A central focus of the Many Plans, One Community initiative is a joint comprehensive plan update process for Charlottesville and Albemarle County. By undertaking a joint update process for the first time, the two localities hope to find areas in which to align their policies and implementation plans to create a more livable region for all of us who live, work, and play across the borders of these two jurisdictions.
While it is a fundamental document for city and county planners and elected officials, the comprehensive plan may be unfamiliar to many members of the general public. The comprehensive plan is the blueprint for all future development in a locality and plays a central role in shaping our community. It is referred to in approving or denying a rezoning request, choosing where to build a new school or park, and deciding where to invest in the transportation system. Here is a brief overview. More information can be found on our website.
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
According to the state code, every Virginia locality is required to create a comprehensive plan. Section 15.2-2223 reads:
“The local planning commission shall prepare and recommend a comprehensive plan for the physical development of the territory within its jurisdiction and every governing body shall adopt a comprehensive plan for the territory under its jurisdiction.”
The code goes on to specify that the plan should identify existing conditions in the jurisdiction and create a plan for future development, including residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, agricultural, and other types of land use. As well, the plan should address transportation infrastructure and prioritize projects for improvements or new construction. A central component of the comprehensive plan is a map depicting the community vision for future growth.
How is it updated?
The state code decrees that the comprehensive plan must be reviewed every five years to determine if updates are needed. Both Charlottesville and Albemarle’s plans are currently up for review. Our series of community workshops, which began in September and will continue through spring 2012, provide opportunities for the public to review the current comprehensive plan policies and provide feedback on whether the existing goals still apply to our communities needs. Since the comprehensive plan is a weighty document – Albemarle’s clocks in at over 400 pages – we have broken the meetings up by thematic issues. Workshops thus far have focused on the environment, land use, and transportation. Still to come are housing, economic drivers, recreational and cultural facilities, and historic preservation. The full calendar can be found on our website.
If you have been attending these workshops, you know that each session presents excerpts from Albemarle and Charlottesville’s existing comprehensive plans and describes how each locality has implemented these policies in the past five years. Feedback is solicited from the community as to whether they believe these policies are adequate and relevant, as well as what other issues or goals they’d like to see incorporated into the comprehensive plan.
This feedback will be reviewed by city and county staff, and will inform the revisions they make to their respective comp plans. The two planning commissions, made up of citizen representatives, will also play an essential role in reviewing feedback and making recommendations for updates. Commissioners will work closely with planning staff to prioritize areas to update and new goals to adopt. They will be looking especially for areas of common ground between the localities where parallel policies can be put into place in order to strengthen our community. Finally, the recommended updates must be voted on and approved by the Board of Supervisors in Albemarle or City Council in Charlottesville to be enacted as official public documents.
