Four Sundays. One development proposal. Four different layers of the same question.
We started with a farmer’s heirs who wanted to sell. We followed that proposal through the future land use map, through agricultural land use policy, through the gap between the zoning code and the comprehensive plan, and finally through the thirty-year cost calculation that county boards almost never see before they vote.
The red thread was intentional. A comprehensive plan and the land use policies that implement it are not separate topics. They are one framework — and it either holds together or it doesn’t, one application at a time.
Before we move into October and the transportation decisions that land use policy makes either easier or harder, here is a practical tool built from the four weeks of questions we asked in September.
The Four Questions September Was Really Asking
Every article this month came back to a version of the same test:
Is your land use framework doing the job it was designed to do — or is it just collecting dust?
- Week 1 asked whether the future land use map reflects current conditions and gets used when decisions arrive.
- Week 2 asked whether agricultural land use policy is explicit enough to hold up under development pressure.
- Week 3 asked whether the zoning code actually implements what the comprehensive plan says the community wants.
- Week 4 asked whether anyone is running the full cost picture before approving development outside established service areas.
As Mike Lisle from South Carolina commented on our Week 3 article on LinkedIn (my most viewed post there yet):
“This is a great example of organizational dissonance in municipal government. The comprehensive plan establishes one desired outcome while the regulatory architecture produces another. The problem isn’t necessarily the policy or the planning. It’s the gap between what the municipality says it wants to accomplish and the systems through which it actually operates.”
Four questions. One framework. The checklist below puts them in one place.
The Future Land Use Reality Check:
A Practical Checklist for Planners and Local Officials
Print this. Bring it to your next planning commission meeting. Ask the questions out loud.
September 2026 — JCShepard.com Land Use Series
Future Land Use Reality Check
1 — The Future Land Use Map
☐ Does your community have an adopted future land use map?
☐ Is the map based on a current land use inventory — updated within the last ten years?
☐ Is the map formally referenced in planning commission decisions on rezoning and subdivision applications?
☐ Has the map been reviewed or updated since major changes in growth pressure, infrastructure capacity, or hazard conditions?
2 — Agricultural Land Use Policy
☐ Does your comprehensive plan explicitly designate prime farmland as the highest and best use in farm and ranch country?
☐ Does your agricultural zoning district actually limit residential conversion — or does it permit acreage development at densities that slowly consume working ground?
☐ Does your plan direct new residential development toward cities and villages where infrastructure already exists?
☐ When a rural residential proposal arrives, does the planning commission ask what it will cost to serve — not just what it will generate in tax revenue?
3 — Zoning Code Alignment
☐ Do your zoning regulations permit — by right — the development patterns your comprehensive plan says the community wants?
☐ Does your downtown or commercial zoning allow mixed residential and commercial uses without requiring lengthy design review and conditional use permits?
☐ Do your setback, lot size, and building placement standards allow the traditional small-town pattern to be replicated in new development without extensive variances or special exceptions?
☐ When was your zoning code last reviewed for consistency with the comprehensive plan — not just amended in pieces?
4 — Growth Boundaries and Cost of Sprawl
☐ Does your comprehensive plan define where growth belongs — and make the cost case for keeping it there?
☐ Does your county or municipality conduct genuine fiscal impact analysis — accounting for service costs, not just tax revenue — before approving development outside established service areas?
☐ Are your city or village growth boundaries coordinated with county land use policy — or are they working at cross purposes?
☐ Can your planning commission point to a specific policy basis — in the comprehensive plan or future land use map — for saying yes to a development proposal that fits?
Mostly yes: your framework is in reasonable shape — the work is in applying it consistently.
Mostly no or not sure: you have identified where the gaps are. That is useful. These are fixable problems.
What to Do with the Results
If your answers are mostly yes: your land use framework is in reasonable shape. The work is in applying it consistently — opening the future land use map when applications arrive, citing the comprehensive plan in planning commission decisions, and running the cost numbers before the vote.
If your answers are mostly no or not sure: you have identified where the gaps are. That is useful. A comprehensive plan that hasn’t been reviewed in a decade, a zoning code that contradicts the plan it is supposed to implement, an agricultural land use policy that exists on paper but doesn’t hold up in practice — these are fixable problems. They require political will and professional capacity, but they are not mysteries.
The point of the checklist is not to produce a score. It is to make the right questions visible before a development proposal arrives and the developer is in the room and the time pressure is real.
