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Comprehensive, General, and Master Plans Many municipalities in the United States are mandated through state or local legislation to develop comprehensive. master, land use, or general plans. Like a sustainability plan, these plans provide a vi- sion for the long-term development of the municipality and include land use, infrastructure, and natural resources plans. However, these plans historically have focused on controlling and guiding development, not addressing energy use, climate change, or natural resource issues. Nor have they typically included policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions—a central component to a sustainability plan, Recog- nizing that local governments have limited resources to develop various required and voluntary plans, this toolkit can be used by local governments that want to develop a standalone sustainability plan or integrate sustainability into their comprehensive plan. 2.2 TYPICAL ELEMENTS OF A SUSTAINABILITY PLAN Local governments should ensure that the scope of their sustainability plan addresses the most pressing challenges and includes measures that are implementable and achievable. The plan also needs to be accessible and easily ito(4i understandable to the general public. To do this, it must clearly explain the key sustainably chal- 9 high-levelsustainability lenges, oats, and the rationale for each measure. A sustainability plan should include: • Facts, charts, and figures from the sustain- ability assessment, including a greenhouse gas emissions inventory of government operations and the community, to illustrate key challenges to be addressed in the plan • Goals to set a vision and framework for the plan, including an emissions reduction target for the short, medium, and long-term (e.g., a target within the next five to 10 years and a target to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050) • Measures with clear implementation plans covering timing, funding, and responsibilities • A clear explanation of how the measures will achieve the goals and address the challenges, and an estimation of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction potential of each measure • Short-term measures with targets within the next five years • Long-term measures with targets over the next 10 to 20 years • A timeline and framework for monitoring implementation process and updating the plan Refer to the sample outline for a sustainability plan (in your toolkit folder)for more details on what to include in the plan. The scope of a sustainability plan will vary by jurisdiction based on local challenges and needs. A list of all of the potential topics that could be addressed in a sustainability plan is provided below, based on the planning areas in the STAR Community Index: