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Survey Conclusions Based on the survey sample, the following conclusions can be made: 1. Knowledge of the 1985 amendment to the Metropolitan Land Planning Act is fairly widespread among Metropolitan Area communities. Almost all communities have officially adopted a comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance, with the zoning ordinance being adopted first in the majority of those communities. 3. Only a slim majority of communities originally adopted a zoning ordinance consistent with their comprehensive plan. For a majority of communities, amendments to the comprehensive plan created an inconsistency with the zoning ordinance. Most of these communities then amended the zoning ordinance so the two were consistent. More local zoning ordinances have been amen'ded than comprehensive plans, with a majority of respondents feeling that changes in the zoning ordinance did not create an inconsistency with their comprehensive plans. For those communities where changes in the zoning ordinance did create an inconsistency, a majority did not amend their comprehensive plans to remove the inconsistency. It appears that a majority of communities use 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. Inconsistency between local zoning ordinances and comprehensive plans does exist in Metropolitan Area eommunties, but local communities do not consider it a problem. In terms of actual experience with inconsistency, there is no clear pattern of either the zoning ordinance or comprehensive plan taking precedence when the two conflict. 10. There are conflicting messages in terms of which document should take precedence when the two conflict. In response to questions about whether either the zoning ordinance or comprehensive plan was amended to reconcile an inconsistency between the two, most communities either amended the zoning ordinance or let the inconsistency stand. This may indicate a preference for the comprehensive plan, but it may also indicate that communities pay little attention to the plan. However, in response to a direct question on which should take precedence, response was firmly in support of the zoning ordinance. 11. In the view of local communities, the 1985 amendment to the Metropolitan Land Planning Act will not create a problem for comprehensive plan implementation. The new legislation appears to validate and strengthen the local interpretation of precedence. Local Approaches to Cqnsistency