact of these on
the overall transportation network.
·
Transportation and Land Use Connection.
The transportation element should recognize that transportation policies,
programs, and projects should be planned in alignment with local land use
development policies. Future transportation investments should similarly be
matched with appropriate land use policies.
(b) Develop a strategy for addressing any
needs or opportunities identified above and integrate this strategy into the
Local Comprehensive Plan's community goals, needs and opportunities and,
community work, as provided in sections (1) through (3), above.
(9)
Housing Element.
(Required for Community Development Block Grant Entitlement Communities,
optional but encouraged for all other local governments. Updates at local
discretion.) Use the following factors to evaluate the adequacy and suitability
of existing housing stock to serve current and future community needs. Factors
to consider include: housing types and mix, condition and occupancy, local cost
of housing, cost-burdened households in the community, jobs-housing balance,
housing needs of special populations, and availability of housing options
across the life cycle. The analysis provided in the Consolidated Plan or
similar local housing plan may be substituted for this element element's
analytical requirements (and should be provided appropriate
reference/citation); however, applicable community goals, needs and
opportunities, and work program items, as provided in sections (1) through (3),
above, must be explicitly integrated into the Local Comprehensive
Plan.
