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A comprehensive plan is a long-range roadmap that guides future development consistent with the community’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Comprehensive plans usually cover a 20-30-year period, and require updates every 5 years. It is a tool that allows communities to be proactive in co-creating a shared future, instead of reactive to emergent issues and trends. In order for a comprehensive plan to be successful, there must be community buy-in. This is achieved through the community engagement process; whereby citizens and stakeholders have the opportunity to provide input over the course of the planning process. Ultimately, community members are our greatest resource, and are subject matter experts in the community. Specifically, a comprehensive plan should look at the following:

·        Inventories, studies, surveys, analysis of current trends

·        Strengths/assets

·        Opportunities

·        Aspirations/Vision for the future

·        Results/Goals, policies, objectives, and actions to achieve the vision/ how do we know we are succeeding

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to comprehensive planning; although most plans include key components, including, land use, demographics, housing, natural resources, recreation, transportation, etc. Plans should be “comprehensive in scope, general in nature, and long-range in perspective”. A well-crafted comprehensive plan is used to guide short-term and long-term decision-making, develop policies that promote orderly growth and development, balance competing interests and demands, and achieve broad goals.