Consistency Assessment Flashcards
Consistency Doctrine
A legal requirement that your regulations or capital improvements comply with the comprehensive plan. If the doctrine applies, ordinances departing from the mandates of an adopted comprehensive plan are subject to invalidation under the zoning enabling legislation, or as lacking a rational basis or valid public purpose. some state statues also require plans to be internally consistent- I.e., that the policies not conflict with each other.
Consistency
ensures that zoning and day-to-day land-use decisions are made in harmony with a community’s comprehensive (or general) plan. Consistency was originally a product of growth management, which focused on ensuring that outward growth was consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan, but the tool is relevant in any context. Consistency may or may not be required by state law.
Best Practices (with regards to consistency)
best pracitce for planning is that zoning, capital improvements, rezonings, and zoning amendments should conform to the future land-use maps in the comprehensive plan. Is adequate infrastructure being provided to places that your plan designates for growth? Conversely, are you extending infrastructure outside of designated growth boundaries? Planners should also consider how the uses, dimensional standards, or design standards in land regulations compare to comprehensive plan policies.
Resilience (in regards to consistency)
If plans of various types – comprehensive, subarea, and functional, etc- conflict with each other, that can be a significant problem, especially when it comes to mitigating hazards and adapting to the impacts of climate change. For example, economic development plans might call for investing in locations that climate mitigation plans have identified as needing retreat due to sea level rise.
Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard (PIRS)
PIRS grounds the process of integrating and aligning plans in discrete local geographies. the text and narraitve of plans are translated into layers on a map which can then help identify discord across plans and bring them into alignment.
