In the movies, the master plan is always an overly-complex and nefarious plot set in motion by the villain.
Although the Jefferson County Comprehensive Master Plan couldn’t be called nefarious, the claim of overly complex might stick.
So the Jeffco Planning Commission voted 7-0 during its Dec. 12 meeting to try to add some clarity to the document.
The county’s last master plan update was in 2010, and it combined portions of 16 different area plans to form the general planning and land-use document for all unincorporated property.
But the Planning Commission — the seven-member advisory board with final approval over the plan — experienced a two-thirds turn over in 2011.
“The new Planning Commission started looking at the entire document and decided they really wanted to see something a little more clear and concise,” Jeffco Senior Planner Heather Gutherless said.
A request for comment by a member of the commission was declined.
The master-plan-update discussions began in November 2011 and had two main goals, Gutherless said.
The first was to remove all general, countywide policies from the separate area plans and consolidate them.
Other policy redundancies within the plan itself would also be removed.
One example used by staff is a set of three separate policies, in three different sections, that added up to 54 words.
All three were tidily summed up in just one, 13-word policy: Transportation infrastructure and parking areas should balance safety, neighborhood character, and environmental impacts.
The other goal of the update was to reorganize the entire document into two distinct sections, one titled Development Review, and the other one called Long Range Planning Issues.
What the update did not do was change any land-use suggestions, any zoning, or make any substantive changes to county policies, according to Gutherless, who said she thought the update was a much-needed change.
“I’m excited to see how it is when we apply it because I think it will be a lot better,” she said.