What’s Coming in October
Land use decisions and transportation infrastructure are the same decision, made at different times by different people who often do not talk to each other.
Where growth is permitted determines where roads, transit routes, and infrastructure investment will eventually be needed. A scattered rural development pattern creates a transportation problem before a single lane mile is built. A town-centered growth framework makes transportation investment more efficient — because the people and the destinations are where the infrastructure already is.
In October, we look at transportation in the comprehensive plan: highways and local roads, multimodal planning in places where “multimodal” sounds like a punchline, freight, and the infrastructure decisions that outlast every political cycle that made them.
See you Sunday.
John C. Shepard, AICP, is a planner and economic development practitioner with more than thirty years in public-sector and consulting practice, and serves on the executive committee of the American Planning Association’s Small Town and Rural Planning Division. The views expressed here are his own.
September 2026 — Land Use
- The Future Land Use Map: Your Community’s Most Important Document
- Ag First: How Rural Land Use Policy Protects Working Ground
- When the Zoning Code Works Against the Plan
- Growth Has a Price: Who Pays When Development Sprawls?
- Does Your Land Use Framework Actually Work? This post.
Further Reading
Tools & Data
- APA — Planning Advisory Service — Practical guides for practicing planners, from the American Planning Association.
- Smart Growth America — Knowledge Hub — Practical resources for assessing land use policy alignment and growth management effectiveness.
- American Farmland Trust — Cost of Community Services — The essential data source for comparing the fiscal return of agricultural land versus residential development.
- National Zoning Atlas — A nationwide initiative mapping zoning codes across more than 200 regulatory characteristics.
Reports & Research
- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy — Land Use Planning Resources — Research and tools on comprehensive planning, zoning reform, and fiscal impact analysis for rural and small-town contexts.
- American Farmland Trust — Planning for Agriculture — AFT resources to support public policies promoting resilient food and farming systems.
- APA Zoning Practice — Periodic publication covering zoning reform, code updates, and emerging practice in land use regulation, by subscription from the American Planning Association.
Planning Guidance
- APA Small Town & Rural Planning Division — The STaR homepage, with links to the Division Knowledge Center and Award-winning projects.
- The Western Planner — Since 1979, the Western Planner has connected and educated planners across the broad expanses of the West. With leadership comprised of representatives from each of 13 states in the West, they focus on supporting rural, county, tribal and small town professional and citizen planners.
- Nebraska Planning and Zoning Association — Resources for Nebraska planners and local officials on comprehensive planning requirements and best practices.
Books
- The Story of Urban Planning by Ivis García & Jason Holt (2026)
This accessible resource is what the title says — the story of where the field of urban planning got its start and how it got to where we are today, born from resources for the AICP exam. Written by professors for practitioners and community members. Narrative also available to stream as a podcast on Spotify. - A Better Way to Zone: Ten Principles to Create More Livable Cities (Island Press, 2012) and An Even Better Way to Zone: Achieving More Affordable, Equitable, and Sustainable Communities (Island Press, 2025) by Donald L. Elliott, FAICP
Zoning is the tool that everyone loves to hate. It may also be the most important and least understood process affecting how US communities shape the lives of their residents. Both books are worth your time. - The Comprehensive Plan (APA Planning Essentials) by David Rouse and Rocky Piro (APA Planners Press / Routledge, 2021)
A resource for all aspects of comprehensive planning; occupies a top spot on my professional bookshelf. - Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity by Charles L. Marohn, Jr. (Wiley, 2019)
Chuck’s first book made the case for incremental change, maintenance over expansion, and compact development—in a voice that lands with the decision-makers who most need to hear it. His fourth book (on economic development) is promised for next year. - Rural by Design: Planning for Town and Country, 2nd Edition — Randall Arendt (Routledge, 2019).
This update of Arendt’s classic handbook is more of a supplement to the first editions as a completely new edition. You can get it on Kindle with this link, but check out the hardcover from the library or search the used book markets if you can find it, it’s worth the effort. - Design with Nature (25th anniversary edition) by Ian McHarg (John Wiley & Sons, 1995)
McHarg’s 1969 book is a foundational treatise on ecological planning and landscape architecture. The 25th anniversary edition presents a visionary and practical approach to creating sustainable, healthy landscapes. Our September 2026 book of the month and a Planetizen Top 20 All-Time Planning Book.
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Check out The 12 Planning & Sustainability Books You Need in 2026 and browse through the Small Town & Rural Community guides on our Resources page.