Guide to Community Planning in Wisconsin by Brian W. Ohm

Chapter 1:  Introduction to Community Planning
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1.1  Planning and the Public Good

A decision to plan is a community commitment to consciously head in a certain direction. The path should lead to an increase in the public good. But what is the public good? The following types of benefits demonstrate what is meant by the public good, and how planning helps to increase it.

q Planning helps define the future character of communities by creating and maintaining a sense of place. Planning for the physical design of new developments and the arrangement of land uses makes it possible for people to carry out their daily lives and activities in attractive and interactive community environments. Land use planning and design can foster a distinctive sense of place. By regulating the design and placement of new developments, planning helps a community preserve those features it feels are important and builds upon the features the community feels help to define it as a special place. Planning can also preserve historic community structures which help to create a sense of place. Good planning generates pride in the community. This pride can influence community development in many positive but intangible ways. Pride in community, in its sense of place, adds to the public good.

q Planning protects natural and agricultural resources. Planning helps protect environmental features like wetlands and forests which provide important public services such as flood water storage, groundwater recharge, and oxygen, that would be difficult and expensive to replace if damaged. It can protect productive farmland, as well. Protecting natural and agricultural resources from inappropriate development protects the public good.

q Planning provides predictability regarding future development. Good planning provides private landowners and developers with information about where and what type of development the community will allow. With good information, private actors can adequately assess the costs and benefits associated with selling or developing land in certain ways. Good planning also provides a standard process by which development proposals are accepted or rejected. This standardization increases the consistency and the fairness of the development process. Treating private actors fairly also serves to enhance the public good.

q Planning saves money. As mentioned earlier, communities can save money by good planning. Not only can planning prevent the expenditure of public resources on unneeded facilities, it can help to organize new growth in more financially efficient ways. It is less expensive for a local community to provide public services to an orderly and phased pattern of development than it is to provide those services to scattered low density development. Saving money in an era of tight budgets serves the public good in several ways. Two are especially important. First, savings can be used to enhance public services. Second, municipal savings helps keep property taxes low.

As mentioned earlier, communities can save money by good planning. Not only can planning prevent the expenditure of public resources on unneeded facilities, it can help to organize new growth in more financially efficient ways. It is less expensive for a local community to provide public services to an orderly and phased pattern of development than it is to provide those services to scattered low density development. Saving money in an era of tight budgets serves the public good in several ways. Two are especially important. First, savings can be used to enhance public services. Second, municipal savings helps keep property taxes low.

q Planning promotes economic development. Planning promotes economic development by helping the community keep existing businesses and attract new ones. By planning a community can attract businesses and help local entrepreneurs start businesses by keeping data on the workforce, the age and type of existing business, and the capacity of local services and infrastructure. This information can help insure that economic growth matches the needs and resources of the community.

Planning can also assist existing local businesses by helping them locate proper facilities, and by advising them on population and workforce issues. It can also prevent non-compatible land uses near existing businesses. Planning can result in cost effective land development and infrastructure which is essential to many economic development programs. Planning promotes the public good by helping to shape a sound economy.

q Planning can promote sustainable development. "Sustainable development" has been defined as development designed "to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."(1)  Planning is recognized as a critical action step towards more sustainable development. Planning to promote sustainability can help achieve more efficient use of land, decrease traffic congestion, conserve important natural resources, engage citizens, and provide for economic prosperity. By pursuing a sustainable pattern of development, planning helps promote the public good.

q Planning helps protect private property rights. Good planning protects property values and minimizes the negative impacts of new development. Without proper planning, new land development can expose adjoining landowners to negative impacts and loss of land value. Even though property owners sometimes view land regulations, such as zoning, as an infringement upon their property rights, the purpose of such regulations is protect them. Protecting property rights is part of protecting the public good.

The reasons for planning are many. Rapid change in Wisconsin communities is causing an abundance of problems. For many communities, the question may no longer be "Why plan?" It may be, "Can we afford not to?"

Planning activities are undertaken by a wide variety of interests in both the public and private sectors. Private sector planning activity, for example, may take the form of various plans prepared by the developer of a new subdivision. A private non-profit conservation organization may also prepare plans for the protection of a watershed or other important natural resource.

Public sector planning involves a wide variety of governmental players. The federal government is actively involved in planning issues through the work of many federal agencies and the passage of numerous federal laws that affect the development process and the use of land. Many of the Indian tribes which exist as sovereign nations within Wisconsin are also engaged in various planning activities.

The Wisconsin Legislature has dispersed planning authority among various state agencies and among local governments. Other planning activities in Wisconsin are undertaken by regional planning commissions, and by hundreds of special purpose units of government such as school districts, housing authorities, sanitary districts, and metropolitan sewage districts. There is seldom any coordination among the planning activities of these various entities, and this poses a tremendous challenge to the planning process.

The recent creation of a "Wisconsin Land Council" by the Legislature may help address many of the problems associated with the dispersion of planning authority. A goal of planning processes should be to help coordinate the various planning activities that are undertaken by the federal, state, tribal, and local governments.

Although planning activities are undertaken by a wide variety of interests, the focus of this guide is on the planning activities of local governments in Wisconsin.

There are four types of local governments in the state--counties, cities, villages, and towns. Cities and villages are "incorporated" municipalities and possess general planning powers. Towns (often referred to as "townships") exist in the "unincorporated" areas of the state and, along with counties, have planning authority for the unincorporated areas.

Local governments are created by the state and are referred to as "creatures of the state."(2)  The state, as a sovereign body, has three inherent general powers--the power to tax, the power of eminent domain, and police power. The power to regulate the use and development of land falls under the police power. The police power is a broad power which allows the public, through government, to regulate private activity to protect the health, safety and welfare of society--the public good.

The state delegates the police power to local government through statutory enactments of the Wisconsin Legislature, subject to the limitations placed on the Legislature by the Wisconsin Constitution.(3)  Statutory grants of authority to local governments may be general (as in the case of zoning and subdivision authorities) or specific (as in the case of impact fee authority). Local governments generally have more flexibility to act under general authority than under specific authority. The complex legal framework for planning is outlined in Chapter 2.

The local plan commission is often responsible for initiating a planning process. The commission might be responsible for preparing the plan itself, or it may work with the local planning staff or a hired consultant to prepare a plan (the plan commission is discussed in depth in Chapter 3).

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(1) The World Commission on Environment and Development (The Brundtland Commission), Our Common Future (Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 43, as acknowledged by The President’s Council on Sustainable Development in Sustainable America: A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity, and a Healthy Environment for the Future (Government Printing Office, 1996), p. iv.

(2) Dane County v. Health and Social Services Dept., 79 Wis. 2d 323, 329, 255 N.W.2d 539 (1977) (counties); Schroeder v. City of Clintonville, 90 Wis. 2d 457, 280 N.W.2d 166 (1979) (cities); Haug v. Wallace Lake Sanitary Dist., 130 Wis. 2d 347, 387 N.W.2d 133 (Ct. App. 1986) (towns).

(3)  The amendment states: 

"Cities and villages organized pursuant to state law may determine their local affairs in government, subject only to this constitution and to such enactments of the legislature of statewide concern as with uniformity shall affect every city or village. The method of such determination shall be prescribed by the legislature." 

See also Wis. Stat. § 61.34(5) and Wis. Stat. § 62.11(5).

Wisconsin Statutes