The Columbus Consolidated Government
Planning Department
Post Office Box 1340 Columbus, Georgia 31902-1340
Telephone (706) 653-4116
Fax (706) 653-4120
Website: www.columbusga.com/mpo
10/15/2008
Honorable Mayor and Councilors
City Manager
City Attorney
Clerk of Council
Subject: Adoption of the 2028 Comprehensive Plan
For the past 18 months, the Planning Department has been working with the
consulting team of Jordan, Jones and Goulding, to develop a new comprehensive
plan for our community. The Comprehensive Plan is the community's vision for
the future through descriptive text and maps, and provides a plan to implement
that vision. This plan is largely based upon the input gathered from multiple
public meetings, citizen and technical review stakeholder meetings, surveys,
websites, and other multiple involvement channels. The goals of this plan are
two-fold: 1) to create local excitement about Columbus's future, engaging
community members and encouraging them to help move the Plan forward; and, 2)
to provide Columbus leaders with a "concise, user-friendly" document that is
applicable to the day-to-day decisions of the City.
Adoption of the plan is mandiatory under the the criteria as established by the
?Georgia Department of Community Affairs? Standards and Procedures for Local
Comprehensive Planning?, in order for the city to be considered eligible for
certain state grant programs. The Plan must be adopted by October 31, 2008.
In the past the Comprehensive Plan has always been adopted by resolution. For
this plan, the Planning Department is recommending that it be adopted by
ordinance for the following reasons:
1) It gives the Plan full authority and requires coordination for all land use
decisions;
2) It requires that the city's capital improvement program and capital budget
be consistent with the Plan, to insure that its objectives are carried out; and
3) Most importantly, it promotes performance, accountablity, service, and trust
that our citizens are demanding, by assuring them that the Plan will be
followed on all land use and development decisions, and that there is a plan in
place to direct future growth in our community.
Rick Jones, AICP
Director of Columbus Metropolitan Planning Organization
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