The Rhino’s John Hammer (unposted) writes about the Kirkwood neighborhood’s efforts to amend the City of Greensboro’s comprehensive plan so that the controversial corner of Lawndale and Cornwallis is no longer designated “mixed use commercial.” In other words, no Walgreens, not now, not ever.

Fair enough. But Hammer adds more insight into how the comprehensive plan works:

…..despite what you may have heard about the Comp Plan being citizen driven, it was staff driven. You had staff and consultants working on it every day, and a citizen committee meeting several times a month for, at the most, a couple of hours. The plan is largely the result of the work of the work the staff and consultants did, which was approved by the committee.

A point about the Comprehensive Plan that can’t be emphasized enough is that the City Council did not read, discuss or understand the plan before it was passed into law. City Manager Ed Kitchen lobbied so hard for the plan to be passed intact that it was.

Another point that can’t be emphasized enough is that comprehensive plans are status symbols for city governments. If a city doesn’t have a comprehensive plan, it’s not “progressive,” it’s not embracing “smart growth,” it’s not doing enough to combat “urban sprawl.” The functionality of Greensboro’s comp plan is undercut every time it is amended, which happpens, as Hammer notes, just about every time the City Council meets. Look at the agendas; above every rezoning case is a motion to amend the comp plan.

On the face of it, the comp plan appears to be pretty useless. At the very least, it should be carefully reviewed. It’s good that there appears to be a movement to do just that.