The Constellation of Plans: Toward a New Structure of Comprehensive Plans in US Cities

The comprehensive plan is a fundamental planning document to direct growth and change in land use in US cities. This paper investigates whether US cities are structuring comprehensive plans to resemble a 'constellation' of functional, special topic, and neighborhood subplans tied to a central guiding plan. A traditional comprehensive plan features a central plan with few, if any, subplans. We analyzed the comprehensive plans of 39 cities and identified 20 cities that are using the constellation structure with at least four subplans. We then evaluated the quality of the constellation-type plans and surveyed planners in 14 cities to understand how and why they are drafting and implementing constellation-type plans. The responses of planners illustrate how this approach to comprehensive planning allows cities to increase the size and number of functional and area subplans. The constellation structure enables land use planners to add new topics to the central plan in a timely manner leading to more effective land use planning as cities and environments change.