Norcross, A Place to Imagine

2030 Comprehensive Plan

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The Comprehensive Plan is a three part plan. The Community Assessment is the data heavy portion of the plan that details the existing conditions and make- up of the City. This portion of the plan was created jointly with the County and approved in 2006. The second part of the plan is the Community Participation Plan which details the outreach we conducted to craft the policies and maps. The Community Participation Plan was approved in 2007. The third part of the comprehensive plan is the Community Agenda. The agenda is the heart of the plan, detailing the future vision for the City through the creation of character areas and policies. It also includes the Short Term Work Program which details the tasks the City plans to address and accomplish in the next five years.
The plans, maps, and policies of the Comprehensive Plan were created through community meetings in the fall of 2007. During those meetings participants spoke of how the city should grow, change, and encourage redevelopment. Participants also spoke of the desire to preserve our neighborhoods and protect our historic downtown.

Through the input of the community a Future Development Map was created. This map breaks the City into 12 character areas. The exercise of defining the city into these areas creates geographic based policy for creating and maintaining “sense of place”. The text of the Comprehensive Plan expands upon these character areas by describing what makes them unique, what elements we need to preserve, and suggests policies to encourage the right kinds of changes over the next 20 years. This map and the associated policies will be especially important for two reasons. First, these will be the yard stick by which rezoning cases are reviewed. Does a rezoning request reflect the values of the character area in which it is located? Does it change the area positively to move forward the vision the community has created. Secondly, these character areas will guide how regulations are changed to see that the vision is created.

Another part of the Comprehensive Plan that will have a substantial impact upon the future of Norcross is the Short Term Work Program. The Short Term Work Program is a game plan of what sorts of tasks the City needs to pursue over the next five years to see that the vision of the plan can come to life. The Program includes economic development, land use, cultural resource, public infrastructure, finance, and public safety tasks. The Program also guides the year in which each task should be accomplished.