03-20-12 Special Called Meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission

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transportation, housing, recreation, and public facilities. It provides for the distribution and relationships of various land uses. The plan also serves as a basis for future physical development recommendations. These recommendations are supported by a set of goals and objectives drawn from existing conditions and the desires and aspirations of the citizens. Policies are also established to assist in the achievement of the broader goals. Finally, programs and proposals are selected to fulfill the policies deemed appropriate for the community. T. J. Kent, Jr., a major authority on urban planning, defines the comprehensive plan as a community's official statement of policies regarding desirable future physical development. He states that the plan should be comprehensive in scope, general in nature, and long-range in perspective. The comprehensive plan is the single most important document for managing a community's physical growth because it can (and should) consolidate and coordinate physical planning needs and goals and policies, as well as all the separate community studies that address various aspects of physical development in the city. Further, comprehensive planning, to be effective, has to be an on -going process, involving periodic evaluation and updating, the comprehensive plan document, therefore, is one component of this process. To further aid in its effectiveness, the comprehensive plan has to be based on a shared vision of the community. This vision is constructed through consensus -based planning. It should also be recognized that the planning process itself can be understood as a product. The continuing, on -going nature of contemporary comprehensive planning involves learning, mind/consciousness changing, community building, "healing of wounds", constructing new relations, and setting (and refining) direction. These functions are part of the roles of all who are involved in the preparation, implementation, and updating of the community's comprehensive plan. The Importance of Planning in Our Socie "Most every kind of business undertaking, however trivial, is thoroughly planned out before ever being undertaken. Who would build a structure of any consequence without first having secured the best of plans? Of how much more far-reaching consequence is the planning and building of a city? Not one individual is concerned nor one generation, but generations to come will pay very dearly for our mistakes of today. It is an easy matter, for several reasons, to begin correcting our past mistakes right now. For changes become more costly in ratio to the increase in area and population.. Then, too, a thing so easily accomplished if done in time may, if neglected become quite