Comprehensive Plan
Why a Comprehensive Plan?
A comprehensive plan is a land use document that provides the framework and goals for land use
decisions and other actions affecting the physical, economic, and social aspects of the community. It
indicates, in a general way, how the local community wishes to develop in the future.
The basic characteristics of a comprehensive plan are that it is general and far-reaching. Another defining
characteristic is that the plan is long-range and provides a base from which to make decisions.
The adoption of a comprehensive plan often becomes the driving force behind creation of a more targeted
plan, such as transportation corridor studies and housing analyses.
The Painesville Township Comprehensive Plan is a major planning effort to guide the community toward
what it will be like in the future as a place to live, work, and invest. It is being developed through an open,
participatory process driven by four broad-reaching questions:
- 1. Where are we now?
- 2. Where are we going?
- 3. Where do we want to be?
- 4. How do we get there?
The comprehensive plan will identify a vision and broadly address the elements that build a community
including transportation, housing, open space and natural resources, sense of place, government services,
the impacts of new developments and more.
The comprehensive plan provides goals regarding land use and the built environment. Through goal
setting, it will set priorities about land use, economic development, cultural and natural resources,
transportation and other areas.
The comprehensive plan will not propose specific lot-by-lot locations for land uses or facilities, or address
detailed regulations. A comprehensive plan is not a zoning resolution or subdivision regulation.
However, such regulations are used as tools for implementing the comprehensive plan. The
comprehensive plan is intended to provide the legal and rational framework for regulations, investments,
and government action.