Smart Plans
Smart Growth Model Plans and Regulations

MSGC does not endorse all of the following models but is trying to provide communities with the public service of compiling an extensive list of plans and regulations that Montana's communities can use as models to help them make smart growth a reality.

General
Agricultural
Density Bonuses
Conservation Subdivision Design
Traditional Neighborhood Developments
Watershed Protection
Affordable Housing
Streamlining and Regulatory Reform
Model Comprehensive Plans

General

Northern Plains Resource Council Draft Model Growth Policy
Billings-based NPRC has designed this Model Growth Policy in order to provide citizens with an outline of what the best possible Growth Policy might contain under existing Montana law. This model draws upon the experience of NPRC's affiliate groups as they have each worked to create or update their counties' Growth Policies.

Envision Utah's Model Codes and Analysis Tools for Quality Growth (PDF)
Includes model development standards for a variety of land types.

The Minnesota Planning website contains a report entitled From policy to reality: model ordinances for sustainable development. The entire guide is available as a PDF file and includes ordinances that address: citizen participation, growth management, managing community resources, neighborhood design, resource-efficient buildings and economic development.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has several links to model ordinances related to shoreland and wetlands zoning, traditional neighborhood developments, nonmetallic mining reclamation, and conservation subdivisions. A template for preparing wellhead protection plans is also available.

American Planning Association
Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook, Chapter 9
This chapter of the APA's online guidebook includes commentary on land-use incentives (beginning at footnote 215). A history of zoning bonus systems, state incentive bonus statutes, and a model ordinance are discussed.

Smart Development Code Handbook and Appendix
Presents common obstacles to smart development, as well as provides guidance to communities in determining whether their local codes and standards encourage, support, or impede smart development. The Oregon Transportation and Growth Management Program offers several code handbook publications. Most titles are available online, as well as in print form. Others include the Commercial and Mixed Use Development Handbook, Model Development Code and User's Guide for Small Cities, and Infill and Redevelopment Code Handbook.

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
The DVRPC site contains several model natural resource protection and open space protection ordinances. Sample ordinances are included for: transfer of development rights, cluster development, agricultural zoning, conservation design, stream corridor protection, wetlands management, and others.

PolicyLink has an equitable development toolkit.

Cape Cod Commission Model Bylaws
This page has links to 14 model bylaws, including model bylaws for inclusionary housing, wetlands and wildlife habitat regulations.

Agricultural

Agricultural Protection Zoning - American Farmland Trust fact sheet.

Oregon Agricultural Land Use (Exclusive Farm Use Zones). Oregon Revised Statute §§ 215.203 to .298

Model Agricultural Zoning Ordinance--Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; 1994
Provides a model document to include effective protection of agricultural and farm land in overall planning and zoning guidelines.

Right to Farm Ordinance--Davis, California; 1995
Provides for the preservation of agricultural lands in Davis (well known for its efforts in environmentally sensitive management) and surrounding Solano County.

State Farmland Protection Statutes
This searchable library of statutes is provided by the Farmland Information Library, and includes Case Study Summaries of Farmland Protection Laws.

Zoning Regulations -- Boone County, Missouri
Zoning ordinances are one tool that Boone County is using to help reduce urban sprawl. Key County planning objectives include: preserving agricultural land, insuring that new urban environments do not interfere with farming practices on adjacent lands, making maximum use of existing facilities to reduce the need for new ones, and discouraging development where additional infrastructure costs would be excessive.

Agricultural Protection Zoning - Wisconsin Farmland Protection Act. Wisconsin Statute §§ 91.01 to .80

Zoning Ordinance -- City of Gillette, Wyoming, Ordinance No. 979
Section 6a. delineates the purpose and permitted uses of a zoned agrigultural district.

Zoning Ordinance -- Goodhue County, Minnesota
Article 10 A-1 defines the purpose and permitted uses of an agricultural protection district. Article 11 A-2 does the same for agricultural districts, a slightly different category.

