Comprehensive Plan
Maine Law Promotes Smart Growth
New state legislation encourages cities to plan around ‘smart growth’ principles to preserve farmland and open space, and use infill development to build more housing.
Pittsburgh To Develop Comprehensive Plan
The city voted to spend $6 million on a plan to address future development.
Fort Worth Amends Comprehensive Plan to Reduce Industrial Zone
After residents protested the size and location of a proposed industrial growth zone, the city council voted to adopt an amended version of the plan.
Can Brooklyn Change the Conversation on Comprehensive Planning in New York?
The Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn is the largest comprehensive planning effort by land area in the U.S. since L.A. updated its plan in the 2000s, and the latest attempt to advance comprehensive planning in a city that has grown cynical about it.
Opinion: Voters Deserve to See the Draft ‘One Seattle’ Plan
Despite a promise to release a draft comprehensive plan update in April and with elections in less than a week, Seattle residents are still waiting to see the city’s proposal for how to guide development in the next decades.
Proposal Focuses on Downtown Milwaukee Revitalization
A city plan calls for reimagining an elevated freeway that cuts through downtown communities and redeveloping public properties.
Seattle Planning Commission Urges Reimagining of the City’s Streets
In a set of recommendations submitted to the city, the commission calls for revised land use and transportation policies that reclaim public space from cars and shift focus away from vehicle throughput to more pedestrian-oriented uses.
What Are Zoning Amendments?
Zoning amendments change the existing zoning code by either of two methods: changing the text of the zoning code or changing the zoning map.
Seattle Works To Revise Comprehensive Plan
The city has developed five concepts for updating its comprehensive plan to increase density and reverse the legacy of exclusionary zoning.
What Should the ‘Next Seattle’ Look Like?
With the city getting ready to update its comprehensive plan, one writer examines some models for improving affordability, accessibility, and community in Seattle.
Seattle Ponders a New Approach to Zoning for its Comprehensive Plan Update
The city of Seattle will have an updated comprehensive plan by the end of 2024, with zoning changes to follow by 2025.
Rochester, New York Drafts a Zoning Map to Match its New Comprehensive Plan
The Rochester 2034 Zoning Alignment Project is implementing the award-winning Rochester 2034 Comprehensive Plan.
What Is the Garden City Movement?
Born as a reaction to the crowded, dirty conditions in turn-of-the-century London and other industrial cities, the Garden City movement offers an idealized planned community designed to join elements of town and country.
A Battle Brews Over Housing Density In Seattle
The newly elected Seattle City Council will take up the debate over single-family zoning in the city.
Dallas Launches New Comprehensive Plan Process—15 Years After ForwardDallas
The city of Dallas adopted the ForwardDallas plan in 2006, setting a grand ambition for a more walkable, transit-friendly city. Some of the work toward that vision will have to continue with the next comprehensive plan.
What Are Comprehensive Plans?
The comprehensive plan, sometimes also referred to as a master plan or a general plan, is the foundational document of long-term planning and zoning in the United States.
D.C. Comprehensive Plan Update Needs Equity Improvements, Report Says
The new D.C. Office of Equity has produced an evaluation of proposed changes to the D.C. Comprehensive Plan.
New York City Aims for Comprehensive Long-Range Planning
The city's proposed comprehensive planning bill could create a more equitable and collaborative planning process
Comprehensive Plan Update Stokes Controversy in D.C.
Complex political dynamics are mustering for a showdown over D.C.'s comprehensive plan.
The Great Retrofit: Transforming Tysons With Walkable Residential Development
A 2010 comprehensive plan set a goal to add 100,000 residential units with walkable access to public transit to this unincorporated corner of Fairfax County in Northern Virginia.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Town of Zionsville
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
