New Comprehensive Plan

This is an overview of the City of Mayflower’s update to the 2001 Comprehensive Plan. On March 13, 2001, with Resolution 2001-03, the city council officially adopted the City’s current Comprehensive Development Plan (Comp Plan). A Comp Plan is an official document which provides citizens, land development applicants, administrators, appointed officials and elected officials with a guide describing, and with maps texturally showing how the citizens desire their city to develop in an orderly fashion.

The 2001 Comp Plan was a very good basic plan, comprised of three (3) components:

1. Land Use
2. Streets
3. Community Facilities

The land use document provides guidance for zoning and uses of land. The street plan provides guidance to keep development from blocking corridors (i.e. the proposed realignment of the over pass and the public facilities assist with capital improvement planning (i.e. western fire sub-station). All 3-compoments provide all stake holders with a 10-20 year plan for the orderly growth of the community.

Since 2001, Mayflower’s population has grown in excess of 25%. This is rapid growth. Each year, there is more and more residential and commercial development interest. On a very positive note- Mayflower has outgrown the 2001 Comp Plan!  After the 2011 Budget discussions, a couple of items which concerned the Mayor and City Council were the lack of economic development recruitment and the condition, or lack of physical infrastructure to handle recruitment and future development. With the above facts stated, Mayor Holland and I have assembled consultants from outside the organization to provide an update to the Comp Plan, comprised of:

• Metro plan- the regional planning group for 5-counties in Central Arkansas
• Arkansas Department of Economic Development (ADED)- the State Economic Department
• UCA Community Development Institute- a department of UCA specializing in community and economic development (using a $100k grant to assist from the Rockefeller Foundation)

The Planning Commission will be the official group heading up the plan revision. City Staff, including the Utility, Building, Fire, Police Streets, Park and Finance departments will assist with this important policy proposal. To assist with a review and to make sure the physical infrastructure can handle the projected growth, the City’s consulting engineers will assist in a capital improvement plan schedule.

The revision process is just beginning. All involved consultants have met 2 times to logistically schedule the process. Currently Metro plan staff is reviewing preliminary 2010 Census data, building and economic date (provided by ADED), to generate a baseline analysis. A baseline analyses provides information and data to see where we are currently as a community. The ACE Plan is being reviewed and integrated into the baseline documents.

The next step will be to get the Mayor, City Council, Planning Commission, business owners and citizens together to have Town Hall outreach meetings to hear some challenges we face, positives, and where do we desire the community to be in 20-years. This is tentatively planned for mid-April. After the Town Hall vision sessions, the Planning Commission will work with the consultants and staff to develop a Comp Plan comprised of:

• Land Use
• Streets and Transportation
• Public Facilities
• Economic Development
• Capital Improvements

After the proposed document is comprised, public hearings will be held, and the City Council will review and vote on the policy. Once adopted, the Comp Plan will be an official public statement to provide orderly growth and development.