The City of Johnston is moving forward with a significant update to its comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan serves several purposes, including the following:
- A guide for current and future land uses – a “road map,” if you will – that can inform citizens, landowners and developers about how certain land areas should be used and how different land uses should reasonably transition from one to another. For example, simplified goal would be to prevent incompatible uses to be next to each other, such as heavy industry and single-family homes. Another example is how land for housing would transition from lower density to higher density uses.
- A strategic economic development plan for the city to lay out the main goals, policies and implementation initiatives that will address issues such as housing, transportation, natural resource use, parks and recreation and of course, land use.
Keep in mind that a comprehensive plan is a guidebook – it is not a zoning ordinance. Also, it can be amended. Things change over time, and there are circumstances – such as market forces – that would cause a planned land use to change. But having a plan in place helps bring some order and sensibility to development. It makes for a stronger community and local economy overall.
The latest information about the comprehensive plan has been posted on the Thrive 2040 website, which provides citizens, landowners and developers with a means to provide comments about the current draft of the plan. Specifically, it enables people to comment about three aspects of the plan: Vision & Guiding Principles, Policy Directions and Planned Land Use. Online surveys are provided for the Vision and Policy sections. An interactive map is provided for the Land Use section. Comments may also be submitted to thrive2040@cityofjohnston.com.
The Johnston Economic Development Corporation strongly encourages everyone, including business owners, landowners, developers, and the institutions that serve them to participate in this engagement process.