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I. Background 1. Purpose and Scope The purpose of a comprehensive plan is to guide the City in all of its decisions relating to land use, transportation, community facilities, public improvements/investments and intergovernmental relations. It is a body of general public policy that defines and promulgates the community's vision for the future, a dynamic and multidimensional guidebook that articulates the concepts, principals relationships, patterns and general expectations which support that vision. A clear, broadly supported comprehensive plan is a valuable tool and resource to guide all stakeholders in the City's future. The comprehensive plan is an especially critical tool for the city's Planning Commission, which is charged by statute with evaluating all public and private land use, transportation systems, community facilities and investment proposals for their consistency with the plan's goals, objectives and policies. For the City Council, the plan is a foundation for decision-making and further visioning. The city's staff is guided in day-to-day city business by the zoning code, which is a tool to implement the City's plan, one of many such tools. To residents and property owners, the plan describes the community's expectations for land use and all public systems and indicates directions for future change. • The comprehensive plan is adecision-making framework that can be interpreted rather broadly. However, if too loosely interpreted, it loses its value. The challenge to a dynamic community is to make sure public policy is consistently and universally applied and that response to changing circumstances and regional systems is undertaken with careful consideration. If a proposal does not adhere to the city's goals and policies as embodied in the comprehensive plan, the City may either deny the proposal or consider amending its plan. Amendment to the comprehensive plan is not undertaken lightly and must be demonstrated not to be detrimental to the City, its neighborhoods or the environment or to require substantial increase in the need for publicly financed improvements. The burden of that proof falls to the party proposing change. The important thing to remember is that no decision can be made independently of all others. The elements of this Comprehensive Plan are intertwined and interdependent. Although the published plan is organized into sections with separate sets of policies and goals, it must be kept in mind that each element remains related to all others. In implementation, the vision, values and objectives of the whole will always be applied. Because Falcon Heights is part of the seven-county Metropolitan Area, it is required to update its Comprehensive Plan every ten years in accordance with the Mandatory Land Planning Act of 1976. This is the third generation plan to be completed by the City since enactment. The last major update of the Falcon Heights Comprehensive Plan was completed in 1991; a minor update was submitted in 1999. This plan was prepared in • consultation with the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee in concert with the Planning Commission and City Council and with assistance from city staff and consultants. Falcon Heights Comprehensive Plan 2008 Draft -January, 2008 Section I: Background, Page I-1