About the Plan
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
Comprehensive Plans help guide decision-making for a community. They are future-oriented with a 10-20 year horizon. Comprehensive plans analyze the existing conditions of a place and identify what is working well and what could be improved upon.
Public engagement helps identify a shared vision for the future of a community and also helps create community buy-in, which makes plan implementation easier and more effective. A community vision will be created based on public participation and feedback, research on best practices, and expert analysis to identify goals, priorities and action items.
Lastly, a Comprehensive Plan is not meant to be a static document. The City should review the plan annually to make sure progress is being made on the community goals and action items.
What is the Purpose of a Comprehensive Plan?
Focus future development & public investment
Encourage a strong economic base for the community
Serve as a community informational management tool
Document and analyze a community's existing conditions
Establish a set of goals for the future and how to achieve them
Provide guidance and recommendations for decision-making
Actively encourage community engagement from all residents
Identify and build upon the unique community character of place
Comprehensive Plans - Relationship to Zoning
Comprehensive Plans are not legal documents but the creation of a comprehensive plan is the legal justification for zoning ordinances and maps. Goals, priorities, policies and action items can all be used to defend zoning-related decisions and votes by the City and elected officials. The preferred community layout as identified in the future land use plan can also help justify decisions on zoning and rezoning applications. In short, comprehensive plans are not law but can be useful tools in decision-making for the Bondurant as it plans for the future.
The chart on the right outlines some key items considered when determining zoning-related decisions.
Comprehensive Plans - Major Components
The new Building Bondurant Comprehensive Plan 2040 will include the following chapters:
- Plan Introduction
- Community Vision & Guiding Principles
- Demographics and Demographic Trends
- Existing Land Uses
- Future Land Use & Growth Management
- Housing
- Employment and Economy Summary
- Natural Resources + Stormwater Management
- Community Character
- Sustainable Development
- Parks, Trails & Recreation
- Transportation & Mobility
- Community Facilities & Infrastructure Planning
- Downtown
- Implementation
Future Land Use Plan
A key component of the Land Use chapter will be an updated Future Land Use Plan. The Future Land Use Plan presents the ideal development and land use layout for the City. In many cases, the future land use will match the existing land use. For instances, most single-family neighborhoods will remain as a future single-family neighborhoods. However, there may be some areas that are determined to be better suited for a more or less intense land use. For instance, an under-utilized shopping center might be re-imagined to be a mixed-use development composed of retail, office and residential in the future. The Future Land Use Plan will help in determining master plans for key areas of the community and help justify decisions about re-zoning applications made to the City.
Bondurant's Existing Comprehensive Plan
Bondurant’s existing comprehensive plan can be viewed below.