Customizing Comprehensive Plans for Small Towns

This session focuses on how to make the planning process more impactful for small communities. Examples from three award-winning plans will share how to use engagement and fiscal analysis to design plans that help small towns define priorities and make meaningful progress with available resources.

Just because a community is small doesn’t mean the issues they face are any less challenging or warrant less time and resources than bigger cities. However, with limited staff and funding, it can be difficult for small towns and rural communities to prioritize where to invest limited resources to address the needs of current residents while also positioning to attract new businesses and residents.

Comprehensive plans for these communities are often nonexistent or outdated. When updates are done, a common approach is to try to address everything all at once by copying the myriad elements that plans for larger cities have and scaling back the engagement, specificity of the analysis, and deliverable design. An alternative approach is to identify the most pressing issues and desired outcomes and build a customized process and plan that can help your community make meaningful progress right now with the resources available.

This session features examples from three award-winning comp plans for small towns facing a spectrum of development, infrastructure, and housing challenges and highlights elements of the process and deliverables that were customized to meet their needs:

Parsons, Kansas is a rural community in southeast Kansas whose population has been steadily declining and aging. Much of the downtown was destroyed by a tornado in 2000 and the City has used grant funds and partnerships with local businesses to rebuild the streets and streetscape in the core, but some of the buildings remain vacant and many of the surrounding neighborhoods are in need of reinvestment. The Parsons Comp Plan focused on helping city leaders think differently about economic development and housing and prioritized investing in existing buildings and neighborhoods to make them more attractive and affordable to the people currently living in Parsons.

Sweetwater, Texas is a community struggling to retain current residents and businesses, but that also has opportunities for growth. The city had never done a comprehensive plan until amending its charter in 2021. This planning effort focused on synthesizing community input and resources into a clearly defined community identity, goals, and prioritized action plan that will help the community cultivate a more resilient local economy and neighborhoods.

Taylor, Texas is on the high growth end of the spectrum, facing rapid growth thanks to its proximity to Austin and recently being selected by Samsung for a new facility that will bring hundreds of jobs, new residents, and ancillary businesses. Managing growth in a manner that ensures the city stays attractive and affordable long-term was a high priority for city leadership. The Envision Taylor plan used land use fiscal analysis as a common language throughout the process to educate residents, evaluate growth scenarios, and inform implementation strategies.