COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

INTRODUCTION

The new City of Madison Comprehensive Plan will provide a strategic long-term vision and basic goals, objectives, policies and recommendations to help guide the city’s future growth and development. The Plan makes recommendations in the areas of land use, transportation, economic development, parks and open space, historical and cultural resources, housing, community facilities, agricultural and natural resources, utilities, and intergovernmental cooperation. When adopted, the Comprehensive Plan will be one of the primary tools used by City agencies, the Plan Commission, Common Council and other policy bodies to make decisions about the location of land uses and community facilities, priorities for public investment and the extension of public services, business development, and how to meet transportation needs.

The Comprehensive Plan will also provide a community-wide framework for the many other levels of plans and ongoing planning activities that are an integral part of life in this city---including neighborhood and special area plans, transportation plans, and plans for specific community facilities and services, such as parks, community centers or police and fire services.

Madison’s Comprehensive Plan is being developed with the assistance of a Comprehensive Planning Grant from the State of Wisconsin Department of Administration, and will meet the requirements of Wisconsin’s “smart growth” planning legislation adopted in the 1999-2001 biennial budget. This legislation requires Wisconsin communities, including cities, villages, towns and counties, to prepare a comprehensive plan by 2010, and defines specific elements that a comprehensive plan must include, and specific issues that it must address.  More information about Wisconsin’s “smart growth” planning legislation can be found at www.doa.state.wi.us/section_detail.asp?linkcatid=224