City of Ashland

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 2004-2024
The Making of an Exceptional City

Adopted: October 26, 2004

 Ashland’s Comprehensive Plan is a vision of what the City wants to be. It is a guide to help the City preserve what it values, enhance what it feels should be improved, and create what it feels is missing. More specifically, the Plan serves the following purposes.

1.   It addresses physical planning issues such as land use, transportation, housing, infrastructure, natural resources, and so on. Yet, it also considers social and economic issues.

2.   It ties together various components of the City (land use, transportation, community facilities, and so on) into one “comprehensive” plan that reflects the interrelationship between these components.

3.   It expresses a long-range vision that can serve the City through the year 2024, but it also provides specific policies and recommendations that address current issues.

4.   It identifies key issues, sets goals and objectives, develops policies for achieving the objectives, and describes actions needed to implement the policies. This provides the legal basis for land use control and it provides a link to the City’s ordinances, which must be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

5.   It guides City staff, the Planning Commission, the City Council, landowners, and private developers in decisions related to preservation and development in the City.

6.   It satisfies the requirements of Wisconsin Smart Growth legislation.

The Comprehensive Plan is a general plan that brings together its various elements into a unified “big picture.” It is not intended to provide a detailed economic development plan, a detailed sewer and water plan, a detailed park system plan, and so on. Rather, it provides a framework that can guide the development of more detailed plans that the City can develop in the future. The Comprehensive Plan is a starting point. It is a dynamic Plan that the City should review and refine as Ashland continues to grow and develop.

Please find the City of Ashland’s Comprehensive Plan on the menu to the left.  You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to read these files. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free from Adobe. If you have difficulty opening or printing these documents, you can view a copy of the complete Comprehensive Plan at City Hall or Vaughn Library.

 

If you have any questions regarding the Comprehensive Plan, please contact Brea Lemke, City Planner/Zoning Administrator, Department of Planning and Development, .