Zoning Ordinance -- Genoa Township, Michigan
Article V of Genoa Township's Zoning Ordinances establishes two agricultural districts in recognition of their contribution to quality of life and economic diversity.

Density Bonuses

California Model Density Bonus Ordinance

Healthy Mountain Communities, Colorado
Model Residential Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance (also includes Bonus Density and Development Incentives)

Conservation Subdivision Design

Conservation Subdivision Design -- Town of Cary, North Carolina

A Model Ordinance for a Conservation Subdivision -- Wisconsin

Traditional Neighborhood Developments

Traditional Neighborhood Development Model Ordinance and Design Standards
Georgia Quality Growth Partnership Toolkit

A Model Ordinance for a Traditional Neighborhood Development -- Wisconsin

Watershed Protection

Center for Watershed Protection -- Ellicot City, Maryland
These 22 site-planning model development principles are intended to provide design guidance for economically viable yet environmentally sensitive developments. This page also includes a link to a Codes and Ordinances Worksheet that can be used to evaluate an individual community.

Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
This page includes model ordinances for stormwater management, floodwater management, conservation subdivision/open space development, stream buffer protection and others.

Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA nonpoint source pollution page includes model ordinance language for source water protection in local communities.

The Institute for Environmental Negotation at the University of Virginia has published Community Watershed Forums - A Planner's Guide. Watershed forums can be a first step in divising community watershed management plans. County and town planning departments are two of the target audiences for this guide.

Affordable Housing

Affordable Housing Incentives -- Loveland, Colorado
The following incentives may be available to developers and builders of qualified affordable housing in Loveland: fast track development review, development standards modification, a use tax credit, and early calculation of capital expansion fees.

Housing Incentives -- Pinellas County, Florida
Details affordable housing incentives, including density bonuses, available in Pinellas County through its Land Development Code.

Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington
These affordable housing ordinances for various Washington communities include a variety of incentives.

Streamlining and Regulatory Reform

Permit Streamlining and Regulatory Reform -- San Mateo Valley

Streamlining the Development Approval Process, by Debra Bassert. From the proceedings of the 1999 APA National Planning Conference.

Waikiki Developments: Streamlining the Regulatory Process (231 pages, PDF); Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau, 1998, by Mark Rosen.
This detailed report analyzes existing laws and relevent issues affecting the regulatory process in Waikiki. The report contains several suggestions about how to streamline the process while balancing the needs of protecting the environment with promoting economic vitality.

The Streamlining Project
This five-year cooperative effort among 55 national organizations and various levels of government resulted in more than 50 models designed to streamline the siting, design, and construction processes for all types of buildings in the U.S. Issue areas include: zoning and land use, environmental issues, site and grading, building approval, use and occupancy, and health and safety considerations. Links to more information and access to the model regulations are available on this web page.

Model Comprehensive Plans

Bozeman City Planning Department
The Department's website includes a very good city Comprehensive Plan and subdivision regulations to implement it.

Portage County Comprehensive Plan -- Wisconsin, 2002
Although the comprehensive plan for this mixed rural-urban county is not quite complete, this website provides excellent documentation on how Portage County has gone about the planning process.

Spokane County's Comprehensive Plan -- Washington, 2001 (PDF)
Click on "Comprehensive Plan, Recommended" and use the bookmarks to view details of Spokane's extensive plan.

City of Boise Comprehensive Planning Document -- Idaho
Boise's vision for the future focuses strongly on community sustainability. Its vision is contained in the introduction to the Comprehensive Plan, which outlines strategies to achieve a more sustainable Boise, including references to New Urbanism. Because the City wants the Comprehensive Plan to be an active policy document, Plan status reports are prepared annually.

Canyon County Comprehensive Plan (PDF) -- Idaho
Canyon County's primary planning goal is to create the necessary tools and recommend actions to enhance the quality of life of the county's residents.

Sioux Falls Growth Management Strategy -- South Dakota
This site contains Sioux Falls' general growth management goals and a link to the complete text of its 2015 Growth Management Strategy, via its Long Range Planning button.