Historic Past, Sustainable Future: The 2009 Comprehensive Plan

About the Program

Category: Planning (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

Being the fifth fastest growing county in Virginia, the historically rural James City County has been under pressure to develop a management plan to prepare for the future. With a 160% population growth in recent years, the county has seen nearly 1,500 residential units approved through rezoning cases since their last comprehensive plan in 2003. While the population growth may be exciting for the local economy, James City County has also had to direct concern towards preserving their history and valuable properties. In November of 2009 the Board of Supervisors adopted the 2009 James City County Comprehensive Plan, Historic Past, Sustainable Future. The 2009 Plan is built on the successes of past comprehensive plans and is inclusive of the knowledge, expertise, and input of county citizens, businesses, consultants, interest groups, committees, and staff. The collaborative, multi-jurisdictional input of this plan resulted in a community-based decision. Starting with the development of a Comprehensive Plan Implementation Schedule, officials were able to detail priorities, goals, deadlines, and information through a universally accessible portfolio. Compiled using input from the community, James City County identified a few key priorities that must be established in their comprehensive plan: Preserving the past, and sustaining the future. The community is accepting and is excited for an increase in population but still desires to preserve historic neighborhoods. Utilizing their Comprehensive Plan Implementation Schedule which was created by community dialogue, the county was able to set the stage for transparent and trackable implementation. For the first time, an implementation guide and schedule is included in the plan to increase County accountability. The guide succinctly outlines the role of the comprehensive plan and its relationships to other County service plans and documents such as the budget and strategic management plans. The passage of the comprehensive plan was a great success for both the community and the county government. Being a community-based collaborative plan, citizens are very pleased with the future of their county. Over the course of 26 months, operating costs included consultants for survey administration ($26,000), legally required and supplemental newspaper advertisements ($6,000), other supplies for meetings and handouts ($4,000), and consultants for transportation modeling and land use application evaluation ($150,000). Being that counties can satisfy these requirements through existing government resources, any county can replicate James City County’s management plan.