What is a Comprehensive Plan?

A Comprehensive Plan provides a blueprint consisting of maps, policies, goals and objectives for how a community will grow in the future. These plans typically look 20-30 years in the future and incorporate a wide range of issues and questions relating to land use, including transportation, land use mix, parks and open space, community facilities, community character and identity, housing and neighborhoods, and economic development.

Why does the City’s Comprehensive Plan need to be updated?

The last Comprehensive Plan for North Las Vegas was completed in 1999. Since that time, the City has experienced a lot of change. One major factor has been the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to sell their lands in the northern portion of the City for development. The extra developable land will mean much more potential growth than was assumed for the previous plan. This and other variables will be part of the discussion about North Las Vegas’ future.

How does the Comprehensive Plan relate to the Visioning 2025 Strategic Plan recently completed by the City?

The Visioning 2025 Strategic Plan identifies a number of issues and recommended actions for the City to pursue in the future and provides some direction for the Comprehensive Plan update. These directions will most likely be woven into the goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan where community members and officials see appropriate. In this way, the Comprehensive Plan will work towards implementing some of the ideas and recommendations from the Visioning 2025 Strategic Plan.

How does the Comprehensive Plan relate to zoning?

The Land Use Plan map, a major component of the Comprehensive Plan, is not the same as City zoning regulations and districts and does not change existing zoning. Future zoning and re-zoning, however, will have to be consistent with the new Comprehensive Plan map once it is updated and formally adopted by the City. The Land Use Plan map of the Comprehensive Plan is a “blueprint” for future development decisions and looks at the big picture of how land uses should be mixed and located. The North Las Vegas Municipal Code is the tool that implements the Land Use Plan. It contains more specific guidelines for how development can happen in specific areas, or zoning districts. These standards regulate more specifically how an individual lot can be developed including: allowable uses, building heights, number of parking spaces, landscaping, signs, and other variables of site design.

How long will it take to update the Comprehensive Plan?

The Comprehensive Plan update process began in the spring of 2005 and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2006. Public involvement is crucial to the development of the plan, particularly in assessing future goals, policies and land use alternatives. Public meeting dates, times, and locations will be posted and the City encourages all members of the public to attend. Before the updated Plan will become a formal policy document of the City, it will go before the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council for review, comment, and adoption. These hearings will also be open to the public.