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Comprehensive Plan

Background and Purpose

A comprehensive plan serves as the basis for a community’s subdivision regulations, official mapping, and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance and Zoning Map. The plan also establishes a community’s policies and priorities regarding future development in the areas of:

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  • Land Use Transportation
  • Parks System
  • Physical Character
  • Economic Development
  • Public Utilities
  • Community Facilities
  • Housing
  • Historic Preservation
  • Downtown
  • Intergovernmental Coordination
  • Sustainability 

In addition, it is a guide for the private business sector regarding the City’s long-term strategies and priorities for the location and staging of public improvements for community facilities and infrastructure.

The first Comprehensive Plan for Eau Claire was completed in 1953 and focused on land use issues facing the community. This was followed in 1968 by a more detailed and comprehensive community plan prepared under the requirements of Section 701 of the federal Housing Act of 1954. In 1982, Eau Claire replaced its single Comprehensive Plan document with a series of separate planning documents addressing land use, parks, transportation, economic development, and the downtown. In 1993 the City adopted a revised Comprehensive Plan that addressed land use, transportation, utilities, parks, and community image. In addition, over the past several years, the City has approved additional plans or plan updates for specific geographical areas.

The 2005 Eau Claire Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted by the City Council on September 27, 2005, will guide the City’s decisions about long-term growth and physical development of the Eau Claire community through 2025. The document encompasses all the geographical areas of the community envisioned to be part of the City by 2025 as well as the major public functions and services which bear on physical development. The document also identifies a coherent and fiscally responsible development pattern for the Eau Claire community and is intended to encourage consistent public and private decisions about future development.

Wisconsin Comprehensive Planning Law

Preparation of the Eau Claire Comprehensive Plan complies with the requirements of Chapter 66 of the Wisconsin State Statutes regarding the preparation and adoption of a city comprehensive plan. The Wisconsin Comprehensive Planning Law, adopted in 2000 and amended in 2004, requires that no later than January 1, 2010, all community programs and actions that affect official mapping, local subdivision regulations, and local zoning ordinance enactments and amendments must be guided by, and consistent with, a comprehensive plan adopted by ordinance by the governing body of that community.

Pursuant to the State Comprehensive Planning Law, now that the Eau Claire Comprehensive Plan has been adopted, it will be reviewed on a regular basis and amended as necessary to ensure the continued applicability and responsiveness of the plan to the community’s planning issues and needs. A more comprehensive updating of the plan will be completed at least once every ten years.

Planning Process

Work began in 2003 when the Eau Claire City Council gave the go ahead to begin updating the 1993 Comprehensive Plan. After a competitive selection process, SRF Consulting Group, Inc. was selected to assist the City in the preparation of the plan. One of the initial components of the planning process was the preparation and adoption of a Public Participation Plan to foster public participation. A copy of the plan is available at one of the links included in the Learn More section located at the end of this web page.

Through the summer of 2003, SRF project staff and City staff worked on preparation of a series of Analysis of Conditions and Issues reports, meeting with the City Plan Commission and City Council, and interviewing a number of local citizens. The City Council also appointed a 30 member Citizens Advisory Committee to provide comments and feedback on the planning process and the development of the plan recommendations and report.

Com Plan Meeting

From October 2003 to June 2004, the consultant and planning staff met numerous times with the Citizens Advisory Committee to discuss key issues and identify an overall growth concept to guide the preparation of the detailed plan chapters. The City also conducted online citizen surveys about planning issues and recommendations and sponsored a community public forum in April 2004 to listen to citizen comments regarding community issues.

 

In August 2004, SRF completed a preliminary draft plan. The Citizens Advisory Committee began to review and comment on the draft plan in September of 2004. Various chapters of the draft plan were also reviewed by other City advisory boards and commissions, including the Plan Commission, Parks and Waterways Commission, Landmarks Commission, Housing Authority, Transit Commission, Redevelopment Authority, and Downtown Eau Claire Inc. (DECI). A second community public forum was held on April 2, 2005 to enable further community input on the preliminary draft.

