A Comprehensive Plan is a document that municipalities or county governments develop to help them achieve coordinated and compatible development of the land and improvements under their control.  The plan must address both present needs and anticipated future needs and resources of the community.

 

A Comprehensive Plan must be developed with citizen input and participation.  Those developing the plan must try to determine what the needs of a community are, and will be, and how future development can be managed to best meet those needs.  They must keep in mind the demographics of the area under consideration, as well as the physical and economic resources available and the social nature of the community.

 

Quoting directly from the statue, “A comprehensive plan must promote the health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity and general welfare of the inhabitants, as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development.”