COMPREHENSIVE PLANS ACROSS THE U.S.

Map of U.S. States Which Require Every Municipality (towns and cities) To File a Comprehensive Plan.



Exceptions
Hawaii: Only requires the four major counties to have comprehensive plans. Those counties may or may not require the towns in their jurisdiction to have one.
Minnesota: Only required in 7 metro counties
*States that require a Comprehensive Plan if the municipality wants zoning is included under the not required category.

The Search--Two students set out to discover which states required their towns and cities to maintain comprehensive plans. The challenge to that task is related by each below:
Kristin Hadjstylianos--- I used the American Planning Association websites for each state to find numbers for the chapter’s presidents and state planners. . . At least one source sent me to the source legislation--the state planner from Maine was a professor at a college who thought having me search through Maine’s state statutes would be a better learning experience . . . I was surprised at how many people I called were unsure of their answer; several times I was directed to another person to double check. . . While I the APA’s (American Planning Association) websites for each state were generally helpful, some of them hadn’t been updated in years.
. . . My conversation with a regional planner from Minnesota was probably the most interesting. Only their 7 metro counties (the bigger cities) have requirements while their smaller towns have no requirements and few of them have plans. I found that different areas in the country refer to their plans with various names including General Plans, Master Plans, but Comprehensive Plan was the most widely used. I think this map shows how planning in general is not a united concept throughout the nation.

Katherine Galezowski--- The project began with a question in class no one knew the answer to: "Which U.S. states require a Comprehensive Plan?”
. . . I gathered information by individually contacting twenty five states while my project team member (Kristin) gathered the other half and created a map from the data. . . I began my search by looking for a single source online--quickly realizing this information has not been assembled in one place. Next, I attempted to call and e-mail planning departments of randomly selected towns of my assigned states. I asked them if the state required their city or town to have a Comprehensive Plan. I noticed that if I worded this question using the word legally in it, some employees reacted as if they were intimidated or thought they were going to get into trouble for not having one.
. . . To my surprise, many city planners and their secretaries or staff did not have this information at their finger tips. Because of this, I feel the data collected needs further verification.
. . . I found it easiest to call members of the American Planning Association (APA) because someone with planning experience was more than often available.
. . . Among other things, I learned that some states do not require a Comprehensive Plan because the city or town follows the County’s plan. Other states only require a plan if the city wants to obtain funding or a grant.