The primary responsibility of the Comprehensive Planning Bureau is to develop and update comprehensive plans and functional plans for the County and smaller regions within the County. The Bureau functions as staff to the County Planning and Zoning Commission which reviews and finalizes the plans prior to adoption. The process and implementation of these comprehensive plans plays a vital role in countywide growth management.

Each staff planner with the Bureau of Comprehensive Planning is assigned a specific geographic region of the County. Within that area, that planner takes the lead on any relevant comprehensive plans and provides liaison planner services to the municipalities. Individual rezoning petitions, annexations, and review of development plans for consistency with appropriate and relevant comprehensive or functional plans for that area are also handled by the appropriate planner.

In addition to the geographic responsibilities, each planner also has specific issues or functional areas of planning which he or she covers. These include such issues as water and sewer, transportation, mineral resources, demographics, economic development, historic sites, parks and recreation, and concurrency management, among others. Many of the issues have functional plans associated with them.

The GIS staff for the Bureau is responsible for geographic data, mapping, and analysis associated with projects specific to the Bureau of Comprehensive Planning. Each GIS user is responsible for projects for a specific geographic area, working in conjunction with the comprehensive planners for that area, as well as a team on countywide projects.

Countywide projects or other special projects may be handled by the Bureau Chief or may be assigned to one or more of the area planners. Technical support is provided to develop implementation measures for the recommendations contained within the comprehensive plans, such as zoning ordinance amendments, drafting of other ordinances, grant applications, and comprehensive rezonings.

Links to Reporting Agencies			Links to Other Documents
General Planning Process Bureau of Development Review Bureau of Resource Management Agricultural Land Preservation Program			General Planning Process Comprehensive Plans Functional Plans Design Expectations Items for Purchase Transportation Planning Buildable Land Inventory Demographics Mapping & GIS Map of Comprehensive Planners' Areas of Responsibility