What is a Small Area Plan?
Small area plans are detailed plans prepared for a smaller geographic area within a community. The areas can encompass neighborhoods, corridors, downtowns, or other types of special districts that show cohesive characteristics. Typically, small area plans would be developed separately from a comprehensive plan but we have an opportunity in our comprehensive planning process to focus on several areas of Butner utilizing overlapping data and surveys. These small area plans can then be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan.
Why is this important to your community?
Comprehensive plans are long-range policy instruments that typically keep to a “big picture” view regarding community-wide goals and issues of transportation, future land use, and infrastructure needs. But every community is made up of smaller areas, each with its own set of unique attributes, issues, opportunities and challenges that contribute to the whole. Small area plans are targeted for smaller geographies with similar characteristics and provide a way to help the residents and businesses in these areas, such as corridors, neighborhoods, etc., figure out how their area fits into the “big picture” in terms of achieving the overall goals of the comprehensive plan, while addressing issues or concerns of particular importance to the small area. These might include dealing with an aging mall or vacant businesses, increased traffic flow, development densities along corridors and how to make the density “fit” into the neighborhood, and/or how to address walkability, connectivity, and open space. Small area plans are where broad policy statements see their practical application in guiding development, and where “the devil in the details” is addressed at a scale that engages residents.
Typically, small area plans will cover a specific geography that shares common issues or characteristics. While a comprehensive plan establishes the entire community’s vision for the future over the long term, a subarea plan illustrates how that vision can be carried out at a much more detailed level, considering a range of topics such as land use, transportation, utilities, circulation, and open space, but also more place-specific factors such as zoning and development regulations, urban design and street character, historic preservation, and even building design.
A comprehensive plan may identify areas in the community that are good candidates for subarea planning, and may include guidelines that serve as a template for the development of small area plans. A comprehensive plan may also simply include policies that recommend the identification of small areas for future planning.
Small area plans have the advantage over larger-scale planning efforts to engage issues and residents on a close-up, personal scale and to respond with tailored solutions. For this reason, public participation is an important component of the subarea planning process. Input from residents should be solicited throughout the entire process and should inform the vision, goals, and strategies for the future of the subarea; many communities find that participation in subarea planning is much stronger than participation in community-wide planning efforts.
Small area planning is a multi-step process that may be conducted in several ways, using a variety of techniques. The basic planning tasks are similar to those included in a involve area definition, public engagement, visioning, data collection and analysis, identification of opportunities and constraints, synthesis of findings and recommendations, and action plan. A subarea plan is almost always initiated and led by the local government, and for this reason the steps described below are provided from this perspective. However, subarea planning efforts could also originate in a public concern. For example, a neighborhood anxious about encroaching development might approach and receive support from the local government to prepare a plan. In such cases, the local government might limit its role to one as process facilitator or technical advisor.
Why is this important to your community?
Comprehensive plans are long-range policy instruments that typically keep to a “big picture” view regarding community-wide goals and issues of transportation, future land use, and infrastructure needs. But every community is made up of smaller areas, each with its own set of unique attributes, issues, opportunities and challenges that contribute to the whole. Small area plans are targeted for smaller geographies with similar characteristics and provide a way to help the residents and businesses in these areas, such as corridors, neighborhoods, etc., figure out how their area fits into the “big picture” in terms of achieving the overall goals of the comprehensive plan, while addressing issues or concerns of particular importance to the small area. These might include dealing with an aging mall or vacant businesses, increased traffic flow, development densities along corridors and how to make the density “fit” into the neighborhood, and/or how to address walkability, connectivity, and open space. Small area plans are where broad policy statements see their practical application in guiding development, and where “the devil in the details” is addressed at a scale that engages residents.
Typically, small area plans will cover a specific geography that shares common issues or characteristics. While a comprehensive plan establishes the entire community’s vision for the future over the long term, a subarea plan illustrates how that vision can be carried out at a much more detailed level, considering a range of topics such as land use, transportation, utilities, circulation, and open space, but also more place-specific factors such as zoning and development regulations, urban design and street character, historic preservation, and even building design.
A comprehensive plan may identify areas in the community that are good candidates for subarea planning, and may include guidelines that serve as a template for the development of small area plans. A comprehensive plan may also simply include policies that recommend the identification of small areas for future planning.
Small area plans have the advantage over larger-scale planning efforts to engage issues and residents on a close-up, personal scale and to respond with tailored solutions. For this reason, public participation is an important component of the subarea planning process. Input from residents should be solicited throughout the entire process and should inform the vision, goals, and strategies for the future of the subarea; many communities find that participation in subarea planning is much stronger than participation in community-wide planning efforts.
Small area planning is a multi-step process that may be conducted in several ways, using a variety of techniques. The basic planning tasks are similar to those included in a involve area definition, public engagement, visioning, data collection and analysis, identification of opportunities and constraints, synthesis of findings and recommendations, and action plan. A subarea plan is almost always initiated and led by the local government, and for this reason the steps described below are provided from this perspective. However, subarea planning efforts could also originate in a public concern. For example, a neighborhood anxious about encroaching development might approach and receive support from the local government to prepare a plan. In such cases, the local government might limit its role to one as process facilitator or technical advisor.
- Begin by identifying and selecting a subarea (or subareas) in need of detailed planning. Criteria for selection may include the presence of unique development issues, such as evidence of disinvestment or the presence of significant opportunities for infill or redevelopment. The selection may also be influenced by specific concerns of residents, such as changing character or infrastructure improvement needs, or planning for fixed-guideway transit.
- Define the geographic edges of the planning area by looking at the place-specific characteristics that differentiate the area and its natural, historic, or man-made boundaries.
- Identify and reach out to key planning area leadership to gauge interest and get support for the planning process. Develop a step-by-step work program, public participation strategy, and schedule.
- Collect and analyze data on demographics, land use and zoning, market and development trends, public infrastructure and facilities, natural environment and other current and projected conditions of the planning area.
- Convene planning area stakeholders (i.e., anyone who lives, works, or owns a business within the area) to present the current conditions assessment, confirm the key issues and concerns and to establish the specific vision and goals for the subarea plan. The subarea plan vision and goals should build upon and be consistent with the community-wide vision and goals, as may be expressed in the community’s comprehensive plan.
- Conduct additional stakeholder meetings (e.g., workshops) to present the findings of the existing conditions analysis and facilitate consensus on opportunities, constraints and priorities. Use input received from the stakeholders to develop future subarea concepts. These may include land uses (location and mix), development intensities, circulation and connectivity, open space, and other aspects of physical development such as design character.
- Synthesize the input results into a preferred subarea plan concept. Obtain additional public feedback on this preferred concept before proceeding to develop the subarea plan report. The report could include the following elements:
- Overview, including the rationale for the planning effort, definition of the planning area, and a description of the process (in particular the public participation process).
- Existing conditions analysis.
- Vision and goals.
- Summary of the synthesis of opportunities, constraints, and priorities.
- Framework of recommendations (e.g., principles and guidelines) for each potential element of the plan: land use and zoning, circulation, infrastructure, open space, etc.
- Action plan/definition of implementation strategy.
- In addition to a graphic representation of the land use concept, a subarea plan could include other illustrations of the type of physical environment proposed for the subarea, e.g., 3D renderings. These illustrations help to visualize and understand the extent and scale of future change envisioned for the area.
- Submit the subarea plan document to public review and endorsement – and adoption if appropriate, as well as possible amendment of the community’s comprehensive plan.
Gateways Small Areas
Butner Gateway
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East Butner Gateway
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Butner Cove Gateway
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Umstead Town Center
