Comprehensive plans are used as a blueprint for a community’s development and growth, helping officials make choices consistent with the community’s vision for land use, services, transportation, parks and recreation and housing, among other topics. Such plans can be amended and are designed to change with the community, but ultimately are revamped when the need arises.
As the community has changed, Miami Twp. officials determined that a new plan was needed to provide guidance based on current conditions, Carson said.
“A new comprehensive plan is crucial for two key reasons. One, Miami Twp. has grown and changed in the last 16 years, and two, Miami Twp. will continue to grow and change,” he said. “The plan aims to provide guidance and recommendations that inform the physical growth of the community, how land should be used and where, as well as the aspirational growth of the community, how will land-use decisions improve the quality of life in Miami Twp.”
The plan identifies five key planning areas that impact the quality of life in a community, he said.
Infrastructure and sustainability are common elements with the 2006 comprehensive plan, but sense of place, health and wellness, and technology and innovation are three concepts that this plan introduces as “vital components to successful land-use planning,” Carlson said.
Carlson said “sense of place” addresses “How do people identify with our community?” while “health and wellness” tackles the question of “How can land-use provide opportunities to make healthy choices?” And “technology and innovation” deals with “How will future technologies change the way land is used today?”
The new plan includes a process to make amendments as community conditions change, he said.
“Many comprehensive plans are rigid documents that have the potential to quickly become dated or reference community conditions that are no longer accurate,” Carlson said. “There are several key components within the plan that are designed to be updated as land-use conditions change, goals and initiatives are met, or as community needs and demographics shift. The plan is designed to be a dynamic and flexible guide.”
Another key difference from the 2006 comprehensive plan is how future land-use designations are used, he said.
“The 2006 plan uses a greater number of specific categories to designate future land use, while the (new) plan uses broad categories ... . As greater levels of use intensity are appropriate, the capacity for mixed-use development increases,” Carlson said.
Work on the plan started with public information workshops in 2019 and wrapped up in late 2021 with public hearings before the township’s zoning commission, as well as its board of trustees, which voted last week to adopt the plan.
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