The development trend maps illustrating future development patterns are based on work started by Bluegrass Tomorrow in 1998. In order to further their development on framework elements for a regional land use plan, Bluegrass Tomorrow commissioned a set of maps to depict the impact of future trends of development on regional resources. Land use patterns that were mapped included historical development trends, currently planned development, and infrastructure which could guide development. The resulting maps were overlaid with each other in order to identify the areas where development could threaten regional resources. Bluegrass Tomorrow is expected to incorporate the work from this study into their future planning efforts.
Efficient planning involves the careful development of goals and objectives.
As part of this study, the goals and objectives related to future expansion in the comprehensive plans for each of the seven counties were evaluated and analyzed. Several counties do not recognize or address some planning goal areas while Madison county has yet to officially adopt any guidelines for future growth into their comprehensive plan. For this study, each goal was evaluated on the basis of its strength of vision and ability to direct growth patterns to accomplish their respective goals. Another factor to consider when predicting future development trends is that of population growth and land conversion rate. The population in the Bluegrass Region has experienced a slow steady increase in recent history.