Land use planning involves the strategic placement of various development types to provide high quality livable communities that promote environmental preservation while safeguarding cultural, natural, and agricultural resources.
Land use planning has historically been handled at local, county, state and tribal governments. While it’s essential that each level has input into policy formation, national consideration must also be considered when setting policies in motion.
Residential
Residential land use planning entails considering the types and locations of homes and other structures to protect residents from incompatible land uses, such as industrial facilities.
Sustainability is also fostered through community development; that is, creating an area that meets both present and future needs without jeopardizing its ability to provide for future generations. This includes protecting open space and natural resources such as clean water sources and healthy ecosystems.
As part of its planning and decision making processes, the County will incorporate equity in its planning by emphasizing equal access to housing, jobs and amenities – particularly within 17 census tracts designated Equity Emphasis Areas – this guide shows how incorporating equity can create resilient communities which can adapt and respond more easily to change.
Commercial
Commercial land use planning helps balance economic opportunities with community needs by developing or conserving office and industrial spaces, or protecting areas that house various kinds of businesses. Projects typically involve zoning ordinances and regulations regarding how land should or shouldn’t be used, size and placement restrictions on structures as well as any potential environmental factors that could impede success.
High-quality data and careful interpretations help prevent incompatible land uses from co-locating nearby, using setbacks, landscaping requirements, site arrangement specifications and site arrangement requirements to ensure all land uses are compatible and contribute towards building a cohesive community. Incorporation of appropriate land density/intensity is encouraged throughout the County in order to promote an ideal living/working/leisure environment.
Transportation
Land use planning helps ensure that people have access to goods and services they require for survival, without which economies would collapse and communities become disorganized. Furthermore, planning helps mitigate environmental, economic and social issues caused by inappropriate development projects.
A successful planning process begins by gathering, interpreting and analyzing data. After which, a plan is drawn up that provides adequate capacity for various residential options – including affordable housing. Furthermore, this approach encourages the creation of centers for activities and employment with multimodal connections to those areas while creating design guidelines to foster attractive, livable communities.
An effective transportation and land use plan facilitates the movement of people, goods and services without increasing general purpose traffic congestion or necessitating costly infrastructure projects. To do this effectively requires integrating various land uses with local transportation systems to offer multiple travel choices.
Recreation
Recreational land use planning entails the design of public spaces intended for recreational purposes, such as parks, open space areas, equestrian centers, sports fields and fishing ponds. Such recreational spaces may be privately or publicly owned, ranging from individual hunting or camping land tracts all the way up to large national parks.
Recreation land planning should take multiple factors into account, from public engagement and participation, through needs assessment, goal setting and environmental impact evaluation to ecotourism promotion and green infrastructure creation, while developing strategies that minimize impacts on other uses of the landscape – recreational land planning can make an invaluable contribution to social, economic and environmental health of any region.
Agricultural
Land use planning for agriculture involves creating an environment which is suitable for agricultural activities, from planting and harvesting crops, livestock grazing and pest control to farm buildings with specific zoning restrictions for how many animals may graze there or what types of crops can be planted there.
As populations expand and habiable land becomes scarcer, it becomes ever more essential that we use resources wisely. This is particularly relevant to commercial development projects. Poorly planned industrial developments can present environmental, health, and safety problems for nearby communities. A well-conceived development project will anticipate these issues before they arise while safeguarding future resources while also avoiding conflicts with wildlife and decreasing exposure to pollutants.