Coconino County staff brief commission on Flagstaff regional plan and Envision 2045 comprehensive plan updates

Coconino County planning staff on Wednesday updated the Planning and Zoning Commission on parallel efforts to revise the Flagstaff Regional Land Use Plan and the county'wide comprehensive plan, saying both documents are nearing public-review steps and scheduling a joint retreat with county supervisors.

"The county's comprehensive plan applies to the entire entirety of Coconino County," long-range planner Melissa Shaw told commissioners during the March 26 study session, and she stressed the two efforts overlap but follow different adoption processes.

Why it matters: The two 20-year planning documents guide growth, land use and development policy across county jurisdictions. Shaw said the regional plan will appear on ballots for City of Flagstaff voters while the county comprehensive plan will be adopted through public hearings and board action. Staff urged commissioners to review a recently posted summary of roughly 2,400 public comments from the Flagstaff regional plan's 60-day review (which closed in December) before a May 2 joint retreat and an April 22 work session with the board of supervisors.

Staff described several substantive changes that commissioners should expect. The regional plan draft has a new class of items labeled "implementation strategies," which staff said are intended to be more specific than policies and closer to action items or work-plan steps. Shaw told commissioners many of those implementation entries are being trimmed and clarified in response to public comments.

Shaw and other staff also described proposed structural changes to the county comprehensive plan (branded as Envision 2045): reorganizing chapters into three sections (quality of rural life; stewards of the natural environment and sustainability; diverse communities and services), adding a housing chapter, and including an implementation plan and an existing-conditions appendix. She said the implementation plan will tie each action item back to the goal or policy it is intended to implement and that the county intends to ask supervisors to prioritize the implementation schedule.

Commissioners pressed staff on timing, specificity and how implementation items differ from policies. Commissioner Best asked when commissioners would see updated draft chapters; Shaw said more internal edits were imminent and that a fuller draft would be available around the May 2 retreat. Best also urged a concise "goals and policies" desk guide so applicants and reviewers can quickly identify relevant standards without wading through the full plan.

Commissioner Hayward and others sought clarity about whether implementation items were intended to be translated into prescriptive code (zoning or building code) or remain guidance. Shaw said implementation strategies may include code updates in some cases but also could be guidance or programmatic work items; staff plan to clarify that distinction at the April 22 work session and the May 2 retreat.

Shaw said staff are coordinating closely with City of Flagstaff planning staff on the regional plan and that joint meetings will let county commissioners and supervisors discuss public comments and draft changes together. Key upcoming dates announced during the session: April 22 (work session with the Board of Supervisors, 1:15 p.m.) and May 2 (joint retreat); staff circulated links to the comment summary and the full comment spreadsheet the day before the meeting.

Staff also said the county will produce a concise companion guide summarizing goals and policies and will include an implementation plan and new appendices (existing-conditions analysis, a suggested framework for a countywide sustainability and resilience plan, and a communities appendix with focus-group notes).

Shaw and Jess McNeely, who co-presented, asked commissioners to review the posted materials ahead of the April 22 work session. Shaw said the advisory group will review the full draft on April 14 before the 60-day public-review period begins for the county plan.

Commissioners suggested improvements: a clearer glossary definition for "affordable/attainable housing" (Shaw said the comprehensive plan will adopt glossary language similar to the regional plan) and better coordination between city and county housing efforts. Several commissioners also asked staff to confirm how health-care and other community-service issues will be reflected; Shaw said the comprehensive plan recognizes health and human services roles and community health improvement plans but does not speculate about private hospital decisions.

The county will post further draft materials and a schedule of public hearings; staff asked commissioners to review the summary of the 2,400 Flagstaff regional plan comments beforehand and to attend the April 22 work session if possible.