Future Urban Development Area (FUDA) Planning
Overall Future Urban Development Area Pilot Plan Process FUDA planning is a collaborative effort meant to support the local municipality in its long-range planning effort, and a complement to the comprehensive planning process of the community. The Capital Area Regional Planning Commission is employing its resources in this process to assist the community in identifying areas for effective development with respect to the needs, opportunities, and desires of the community, and compliance with the regional requirement to protect natural and land resources directly related to the economic health and the quality of life of the region. The Commission is also required to comply with goals of the publicly adopted Land Use and Transportation and Water Quality Plans. The planning process is lead by the local planner(s) and final decisions are made through formal municipal decision-making, with RPC staff providing assistance and input throughout the process. The public information and participation meetings noted below are expected to be part of the comprehensive planning meetings planned by communities as part of their planning process. One of two major components of phase four of the Future Urban Development Area (FUDA) planning process is writing the FUDA Plan. The other is the adoption of FUDA plans by each community as part of its local plan, and by the RPC as part of the regional land use plan.

The Major Elements of the FUDA Plan Process
FUDA promotes the best local decisions and compatible regional planning. When local planning is combined with regional concepts then there is a more successful result for the entire county. The FUDA process compliments and enhances local comprehensive planning to protect the best local qualities while reducing expansion mistakes and regional conflicts. Regional planning also contributes to make local planning more effective by reducing demands on local planning agencies and providing opportunities for cooperation and collaboration. FUDA planning will facilitate and carry-out this effort through these eight process steps:

• Begin FUDA Process
  Beginning a FUDA plan requires pre-planning. In this stage, CARPC and municipal staff and decision-makers meet to develop the planning process and establish roles and responsibilities. Additionally, preparation for the first community meeting begins.
  
  
• Inventory of Existing Conditions
  FUDA planning is a systematic method of inventory and analysis of the existing urban area and the surrounding land outside of the city or village to guide future development and promote a comprehensive approach to maintaining the best qualities of the community while eliminating current and future problems. The details of this process are intended to be flexible for preservation of the unique qualities of each city and village.
  
  The inventory stage will consider all of the general planning issues but will focus on existing development first. A vacant land inventory and density analysis will describe opportunity for infill and assess current community housing density. An existing land utilization study will compare land value to improvement value of parcels to provide insight into predicting redevelopment opportunities. Existing conditions for water quality, sewer service, transportation, topography, soils, valuable environmental resources and other environmental conditions will be combined with existing urban features to create a basic community inventory.
  
  
• Present Inventory to Citizens
  The basic inventory will be discussed with citizens of the community during a community meeting where additional information is gathered about community desires. A series of presentations will allow citizens to understand and comment on how the regional analysis and comprehensive plan recommendations relate to their community.
  
  Citizen comment will be requested for the recommended USA expansion areas and policies. A report will be made to the CARPC Technical Committee to promote understanding and direction during the process. Community staff and council will also be presented the initial FUDA process and shown how the regional planning will match with local comprehensive plans.
  
  
• Analysis of Conditions for Expansion Areas
  All of the existing conditions for the urban area will be analyzed to determine community issues and opportunities and trends for the future city expansion. Environmental conditions for water quality, topography, geology, soils, woodlands, wetlands and other environmental constraints will be used to determine development capability. Development requirements for sewer and water service, transportation systems, housing, commercial and industrial, and preservation of existing agriculture or avoidance of existing undevelopable (railroad yards, public utilities, state property, or other public land) public or private property will be used to determine development suitability. A suitability and capability analysis will be used to analyze each urban expansion area described by the plan or other possible expansion areas.
  
  The best options for location of future development are determined and combined with the analysis of the existing urban area. Redevelopment opportunities, vacant land and housing demand will predict how much expansion is needed and how the community must respond to development. The community will also be part of a regional pattern of development that will be analyzed for compatibility.
  
  Concepts for Creating a Comprehensive Response to Development
  The community works with CARPC to use the information gained from the analysis to create concepts for the comprehensive plan. The analysis will show how to achieve community and regional goals during expansion, provide information on potential redevelopment and economic opportunities. Regional concepts will also be developed. The analysis will be presented to the comprehensive plan committee and concepts derived from the analysis will be incorporated into the comprehensive plan.
  
  
• Implementation of FUDA Concepts
  The revision of ordinances will allow the new concepts to become reality. If a concept is not included in the zoning ordinance or subdivision regulations then a revision is necessary. The overall regional impacts will also be considered and local plans should be in agreement with the regional concepts.
  
  
• Monitoring and Evaluation
  The comprehensive Plan policies are implemented through the zoning ordinance and requirements for development in the subdivision ordinance. The monitoring of demographics, water quality and transportation will reveal concept effectiveness.
  

View a brief summary of the considerations required for engaging in the FUDA process here

View an excerpt from the model resolution adopted by Dane County communities and submitted to the governor requesting the creation of the CARPC here.

For more information, contact David Greene
DavidG@CapitalAreaRPC.org
608-266-4395