Regional Plan
Responsible Staff:
Purpose
The Regional Plan serves as a Master Plan for NCC’s entire planning jurisdiction. It is important for communities to review the Regional Plan when updating their town’s Master Plan to review regional and subregional trends. The Regional Plan becomes the guiding document for NCC in that it gives us a good representation as to what has occurred over time in relation to growth and development and what is needed in the future.
Description
The Regional Plan consists of all aspects of planning: Land Use, Transportation Facilities, Economic Development, Housing, Environmental Resources, Cultural and Historical Resources, Recreation and Tourism, and Community and Regional Facilities. The Regional Plan reviews each of these areas for past occurrences and future needs but also relates each topic to the other. The effects of transportation on the environment, the effects of economic development on housing, and the effects of land use decisions on resource protection are some of the areas the regional plan addresses. There will be input from all communities in the region for the update of the Regional Plan.
Timeframe
The Regional Plan for the North Country needs to be completed by October 2007. It is NCC’s responsibility to keep this document updated and a major revision should be done every five years.
Related Services & Programs
All services NCC provides are linked to the Regional Plan. All aspects of Community Planning, such as a community’s Master Plan and ordinances should take into consideration the regional outlook. Transportation Planning and Economic Development are activities that have a large subregional and regional impact and any local plan for a transportation facility or new business should also relate to the Regional Plan. Of course, resource protection is important at a local level but its cumulative effect is more important. When a community is looking into providing conservation easements or purchasing land, it is important to review what neighboring communities and the subregion have protected so that these areas can be linked.