What is Smart Charlotte 2050?
Smart Charlotte 2050 is an extensive community-based planning effort that will result in an update to the Charlotte County Comprehensive Plan. This Plan will become a blueprint for unlocking Charlotte County's potential. The County’s new Comprehensive Plan will help guide all future planning and development decisions.
For more information about Comprehensive Planning in the State of Florida CLICK HERE.
What Makes it so Smart?
Smart Charlotte 2050 is embracing the sustainability concepts of Smart Growth including:
- Reducing sprawl;
- Promoting redevelopment in existing urban areas;
- Promoting mixed use development;
- Reducing dependence on automobiles by promoting other modes of transportation;
- Protecting open space and rural lands;
- Conserving environmentally sensitive lands including wetlands and habitat; and
- Involving the public at every step in the process.
By committing itself to these Smart Growth principles, Smart Charlotte 2050 will promote a more sustainable and responsible development future for Charlotte County.
Why 2050?
Every Comprehensive Plan in the State of Florida is required to have a planning “horizon year” which represents the timeline being examined that evaluates and coordinates land use projections and infrastructure planning. Most jurisdictions chose a planning horizon that extends 15, 20, or 25 years; however, Charlotte County has chosen to is looking even farther into the future and crafting a vision that will help to guide growth for the next 40 years…all the way to 2050.
While it may appear easier to make assumptions for a shorter planning horizon timeframe, there are some critical issues facing Charlotte County that require longer-term strategies to be successful.
• Redevelopment Issues. Planning for redevelopment takes time and patience. Since the pace of redevelopment is typically much slower than new development, it is necessary to take a long-term approach to planning and visioning for successful redevelopment options and alternatives; and
• Rural Area Planning. Planning for the future of large scale rural and agricultural areas can be especially difficult if it is done in small increments. Long range planning helps ensure wise development planning. Since the rural areas of the County are so large, a short-term planning vision will focus on incremental, uncoordinated activities that over time may not yield the desired result.,
Final Product
By the end of the Smart Charlotte 2050 planning process, the following will be produced:
Guiding Principles
The Guiding Principles will be a set of Smart Growth concepts and principles established during the community participation process. These principles will ensure that all future products of the Smart Charlotte 2050 process will adhere to both the sustainable tenets of Smart Growth and the desires of the citizens for the future of Charlotte County.
Vision Plan
The Vision Plan will be the first major product of the community participation process. Using the Guiding Principles established previously, a plan will be created outlining the vision for development in the County for at least the next 40 years. The plan will include a Vision Plan Graphic showing generalized areas for redevelopment, new development, rural protection, preservation, etc. Data and analysis will also accompany the plan.
Comprehensive Plan Document
The Comprehensive Plan Document is the repository of all the Goals, Objectives, and Policies that will guide future development in the County. This document is the primary outcome of the Smart Charlotte 2050 process.
The Comprehensive Plan will be revolutionary in how it is created, maintained, and used. Unlike most Comprehensive Plans, which are maintained as paper or electronic documents, Smart Charlotte will be built and maintained as a database, giving it enormous potential for interaction with other electronic elements such as online maps, videos, graphics, and more. For the end user, whether County Staff, Commissioners, or the general public, Smart Charlotte 2050 will be an extremely rich, useful, and much more user friendly document than any Comprehensive Plan has ever been.
Future Land Use Map
The Future Land Use Map will be a major component of the Comprehensive Plan Document. This map will be the outworking of the Vision Plan, where the types and amounts of future development are located on the map of Charlotte County in a manner that accomplishes the County’s vision for the future.
