The city has had a Comprehensive Plan of one kind or another for decades. The plan is supposed to be a framework, embodying, to a surprising degree of granularity, the city's policy guidelines, principles and goals. As a document, it has a curious similarity to the works of 18th century thinkers like Descartes or Rousseau. True to the spirit of the Enlightenment, our city philosophers seek to understand the nature of reality, the structure of human societies, the operation of natural law and the underlying principles of human interaction. The plan seeks to preserve neighborhoods while supporting appropriate solutions to traffic congestion.
Historic preservation is important, as is economic growth.
Government must be efficient while never neglecting the perceived needs of the citizens. It is, in short, several dozen pages of reasonably thoughtful, often contradictory advice to policy makers. But because the plan does not have the force of law, Council members can interpret it as they please. That's good and bad. Bad, because each council member's interpretation of the Comp Plan can vary wildly.