11/05/86 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

For those communities where changes in the zoning ordinance did create an inconsistency~ 66 percent did not then amend the comprehensive plan to remove the inconsistency. This is in line with the responses regarding amending the zoning ordinance where changes in the comprehensive plan created an inconsistency with it. Where changes in the comprehensive plan created an lnconsisteney~ a majority of communities amended their zoning ordinances to remove the inconsistency. This would seem to indicate that a majority of communities use the comprehensive plan as the gauge against which officials controls are to be Judged. Similarly~ a majority of the communities where changes in the zoning ordinance created an inconsistency did not amend their comprehensive plans to remove the inconsistency. This would seem to indicate that a majority of communities hold the comprehensive plan as a "controlling" document which will be amended less frequently and which will provide a long- term framework for individual zoning decisions. For an overwhelming majority of the respondents, inconsistency between the zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan is not a problem. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents indicated no problem in their community. Of those who indicated that inconsistency is a problem, too few respondents gave examples to discern any pattern in the way inconsistency is manifested at the local level. Survey respondents gave a variety of definitions of "consistency" as it is interpreted by their own community. Although worded in various ways, the definitions can be grouped into four categories: o o zoning implements the comprehensive plan 38% the zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan are "comparable", "identical", "similar", "compatible" 37% the zoning map and land use plan map have identieai 20% designations the comprehensive plan reflects zoning 5% Individual communities made some interesting remarks regarding consistency: "Consistency defines the usefulness of the zoning ordinance as a tool to implement the land use goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan. Without consistency, the usefulness of the zoning ordinance as an implementation tool diminishes." "Zoning should not get into areas of regulation that are not mentioned and authorized as desirable by the Plan." "At the time of development, the official use and regulation of land through zoning is consistent with long-range planning." (definition of consistency) "The zoning ordinance effectuates the goals and values of the comprehensive plan." Questions 9 and 10 attempted to establish which document (the zoning ordinance or comprehensive plan) takes precedence in actual experience and which should take precedence when the two conflict. The range of responses given for a community's actual experience with inconsistency indicates no clear pattern of either document taking precedence. In some cases the zoning ordinance prevailed, and a comprehensive plan amendment was adopted to make the plan consistent with the ordinance; in other cases, the comprehensive plan was left intact, and the zoning amendment was denied. Most of the inconsistencies were raised by a particular development request. A few communities did note that there were special cases where inconsistencies were allowed to remain.