What Are The 5 Elements Of Land Use Planning?
Land use planning can’t be done on a whim; planners must have a genuine desire to create communities with a knack to balance houses, schools, businesses, infrastructure, and entertainment spaces. There are tons of factors to keep in mind and a near perfect visionary plan has to be set into place for the proper growth outcome. A complex equation like that doesn’t read like 2+2=4; it’s much more than simple math.
So the question is how do you construct a thorough, workable land use plan?
Some of the answers can be found here if you keep reading. We like to call them the 5 elements of land use planning, and they’re quite helpful if we do say so ourselves. Check them out and see if what you want to do lines up with what should be done.
1- Make sure community is your focus when planning
To prioritize others means you have to involve them in your planning; you can’t gear something towards the community by making it a solo project.
That means you must get some insight from those surrounding you to create a proper vision board with key goals and ingredients to promote success. Start by addressing issues that the community is currently facing. Do the roads need expansion? Are homes in demand?
If you have no idea where to start, compile an inclusive group and get their feedback on values, priorities, and potential problems. That’ll include elders, youth, women, land users, and more. Communicate how you’ll engage with these groups and assign roles if members are willing to accept and participate.
2- Envision what the end will look like
You can’t go into the planning process without some kind of shared end goal. Taking it one step at a time doesn’t really work for land planning because you might have a jumbled mess at the end. Make sure you know how you want the end result to look and gear the entire process towards that.
Knowing how the end will (hopefully) turn out will beg the right questions:
- Who are the right decision makers in the community? E.g. Staff members, council.
- How should the decisions ultimately and professionally be made? E.g. Meeting agreement, application process.
- What information is necessary to make the right decision?
From here, a clear plan can be drawn up so that any and all parties involved will know how the schedule is supposed to go.
3- Protections must be made clear and concise
Every time a land use plan is put into play, individuals are bound to speak up. The land may be important to this person or that person for a specific reason, like housing or economic development. To avoid commentary from every sector of the land, establish what needs to be protected before you begin executing the plan. This may include wildlife, species at risk, wetlands, and waterbodies, just to name a few.
While you’re looking at protections, you’ll also want to identify natural hazards, like areas prone to flooding. Think about sacred sites and burial sites, too.
A vote may need to be conducted within the community for identification purposes. If it comes down to it, interviews may need to be conducted one-on-one with leaders.
4- Distinguish the areas that need to be developed
Areas that do need to be developed and areas that do not need to be developed should be labeled clearly in the land use plan at this point. That way you know the proper route to take with priorities lined up in an orderly fashion. Nothing beats being prepared for the next project in the lineup.
The land use plan signals out what areas of land are going to be used for current and future development with specific plans. For example, X spot on the map is designated for businesses under Y and Z categories. That way building can begin and approval processes can go smoothly.
5- Construct a realistic implementation plan
The final step is to get the ball rolling; nothing is worse than having all these volunteers and participants narrow out what a specific community needs just to have the plan sit on a shelf and collect dust.
Set dates to target goals. Be specific in stating a goal and timeframe to:
- Draft land laws
- Collect data and manage a plan
- Execute a clear communication plan
- Start training and develop a schedule
If you need any help or assistance with these 5 elements, reach out to the professionals at ARC Engineers, Inc. Helpful tips every step of the way, guaranteed.
