Our role as a county planning agency is to create a shared vision for land use in the county. We are aligning local policies and zoning codes with places2040 through partner workshops and regional plans. These programs equip local leaders with the knowledge and tools needed to implement the big ideas in places2040.

Most of us agree on 80% of what we need to do. We all want to preserve farms and natural lands and keep our urban places vibrant. Places2040 covers the 80%... so regional and local plans can focus on the 20% that makes their communities unique and different.

Workshops (2020 - 2021)

From 2020 to 2021, LCPD held five workshops in each of the county’s planning areas along with a summit planned for 2022. Each workshop focused on a big idea from places2040 and highlighted key policies under that idea. For each of these policies, we worked with our Partners for Place to identify priority areas for implementation; in other words, those policies that would make the biggest impact.

For each policy, we did some countywide analysis and broke it down by planning area. The results illustrated opportunities and challenges our municipalities, school districts, authorities, as well as our Partners for Place, can address together. 

Click below to see content for each of the workshops:

 02/2020 Taking Care

10/2020 Growing Responsibly - Urban

02/2021 Growing Responsibly - Rural

05/2021 Connecting People

10/2021 Creating Great Places

 Workshop Next Steps & Follow Up

 We’d like regional and local comprehensive plans to follow a “nested” approach. Rather than starting from scratch, these plans can follow the same outline as places2040 – and focus on many of the same policies. With limited resources at the county and local level, we think this approach is the most efficient way to update these plans!

 Here’s what these plans could look like:

Ideally, we’d like to see regional plans based on our nested approach. However, if you’re doing a local or regional plan with a consultant, we encourage you to borrow as much as you can from places2040 and the workshop materials. If you’re not working on a plan, LCPD staff will work with you to implement local policies and regulations consistent with the places2040 policies we’re highlighting in the workshops.

Summit (2022)

March 2022 - Thinking Beyond Boundaries Summit