Agenda - Planning Commission - 09/04/2008

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is adopted everyone goes home, leaving- implementation of the plan in the hands of politicians and planners. Elected officials typi- cally make decisions with a short time horizon in mind, not much further than the next elec- tion. The comprehensive plan, on the other hand, typically addresses a longer vi ew':""2 0 . years or beyond. In those states and commu- nities that have not adopted the consistency doctrine, many planners often morphinto development review and approval specialists. The consistency doctrine can provide political cover to elected officials who face dif- ficult or unpopular de~isions. ("The plan made me do it.") But elected officials may not sup- port requiring consistency between the deci- sions they make and the plan they adopted. Why? Because exercising discretion is one of the "perks" of elected office arjd a sign of political power. State municipal leagues may opp.ose consistency requirements because they fear increased litigation or loss of home rule control. The development community typi- cally speaks out against giving plans a greater role in the deyelopment review process because developers have typically negotiated well under the existing rules of the game and don't want those rules to change. WHY IS THE CONSISTENCY DOCTRINE IMPORTANT? Consistency matt~rs because implementation matters, There are a number of reasons why successfully implementing the community's comprehensive plan is important: . 0 Serious challenges like climate change require that we take a longer vieW. Implementing the goals and policies in the comprehensive plan improves the odds that our community leaders are taking the longer view. o In a deinocrati~ society, the public partici- pates in setting the goals for the future. A comprehensive plan preceded by a meaning- ful public planning process presumably repre- sents the desires ofthe community's resi- dents and means that the inevitable competing interests have been heard and rec- onciled in that process. o "One of the greatest failings of contempo- rary zoning law," land-use law commentator Charles L. Siemon notes, "has been the vul- nerability of the system to influence by politi- cally powerful individuals, a vulnerability that can only be overcome by establishing a proce- dural and substantive framework for individ- ual decisions-planning." ning process is very different from the devel- opment review process. Too often, local offi- cials either ignore the plan or amend the plan on the fly in order to conform to a develop- ment application. This blurs the lines between these two distinct processes. o Perhaps most importantly from the per- spective of the local government, connecting its land-use decisions to the comprehensive plan provides further evidence that the deci- sions are rational and reasonable. The consis- tency doctrine is a way of getting at substan- tive due process via statute, shoring up the constitutiof'lal argumentthat the decision is neither arbitrary nor capricious and advances legitimate interests. Successful implementation of the provisions of the comprehensive plan engenders greater public trust and confidence in the local decision-making process. o The general public, property owners, and developers have a desire for stability and pre- dictability in the land-use regulatory regime. Connecting development and land-use deci- sions to the adopted plan not only imple- ments the plan, but also provides a measure of stability to the "zoning game," as author Richard Babcock called it, and helps avoid ad hoc decision making disconnected from the plan. o Planning is a process by which we evaluate and weigh altematives, and then select the best given our understanding to.day. The infor- mati on available to us may change, and the. plan may need to be amended, butthe plan- Nolon points out that "[t]he development called for by the next 100 million Americans will largely be reviewed and approved by local officials applying locally adopted land-use standards. Our historical approach to influenc- ing human settlement patterns and the use and conservation of the land has relied on pri- vate-sector forces and we have delegated the principal authority to regulate those forces to the local level of government through the adoption of land-use plans and regulations." There's a very good reason for delegating this authority to local officials: they are more intimately familiar with the conditions and concerns at the local level. However, they ZONING PRACTICE 8.08 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION I pOl1.Q 9