(A) Purpose.
(1) The governing body and the Planning Commission shall prepare and adopt a Comprehensive General Plan for:
(a) The present and future needs of the county; and
(b) The growth and development of the land within the county or any part of the county.
(2) The plan may provide for:
(a) Health, general welfare, safety, energy conservation, transportation, prosperity, civic activities and recreation, educational and cultural opportunities;
(b) The reduction of waste of physical, financial or human resources that result from either excessive congestion or excessive scattering of population;
(c) The efficient and economical use, conservation and production of the supply of food and water, and of drainage, sanitary and other facilities and resources;
(d) The use of energy conservation and solar and renewable energy resources;
(e) The protection of environmental values and open spaces; and
(f) The protection of urban development.
(3) The governing body and the Planning Commission may determine the comprehensiveness, extent and format of the General Plan.
(B) Plan preparation.
(1) The Planning Commission shall make and recommend to the governing body a proposed General Plan for the area within the county.
(a) The plan may include planning for incorporated areas if, in the Planning Commission’s judgment, they are related to the planning of the unincorporated territory or of the county as a whole.
(b) Elements of the county plan that address incorporated areas are not an official plan or part of a municipal plan for any municipality, unless it is adopted by the municipal Planning Commission and the governing body of the municipality.
(2) The General Plan, with accompanying maps, plats, charts and descriptive and explanatory matter, shall show the Planning Commission’s recommendations for the development of the territory covered by the plan, and may include, among other things:
(a) A land use element that:
1. Designates the proposed general distribution and location and extent of uses of land for housing, business, industry, agriculture, recreation, education, public buildings and grounds, open space and other categories of public and private uses of land as appropriate; and
2. May include a statement of the standards of population density and building intensity recommended for the various land use categories covered by the plan.
(b) A transportation and circulation element consisting of the general location and extent of existing and proposed freeways, arterial and collector streets, mass transit and any other modes of transportation that are appropriate, all correlated with the land use element of the plan;
(c) An environmental element that addresses:
1. The protection, conservation, development and use of natural resources, including forests, soils, rivers and other waters, harbors, fisheries, wildlife, minerals and other natural resources; and
2. The reclamation of land, flood control, prevention and control of the pollution of streams and other waters, regulation of the use of land on hillsides, stream channels and other environmentally sensitive areas, the prevention, control and correction of the erosion of soils, protection of watersheds and wetlands and the mapping of known geologic hazards.
(d) A public services and facilities element showing general plans for sewage, waste disposal, drainage, local utilities, rights-of-way, easements, facilities for them, police and fire protection and other public services;
(e) A rehabilitation, redevelopment and conservation element consisting of plans and programs for the elimination of blight and for redevelopment, including housing sites, business and industrial sites and public building sites;
(f) An economic element composed of appropriate studies and an economic development plan that may include review of county revenue and expenditures, revenue sources, identification of base and residentiary industry, primary and secondary market areas, employment and retail sales activity;
(g) Recommendations for implementing the plan, including the use of zoning ordinances, subdivision ordinances, capital improvement plans and other appropriate actions; and
(h) Any other elements that the governing body and the Planning Commission considers appropriate.
(3) The Planning Commission should do an internal review of the General Plan at least once every five years and recommend changes, if any, for adoption to the governing body in the form of plan revisions or amendments.
(C) Plan adoption.
(1) After completing a proposed General Plan for all or part of the area within the county, the Planning Commission shall schedule and hold a public hearing on the proposed plan. After the public hearing, the Planning Commission may make changes to the proposed General Plan.
(2) The Planning Commission shall then forward the proposed General Plan to the governing body.
(3) The governing body shall hold a public hearing on the proposed General Plan recommended to it by the Planning Commission. The governing body shall publish notice of the time, place and purpose of the public hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the county at least ten days before the hearing at which the proposed General Plan is to be considered and public comment heard.
(4) After the public hearing, the governing body may make any modifications to the proposed General Plan that it considers appropriate.
(5) The governing body may:
(a) Adopt the proposed General Plan without amendment;
(b) Amend the proposed General Plan and adopt or reject it as amended; or
(c) Reject the proposed General Plan.
(6) The General Plan is an advisory guide for land use decisions.
(D) Amendment of plan. The governing body may amend the General Plan by following the procedures required by division (C) above.
(E) Effect of plan on public uses. After the governing body has adopted a General Plan or any amendments to the General Plan, no street, park or other public way, ground, place or space, no publicly-owned building or structure and utility, whether publicly- or privately-owned, may be constructed or authorized until and unless:
(1) It conforms to the plan; or
(2) It has been considered by the Planning Commission and, after receiving the advice of the Planning Commission, approved by the governing body as an amendment to the General Plan.
(Prior Code, § 8-3-10)