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2040 Comprehensive Plan

Comprehensive Planning and the Livable Centers Initiative

As is required of every city and county within the State of Georgia, the City of Clarkston must develop and maintain a Comprehensive Plan, which serves as a guide for managing growth and development within the City.  The two primary pieces that comprise the Comprehensive Plan are:

  1. Community Assessment:  This serves as the data assessment, preliminary analysis, and public participation schedule for the Comprehensive Plan.  
  2. Community Agenda: Clarkston’s Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) study document, which represents a vision for the City by outlining a series of long-term goals and objectives and offers implementation strategies and policy recommendations to achieve them.  Most LCI studies are focused on downtown areas or commercial corridors.  However, due to Clarkston’s size, its LCI Study has been permitted to be used as the City’s Community Agenda. Additionally, the following are contained within the Community Agenda:
    1. Short-Term Work Program (STWP), which outlines a list of five-year action items based on the original action items within the Comprehensive Plan, is derived from the content of the LCI study document;
    2. Future Development Map (or Future Land Use Map), which indicates on a parcel-by-parcel basis, the desired type and intensity of use and/or development.  A parcel’s future land use designation is separate from its zoning, but it is considered when a property owner seeks to rezone his/her property.   

Regular updating and maintenance of these documents keeps Clarkston’s status as a Qualified Local Government intact, which allows the City to be eligible to receive funding from various State and Federal programs.  The STWP was recently updated in 2012.  However, the Comprehensive Plan will be updated by way of a revised LCI study document no later than 2014, which will trigger an update to the STWP.  

The City of Clarkston has recently (January 2014) been awarded LCI Grant Funding to conduct a major update of the City's LCI Plan. 

To learn more about comprehensive planning in Georgia, visit the Georgia Department of Community Affairs website.  

To learn more about the LCI Program, visit the Atlanta Regional Commission’s website.