CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Confirm that the current scope of the RFP should continue to be utilized to complete the proposed update to the City’s Comprehensive Plan.
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation, Engineering and Development
SUBMITTED BY: Allison Laff, AICP, Deputy Director
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
Not required.
BACKGROUND:
City Council approved $125,000 in funding in the 2019 budget to facilitate completion of an update to the City’s Comprehensive Plan; details on the proposed update were included in a report to the City Council dated January 31, 2019 (see attached).
To date, the City has issued an RFP to hire a consultant to create a custom-designed land-use planning document that offers clear, concise and focused recommendations to guide planning and zoning requests over the next two decades. Upon closing of the RFP on February 28, 2019, the City received responses from two firms; staff anticipates that City Council would review the recommended award of the RFP in May 2019.
DISCUSSION:
During public forum at the March 5, 2019 City Council meeting, four speakers indicated their preference that the scope of the proposed comprehensive plan update be expanded to include topics such as sustainability, livability, and other health and environmental issues. In response, staff noted that the expanded topics are not traditionally included in a land-use based comprehensive plan and could likely not be accommodated within the current budget or timeline allocated to this project.
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
Statutorily, municipalities have been granted planning authority by Illinois Municipal Code §§11-12-4 through 11-12-13. 65 ILCS 5/11-12-4 through 5/11-12-13 to adopt a comprehensive plan that includes areas within its municipal borders, as well as the area located within one and one-half miles of its corporate limits subject to the provisions of 65 ILCS 5/11-12-5 and 5/11-12-6. The purpose of a comprehensive plan is to establish guidelines for future development and land use within the planning area. The comprehensive plan is not the governing regulatory authority for land use in the municipality; the zoning ordinance is.
Furthermore, per 65 ILCS 5/11-12-5 (from Ch. 24, par. 11-12-5): Every plan commission and planning department authorized by this Division 12 has the following powers and whenever in this Division 12 the term planning commission is used such term shall be deemed to include the term planning department:
To prepare and recommend to the corporate authorities a comprehensive plan for the present and future development or redevelopment of a municipality. Such plan may be adopted in whole or in separate geographical or functional parts, each of which, when adopted, shall be the official comprehensive plan, or part thereof, of that municipality. This plan may include reasonable requirements with reference to streets, alleys, public grounds, and other improvements hereinafter specified. The plan, as recommended by the plan commission and as thereafter adopted in any municipality in this state, may be made applicable, by the terms thereof, to land situated within the corporate limits and contiguous territory not more than one and one-half miles beyond the corporate limits and not included in any municipality. Such plan may be implemented by ordinances (a) establishing reasonable standards of design for subdivisions and for resubdivisions of unimproved land and of areas subject to redevelopment in respect to public improvements as herein defined; (b) establishing reasonable requirements governing the location, width, course, and surfacing of public streets and highways, alleys, ways for public service facilities, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, street lights, parks, playgrounds, school grounds, size of lots to be used for residential purposes, storm water drainage, water supply and distribution, sanitary sewers, and sewage collection and treatment; and (c) may designate land suitable for annexation to the municipality and the recommended zoning classification for such land upon annexation.
Naperville’s Comprehensive Plan
Naperville’s Comprehensive Master Plan, first adopted in 1960, serves as a guide for growth and development in the City and is utilized to provide direction to those seeking to develop their land, as well as to the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) who will make a recommendation on their proposal and the City Council who will make a final determination as to whether the request should be approved. The Comprehensive Plan also provides some level of expectation to Naperville residents as to what may be developed on certain properties.
The current comprehensive plan is divided into 3 main plan areas: East Sector (adopted 1988), Northwest Sector (adopted 1996) and Southwest Community Area (adopted 2002). There are 12 subsector plans that have also been adopted in conjunction with the overall area plans (including the 5th Avenue Study and Naperville Downtown2030 plan).
While the age of each sector plan and/or sub-area plan alone is not a predictor of the plan’s relevance or usefulness, many development concepts and trends, conditions of development, financing requirements, and neighbor and property owner expectations have changed significantly post-recession making it evident that the existing plans no longer provide relevant guidance regarding land development projects to neighbors, prospective developers or decision makers.
Recommended Scope of Update to Comprehensive Plan
For the above reasons, staff is proposing to hire a consultant to undertake a comprehensive plan update that:
(1) Accurately reflects existing development and demographic conditions in the City.
(2) Identifies and recommends a future land use designation for approximately 10 geographic areas Citywide that are anticipated to be subject to development or redevelopment at some point in the next 20 years.
(3) Recommends best practices, trends, goals, and opportunities regarding specific planning issues applicable Citywide, including: housing; aging commercial areas; retail, office, industrial trends; technology changes, build-out challenges, etc.
(4) Reviews the existing sub-area plan recommendations to determine which remain valid today and should be carried forward in the updated plan.
(5) Consolidates all of the findings noted above into a single plan document that is easily accessible and understandable. In this respect, residents, prospective developers and/or decision makers will be able to consult one Comprehensive Planning document for the entire City; this document will include most sub-area plan recommendations, except for those that merit continuance as a stand-alone document (i.e., Downtown Plan).
City Council Direction
Staff does not recommend inclusion of larger sustainability, livability, and health issues within the proposed update to the City’s Comprehensive Plan, as they are not directly tied to land use and are more Citywide policy-based in nature. Rather, staff recommends that said items be addressed through a separate effort if so directed by City Council.
However, due to some of the Council’s discussion during this meeting, staff requests that City Council affirm that the original scope of the update to the City’s Comprehensive Plan, as prepared by staff, continue to be used. This confirmation is critical prior to beginning consultant interviews (scheduled for March 21, 2019), which will be followed by selection of a preferred firm, drafting a scope of work, and recommending City Council award of the RFP in May 2019. If the direction of the RFP is changed after these steps occur, it will result in significant project delays and additional cost.
FISCAL IMPACT:
$125,000