Introduction
The primary reason a community prepares a comprehensive plan is to establish a framework to influence decisions in regards to land use and development issues, to maintain the desired character of a community, and in some cases to set priorities for public expenditures. In order for this plan to be effective, it should have a set of community supported actions and/or policies that the community will follow in the hopes that at least parts of the plan will be realized. The implementation element gives decision-makers, landowners, non-profit organizations, and others a road map to move that plan to action.
Definition
The comprehensive planning law defines the implementation element as: “A compilation of programs and specific actions to be completed in a stated sequence, including proposed changes to any applicable zoning ordinances, official maps, or subdivision ordinances, to implement the objectives, policies, plans and programs.”
Consistency and Integration Between Elements
The comprehensive planning law requires that the plan provide a way to bring all the elements together and make them consistent with one another as a package to achieve the common vision and goals of the plan. In an effort to ensure that each element is consistent and integrated with the others, the planning process was coordinated by developing each element simultaneously. Based on this fact, there are no known inconsistencies or conflicts between plan elements. A consistency review of the goals, objectives, and actions/policies reveals that all elements of the plan work together as a package.
Measuring Plan Progress
Including a mechanism to measure the Town of Westboro’s progress toward achieving all aspects of this comprehensive plan is a requirement of the comprehensive planning law. The goals, objectives and action statements included for each of the plan elements are not only directives to guide town decisions, but also tools to measure who (the cooperating parties) will work on the actions and when (timeframe) they are targeted to be completed.
Plans, Updates, and Revisions
The comprehensive planning law requires that the implementation element include a process for updating the comprehensive plan at least once every 10 years. In order to ensure that the plan is an effective management tool, the Town of Westboro Planning Commission should review the plan annually to track the plan’s progress in meeting its goals and to add additional actions and recommendations as needed and as unforeseen changes occur.
The Town of Westboro should initiate its first major update of this plan by 2019. It is recommended that the information from the 2010 census be used to update pertinent parts of this plan when the data becomes available.
Plan Implementation
What follows is a list of the Town of Westboro’s goals, objectives, and action statements for housing, transportation, utilities and community facilities, natural-agricultural-cultural resources, economic development, intergovernmental cooperation and land use as derived by the Town of Westboro planning commission and citizens that participated in the overall planning process. The table also identifies responsible cooperating parties for each action as well as considering a timeframe to complete or achieve the actions.
Cooperating Parties’ abbreviations:
- PC – Planning Commission
- TB – Town Board
- RTC – Rail Trail Commission
- RD – Rural Development
- TC – Taylor County
- USFS – United States Forest Service
- SD – Sanitary District
- DNR – Department of Natural Resources
- Tel. Co. – Telecommunication Companies
- RLSD – Rib Lake School District
- NWRPC – Northwest Regional Planning Commission
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