A comprehensive plan is a tool that helps guide a community toward its desired future. It offers a process by which a community can ask and answer questions like “Who are we?” “Who do we want to be?” and “How can we accomplish our goals?”

Successful communities understand where they want to go, and they actively work to get there. The process of developing a comprehensive plan is an opportunity for the County to reflect on our aspirations, to understand how current trends may affect our communities, and to formulate a big picture perspective for our collective future. 

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What is a Comprehensive Plan?

It is a document that intends to serve as the narrative for where a community is headed, what priorities it has, what investments it should explore or commit to. A Comprehensive Plan is long range and high level.

A Comprehensive Plan is developed through a community planning process that is participatory in nature. The planners involved work with a diverse group of community members “stakeholders” that contribute and help formulate a vision, goals, objectives, strategies, funding and resource identification, planned project implementations and reevaluations of documented local planning policy.

Public Meetings are a part of the planning process, specifically the outreach and engagement process that is used to learn what community residents believe is important to them, what they believe we should be focused on, and what the County should be doing now and into the future.

Why is Planning Important?

It helps create communities that offer better choices for where and how people live. It allows residents to have a say in the future of their community that is documented for elected leaders and private and non-profit leaders. The planning process will help us know what the community wants, what the future may hold, and will identify actions and strategies to get there. Ideally, planning done well, helps a community find the right balance of new development, essential services, environmental and agricultural protection, and forward movement or change.

Planning can prepare a community to make change, or respond to change, or find ways to change without sacrificing the aspects of a community everyone appreciates and wants to remain. It can also help us identify issues and opportunities that weren’t known to all residents or elected leaders.

 What is Plan Forward focused on?

• Economic and Workforce Development
• Infrastructure
• Public Health
• Public Safety

What is the process?

August 2021 – Early 2023: Community Engagement
We worked with and throughout the community to raise awareness about the County’s Comprehensive Plan—our shared vision for the future. During this phase, the project team spent time out in the community gathering feedback, ideas, and priorities from residents and stakeholders.

2023 – 2025: Plan Framework Development
The project team synthesized community and stakeholder input and incorporated it into the Comprehensive Plan Framework, shaping the foundation for the Plan.

2026 and Beyond: Drafting the Plan
The project team is drafting the Comprehensive Plan and looks forward to sharing it with the community.

County Planning vs. Municipal Planning

Planning can differ at the various levels of government. In New York State, your local municipality, whether it’s the City of Rochester, a town, or a village has control over local land use. This means they have the power and authority to make laws regarding zoning, or what can be built where. The County does not have this authority and needs to plan in different ways. 

When a Municipality undertakes a Comprehensive Plan it will review current land uses and zoning, and look to see if changes need to be made, often reflective of how the community has changed over the years. This often results in a future land use map that might inform a future zoning code that dictates what and where things can be built. 

Planning at the County Level is instead focused on infrastructure that often serves multiple communities, this is traditional infrastructure like roads, bridges, sewers, parks, and trails. The Monroe County Water Authority, is an independent entity serves Monroe County by providing fresh potable water. In addition Monroe County offers a variety of social infrastructure or services that are utilized throughout Monroe County via the following Departments, Offices, and Agencies: Department of Motor Vehicles, Public Health Department, Human Services, Environmental Services, Sheriff’s Office, Public Safety, Libraries, Monroe County Hospital, Planning and Economic Development, Community Development, and the Board of Elections.

Accordingly, Planning at the County Level is focused on infrastructure, services, and policies to enhance the delivery and utilization of County assets and programs.

You can download a pdf of this information here.