The Colony looks to adopt new Master Plan after 16 years

The Colony Courier-Leader
By Arianna Morrison | Star Local Media
January 18, 2023

The Colony City Council met on Tuesday, Jan. 17 to receive an update regarding the city’s Master Plan, which only has a few steps left before the city can adopt it.

The last time the comprehensive master plan was drawn up and adopted was 2007 and the document recommended the city adopt a new master plan in 2012, which was never done until now.

The steps to adoption include a presentation phase, comment phase, consideration phase, and then the adoption phase itself. A draft will be formally presented at the joint session of the city council and planning and zoning commission on Tuesday, Feb. 7. A public hearing will be opened and a formal presentation from the city’s Stantec consultants will offer the details of the plan update.

After the presentation, the commission and council will be asked to provide questions, comments, and concerns regarding the draft by Tuesday, March 7. The consultants will then incorporate this feedback and present a final draft on Tuesday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 28, to the planning and zoning commission and city council, respectively.

With the city’s direction, the master plan update draft will be available online during this period with a corresponding portal available to receive public comment.

This new master plan will include concepts that are now in place and help drive the way that the city functions, such as Grandscape, which was not a fully fleshed out idea in the 2007 comprehensive plan. The updated master plan will also include recommendations with regards to small area focus plans that will allow the city council to hone in from a local perspective on how the city can develop.

The Colony is approaching build out and this updated master plan will allow for the city to respond to some of the needs in the community with regards to how to handle when there is no more land to build on and what steps to take next.

Staff is also looking into zoning code updates upon the adoption of this plan and allowing for there to be five to 10 year updates of comprehensive master plans. The previous plan from 2007 recommended the city update it after five years, but the action had never taken place until this year. The city was changing so rapidly in the past 15 years that an update to the comprehensive plan would have been obsolete, The Colony City Manager Troy Powell said.

Final adoption of the Master Plan is projected to occur at the Tuesday, March 28 city council meeting.