SB 601

Under the current law commonly known as the "Smart Growth" statute, if a

city, village, town, county, or regional planning commission (local governmental unit)

creates a development plan or master plan (comprehensive plan) or amends an

existing comprehensive plan, the plan must contain certain planning elements. A

town may create a comprehensive plan only if it exercises village powers as

authorized by the town meeting. The required planning elements include the

following: housing; transportation; utilities and community facilities; agricultural,

natural, and cultural resources; economic development; land use; and

intergovernmental cooperation.

Also under current law, beginning on January 1, 2010, certain actions of a local

governmental unit that affect land use must be consistent with that local

governmental unit's comprehensive plan. The actions to which this requirement

applies are official mapping, local subdivision regulation, and zoning ordinances,

including zoning of shorelands or wetlands in shorelands. Also under current law,

beginning on January 1, 2010, if a local governmental unit engages in any of these

specified actions, the comprehensive plan must contain at least all of the required

planning elements.

This bill specifies that the actions of a local governmental unit that must be

consistent with the local governmental unit's comprehensive plan are ordinances

related to official mapping, local subdivision regulation, and zoning, including

zoning of shorelands or wetlands in shorelands. "Consistent with" is defined in this

bill to mean "furthers or does not contradict the objectives, goals, and policies

contained in the comprehensive plan." This bill also specifies that enacting a

comprehensive plan by ordinance does not make the comprehensive plan by itself a

regulation.

Also under this bill, if a local governmental unit has not adopted a

comprehensive plan, it may be exempt from the consistency requirement if either:

1) the local governmental unit has not received a comprehensive planning grant from

the Department of Administration (DOA), and the local governmental unit adopts

a resolution stating that it will adopt a comprehensive plan by January 1, 2012; or

2) the local governmental unit has received a comprehensive planning grant and an

extension from DOA. The local governmental unit is exempt from the consistency

requirement until January 1, 2012, if it qualifies under the former provision or until

the expiration of the extension granted by DOA if it qualifies under the latter

provision.

Also under this bill, a town may adopt a comprehensive plan whether or not it

exercises village powers.