Becoming a Quality Growth Community: Requirements
Details

A Quality Growth Community (city, town, county), or Service Provider will use a public process (public hearing, workshop, commission, etc.) to write and adopt a Quality Growth Plan and adopt ordinances addressing at least these areas.

Economic Development

Assess economic strengths, challenges; apply strengths, address challenges.

Identify the role of the community (City, Town, or County) in the region with regard to Basic Industry, Service/Commercial, and Residential Housing. A community should understand what it is currently (Industrial community, Bedroom Community, etc.) and what it wants to be in the future, and plan accordingly. A community will:
•  Identify any imbalances between industrial, commercial and residential development. If there is an imbalance either;

A: Justify the imbalance and show where it is beneficial to the overall economy of the community, and the region or;
B: Develop a strategy to better balance Basic Industry, Service/Commercial and Residential Housing in the community.

Identify factors in the community (City, Town, or County) that affect Quality of Life either negatively or positively. Creates a strategy to enhance Quality of Life in the community and to mitigate the negative community factors that decrease the Quality of Life.

Infrastructure

Include a transportation element in the plan that addresses the following:
•  Roads and Highways
•  Pedestrian Safety and Access
•  Trails & Bike Paths
•  Corridor preservation
•  Access management
•  Transit Plan (if applicable)
•  Airports and Aviation where applicable.

Include a water development and conservation element in the plan that makes these services more economical and promotes a better quality of life by addressing the following:
•  Protection and improvement of water sources, watersheds, other critical water resources
•  Water Conservation
•  Water system development
•  Sewer and Storm water system enhancements

Ensure that community (City, Town, and County) or service provider has the ability to fund infrastructure maintenance and replacement. This can be done by identifying funding sources a community would tap to pay for these needs.

Identify unused and/or underutilized public facilities and infrastructure and create a plan to maximize its utilization. Identify tools available to the community (City, Town, County), or service provider, to encourage development or redevelopment to occur in the desired areas.

Identify proposed capital facilities and/or infrastructure which can be maximized with changes in proposed land uses. Identify the changes in land use and either:

A) Justify the under utilization by showing it is beneficial to the community and the region or;
B) Adjust the communities land use plans and ordinances to maximize the utilization of capital facilities and infrastructure.

Consult with schools and other service providers (e.g. special service districts, Counties, etc.) to coordinate developments.

Housing

Include a housing element in the plan which provides for a wide range of housing types and housing costs. Affordability is a problem that affects nearly every community. Definitions to consider include:
•  Provides an opportunity to maintain residency within the community at all stages of the life cycle;
•  Allows people who work in that community to afford to live in that community;
•  Have plans and ordinances that permit a wide range of housing types and housing cost.

Adopt ordinances that implement the housing element of the plan. If a community (City, Town, County), or service provider, complies with these requirements, its plan will meet the requirements of HB 295.

Conservation

Include a conservation element in the plan which:
•  Defines what qualifies as critical land in the community. This definition will vary depending on the needs of the community.
•  Develops a methodology for evaluating parcels using the community's definition of critical land.
•  Inventories and prioritizes the critical land areas in the Community.
•  Inventories, and prioritizes the conservation of, historic buildings and landscapes according to economic conditions and community concern.
•  Creates a critical lands map which describes areas where critical lands are, and how they connect to other critical lands in the community.
•  Establishes a strategy to preserve the critical lands in the community.
•  Requires conservation pricing for water, and energy where those services are provided by the community.
•  Includes design standards which promote water and energy efficiency, and allow the use of water and energy efficient technologies.

Identifies opportunities to reuse water, conserve energy and reduce and recycle waste.
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