Residents in the rural, diverse landscape of Teton region rely on regional resources for employment, recreation, and housing—making a regional plan for sustainability and resiliency a necessity. Working together, four counties in Wyoming and Idaho created the Teton View Regional Plan for Sustainable Development. The plan highlights what the region shares in common while respecting the varied economic, political, and cultural views of each community. It presents a voluntary “livability roadmap” to guide each jurisdiction in its future development. The plan outlines parallel paths that each locality may travel independently or through coordinated, region-wide implementation. It outlines high-priority community-scale projects and multi-sector initiatives to be led voluntarily by local cities, counties, and organizations. Additional projects are summarized that may be implemented by localities over the long term. The plan’s regional approach is designed to help city and county officials, and public land managers better coordinate land-use planning, resource management, and community development efforts for the region’s long-term benefit.

The Teton View Regional Plan for Sustainable Development earned Idaho Smart Growth’s 2016 Planning & Policy Award and the 2015 Gem Award from the Idaho Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Logan Simpson’s community planning team helped communities throughout Idaho’s West Central Mountains Region build the West Central Mountains Economic Development Strategy (WCMEDS), a plan for economic resilience. Just 10,800 residents live in the 3 million-acre region. Over the past 40 years, the area’s economy has changed dramatically. WCMEDS contains short- and long-term goals that address six elements affecting the region’s quality of life and economic future. The strategy identified five key industries for which the region is well-positioned. An adaptive management program with associated metrics allows the region’s communities to  check progress against goals.

There has been consistent progress against the plan since its adoption, demonstrating the strong spirit of collaboration between the region’s communities. A regional economic summit has taken place; a housing trust has been established; development of a parks and recreation district is underway; and an area sector analysis project are reaching the point of completion. The group has effectively enhanced youth activities and formed partnerships to address veterans’ needs. Progress is also being made in other areas, such as workforce development, construction of bus kiosks, update of the Valley County Pathways Master Concept Plan, establishing business incubators, construction of community gardens, and forest preservation. Implementation of the plan was partially funded by two grants awarded through the America’s Best Communities (ABC) competition. The plan won the 2016 American Planning Association Vernon Deines Merit Award for an Outstanding Small Town Special Project Plan and the 2016 American Planning Association Idaho Chapter Outstanding Plan Award. Read the plan here or watch a video here.

No community is immune from the impacts of significant disruptions, and it is impossible to anticipate and prepare for all possible natural or economic hazard events. Larimer County’s new Comprehensive Plan helps build individual and community self-sufficiency in the event of a disaster, as well as strengthening the capacity of the county to continue supplying critical goods and services during emergency situations and throughout recovery.

Larimer County is diverse—demographically, economically and geographically. More than half of the County’s 2,634 square miles is sparsely populated mountainous terrain, while the Front Range area encompasses one of the fastest growing urban areas in Colorado. Larimer County recognized the areas’ different challenges, and elected to develop the new comprehensive plan into two phases, each of which address the needs of the mountain and Front Range communities separately.

The Comprehensive Plan holistically structured the format, process, and content around six resiliency frameworks: community, economy, health & social, housing, infrastructure, and watersheds & natural resources. Public involvement was key to the Plan’s success, and the plan was refined through in-person conversations at 13 community events, 830 online survey responses, 46 one-on-one interviews, and over 25 regular workshops with the three project committees and county leaders.

The Plan in Action

An unexpected and favorable result of the two-phase approach was early implementation and actions even ahead of adoption of the full Comprehensive Plan. The Framework Map geographically illustrates the policies reflected in the plan, including subarea planning and targeted rural development. Other notable achievements since plan adoption include the current update of the County Land Use Code to reflect the community’s vision and moving forward on establishing a process and prioritization criteria for subarea planning for unincorporated communities.

The Comprehensive Plan called for expansion of broadband service into digitally isolated rural areas, as well as the expansion of the Larimer Connects program—a county program created with the understanding that communities that do not have good social connectivity and access to resources are not able to fulfill their potential in becoming resilient. These programs are already proving to be essential to managing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural residents.

The Larimer County Comprehensive Plan and Mountain Resilience Plan won the 2020 Community Resiliency Honor Award from the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association. Read the plan here. 