Comp Plan Meeting

On April 14, 2005, the Citizens Advisory Committee unanimously recommended approval of a revised draft that incorporated the Committee’s substantive comments and recommendations. The public hearing draft was then prepared, which incorporated the changes recommended by the Committee. This public hearing draft was distributed to the Plan Commission on May 16, 2005. The Plan Commission conducted a public hearing on June 20, and on August 1, 2005, approved a resolution recommending approval of a revised plan to the City Council. The Plan Commission’s approval resolution and list of revisions are provided below in the Learn More section.

The final step in the process was for the Eau Claire City Council to discuss and take public comments on the recommended draft plan. This included the following:

  • A City Council work session held on August 30, 2005 at the Eau Claire Public Library.
  • A public hearing on the recommended draft plan, which was held on Monday, September 26, 2005.

Based on input at the public hearing, written comments and the recommendation of the Plan Commission, the City Council adopted the Eau Claire Comprehensive Plan on Tuesday, September 27, 2005. A copy of this document is provided in the Learn More section.

Document Organization

The community planning process generated two key reports, both of which are available below. The first document is the adopted Eau Claire Comprehensive Plan itself, which includes the following chapters:

  • Introduction
  • Community Facilities
  • Public Utilities
  • Housing
  • Historic Preservation
  • Downtown
  • Intergovernmental Cooperation
  • Implementation
  • Land Use
  • Natural Resources
  • Transportation
  • Parks
  • Physical Character
  • Economic Development

The Plan identifies three critical planning issues for future growth:

  • Fringe Growth Management: What should the City do to ensure that urban expansion is compact, cost-efficient and designed for lasting value?
  • Neighborhood Stabilization and Improvement: What should the City do to maintain or improve older residential and business areas of the community?
  • Economic Development: What should the City do to promote and coordinate private investment in business to produce higher wage jobs?

The Plan emphasizes six overarching themes:

  • Fringe Growth: Expand the City’s Urban Sewer Service Area over time and protect it for efficient, compact urban growth. Although acknowledging its statutory authority to set density standards outside its borders, the City will actively seek the cooperation of adjacent Towns in planning for fringe development.
  • Neighborhood Protection and Improvement: Keep older neighborhoods attractive and vital through improved streets, parks and services, code enforcement, design standards and selective redevelopment.
  • Natural Environment: Protect and enhance the major natural features of Eau Claire, such as wooded hillsides, vistas, riverfronts, wetlands, and significant agricultural resources.
  • Intergovernmental Cooperation: Improve intergovernmental cooperation on land use, utilities, roads, drainage, parks, boundaries and school sites.
  • Economic Development: Continue to work with county, state and private organizations to diversify and expand the local economy while raising the standard of living.
  • City Fiscal Health: Improve and stabilize City fiscal conditions by keeping cost increases in line with revenue growth.

An Executive Summary of the adopted Eau Claire Comprehensive Plan is available at one of the links included in the Learn More section located at the end of this web page. Comp Plan Meeting
The second key report is the Preliminary Analysis of Conditions and Issues, which was completed in September 2003. The Preliminary Analysis provides an initial assessment of community demographic and population characteristics and trends for population, households, income,
employment, natural features, and land use patterns. The Analysis provides background information, projections, and a preliminary description of potential issues to be considered in the plan for the following topics:

  • Demographics
  • Land Use
  • Natural Resources
  • Transportation
  • Parks and Greenways
  • Community Visual Character
  • Economic Development

The Analysis also identifies three alternative growth strategies for guiding the City’s future development pattern. These growth strategies are listed below, along with the adopted Concept Plan, which provided the future growth strategy to guide the subsequent preparation of the individual chapters of the adopted Eau Claire Comprehensive Plan.

Learn More:

Contact Information:
City Planner, Darryl Tufte
203 S. Farwell St.
Eau Claire, WI 54702
(715) 839-4914

ID = 980
CATEGORY = 124
SECTION = 28
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