"Fingerprinting" process is just beginning

Editor's note: We thank Betsey Buckheit for her generous offer to follow the city's comprehensive planning process. This is the first of many reports she plans to file on this topic.

Were you at last week's big public forum about revising the Comprehensive Plan at the Armory? 

If so, you learned a bit about how Northfield has grown over the last decade and had a chance to give some input on the strongest and weakest aspects of the city. 

If not, it's not too late to get interested and involved in putting your fingerprints on Northfield's blueprints.  Get in or stay in the process by attending the follow up public meeting in May now being planned.

Meanwhile, be informed.  I'll be reporting on the Comprehensive Plan update and, more importantly, land development regulation rewrite for northfield.org.  My qualifications?  I chaired the Northfield Planning Commission from 2001-2005 (so I participated in the drafting and adoption of the 2001 Comp Plan), I blogged extensively about the Comp Plan on northfield.org in 2004-2005, and I still care that Northfield does a good job validating the Plan and, especially, updating its land use regulations to put the Plan into action. 

You can also get more information right now by:

• visiting the Comprehensive Plan revision website at www.northfieldplan.org.  I recommend reading the RFP (Request for Proposal) which outlines the project; it gives a good and quick idea of why this process is important.  You can also find the slides from the public meeting and a preliminary summary of the results .
• reading local bloggers (and Planning Commission members) Ross Currier (Planning Commission chair and executive director of the NDDC) and Tracy Davis (Planning Commission member and Comp Plan revision website boss). 
• read the Northfield News

Please, be involved.  Most city policies are connected with land use.  Think about it.  Transportation, housing, historic preservation, economic development, natural resources, parks, public works and certainly your property taxes all have some connection with how we allow land to be developed. 

A comprehensive plan should guide wise land use decisions by describing and analyzing what we already have, then by planning what should happen in the future.  The plan is only made effective by the zoning and subdivision ordinances, building regulations, infrastructure plans, park planning, and capital improvement planning which follow from it – revising the land use regulations is critical. 

City officials need a firm foundation to make good policy decisions and a strong comprehensive plan plus well-crafted zoning ordinances can give city officials the strength (or at least the excuse) to make decisions based on good policy rather than immediate political opportunity (I call this legislated integrity).

So keep reading and voice your opinion via comments to this (and future ) posts, on www.northfieldplan.org, or contact Planning Commissioners or your city council representative.