Logan Simpson worked with the Town of Green Mountain Falls to update their Comprehensive Plan. GMF is a small mountainous community challenged by the recession, wildfires, small landslides, and flooding. Still the community maintains successful businesses and public amenities, due in large part to a supportive community of committed residents and volunteers and a unique town character and extensive trails system that draws visitors from near and far. This plan recommended tailored and actionable direction based on key issues and opportunities. It established a basis for future Town policies and priorities for development and will provide a balanced, predictable, and flexible land use plan and implementable strategies for housing affordability, hazard mitigation and resilience, infrastructure upgrades, and general improvements for community services and character. In regards to resiliency, the plan analyzed wildfire and its effect on this wildland-urban interface community. Land use policies to protect critical human infrastructure, municipal water and power supplies, evacuation routes, and major recreation areas and transportation corridors were then developed. The plan was unanimously adopted in July 2019. Read it here.

Logan Simpson is working with the City of Bozeman, Montana and its residents, visitors, students, and second homeowners to update the city’s comprehensive plan. The plan will guide the growth and development of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the country over the next twenty years. Bozeman’s population has doubled in size since 1990 and expected to grow by nearly 30,000 people during the planning horizon. A high rate of development, changing economic conditions with growth of technology and other non-typical employment, and economic maturation of nearby satellite communities, make it necessary to update the plan.

Logan Simpson was selected to narrow the focus of the current plan to be more tightly focused on issues of land use, community resilience, community expansion, and related policies. Logan Simpson is leading the community outreach, goal and objective development, future land use map modeling and alternative scenarios.

Key issues identified by the community during initial outreach include growth management, neighborhood identity, mixed-use nodes, a multimodal transportation system, and the preservation and expansion of the parks, trails, and open space system. These issues will help shape the goals, objectives, and ultimately, the comprehensive plan that guides Bozeman’s future. View the final document.

After leading the economic portion of Mountain Accord (an effort to create alternative modes to connect Salt Lake Valley to the mountains), Logan Simpson began working with Salt Lake County on the Wasatch Canyons General Plan update, last updated in 1989. This process defines a vision of how the Wasatch Canyons (Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, Mill Creek, and Parley’s and their associated mountain communities) should look into the future in regard to how the greater community will access them, how millions of people each year will play in them, how to balance the need for private property uses and environmental preservation, and how management of the landscape will evolve to preserve the canyons for future generation to love and experience it for years to come. Protecting the intangible qualities that collectively encompass the canyons and celebrating the area’s natural significance have been essential to this effort. Resiliency is a major part of the planning process, as the Wasatch Canyons have a high fire risk due to an unhealthy forest and the effects of climate change. Tools, such as expanded snowmaking capacity to extend snowpack, reducing fuel load, and utilizing community fire plans, are being incorporated to meet resiliency goals. The process includes a robust public participation and stakeholder engagement process, a map commenting tool, and consideration, confirmation, and inclusion of information from relevant agency documents and prior planning efforts. Logan Simpson is also completing planning efforts in the surrounding area, such as the creation of the first general plan for the City of Millcreek, the Salt Lake City Watershed Management Plan update, and the Sandy City Watershed Management Plan update.

The Wasatch Canyons General Plan won the 2020 Comprehensive Plan High Achievement Award from the Utah Chapter of the American Planning Association. Read the plan here.

Community planning firm Logan Simpson managed the comprehensive and transportation plan update for Arvada, Colorado. Arvada has changed and grown since its last comprehensive plan update, and is anticipating significant changes with the opening of a new commuter rail line with three local stations, a new regional parkway, large-scale new developments, and a renaissance in its Olde Town.

Logan Simpson’s Colorado environmental planning specialists worked to leverage Arvada’s strengths through integrated land-use and transportation planning, focused effort on key corridors and catalyst sites, and a robust analysis of demographics, economic conditions, and fiscal impacts. The multipronged community engagement strategy aims to continually reach and unify this diverse first-tier suburb of Denver through an interactive MindMixer website, speakers on the big issues and opportunities facing the community, multimedia coverage of events, mailed newsletters to all residents, advisory board summits, and engagement of youth in the planning process. The overall policy reform focuses on sustainability, healthy eating, and active living. The plan was unanimously adopted by City Council in December 2014.
The project included integrated land use and transportation planning for four new TOD stations, a regional parkway, a new creative district, policy reform focusing on sustainability, healthy eating, and active living, and plan elements for neighborhoods, housing, economic development, community character, historic preservation, parks and open space, environmental quality, utilities, and city services.

Read it here.