Incorporating Water into Comprehensive Planning

Manual

The Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy authored a manual to help land use planners incorporate water management into comprehensive plans. The comprehensive plan and its development process provide an opportunity for a community to bring goals and policies for water issues to the forefront of their future vision, solicit public input, and foster public buy-in for a more sustainable future. This manual demonstrates how land use planners can facilitate a comprehensive planning process and resulting plan that will ensure integration of water management into their community’s future vision, as well as the water-related topics such a vision might include.

The questions below prompt a land and water planning team to consider the water issues that may be relevant to their comprehensive plan. These questions supplement the Water Topics and Examples sections that form the bulk of the Incorporating Water into Comprehensive Planning manual. These questions can be used to quickly generate ideas about water topics that may be pertinent to a community, or identify topics that require additional data or information to answer and address. Further, these questions could be used in a public brainstorming workshop to gauge community members’ knowledge and values about local water issues.

Evaluation

The Babbitt Center reviewed comprehensive plans in the Colorado River Basin to evaluate the degree to which communities have integrated water management into their land use plans. These plan reviews were conducted using a matrix of 20 criteria and a scale that assigned a weight to the level of implementation of the criteria. Findings from this review, and examples from communities across the Colorado River Basin, are included in our manual.

Background

The Babbitt Center’s review of comprehensive plans throughout the Colorado River Basin sought to determine

• the state of land use and water planning integration in Colorado River Basin communities and;
• the gaps and opportunities to be addressed in land and water planning and management practices.

Comprehensive plans may not represent the whole suite of land and water planning activities in a community, but they reveal important information about which communities, regions, and states are incorporating water into foundational land use planning processes. Furthermore, they provide an opportunity to engage the public on water issues and can lay the groundwork for linking water to other land use processes, such as development review, zoning, data and modeling, or ordinances.

Project Progress

The Babbitt Center continues to review plans and share insights about water in comprehensive planning through presentations about the work and by consultations with communities on how to integrate water management into their comprehensive plans.

For more information please contact the Babbitt Center at babbittcenter@lincolninst.edu or 602-393-4309.

Partners

Anne Castle, senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School is a co-author.
Erin Rugland, former Program Manager at the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy is a co-author.
The Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy is a project funder.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board is a project funder.

The Problem

The State of Colorado has required retail water providers serving 2,000 acre-feet or more to submit Water Efficiency Plans (WEPs) since 1991. In 2015, Colorado Senate Bill 8 stipulated that WEPs must evaluate “best management practices for water demand management, water efficiency, and water conservation that may be implemented through land use planning efforts.” Colorado has provided extensive guidance on the preparation of these plans; however, new requirements for incorporating land use practices into WEPs were not covered in the previous guidance. The Addendum bridges this gap.

The Addendum, adopted by the CWCB in January 2019, includes land use best practices that can be implemented by water providers, either independently, or through collaboration with a land use authority. It is tailored to Colorado communities, uses numerous examples and additional resources, and is designed to be adapted as applicable to varying local circumstances.

Methods

The Addendum was developed through an extensive review of literature on integrating land use and water planning; interviews with ten Colorado water providers; valuable input from regional experts; and a workshop focused on the use and readability of the guidance.

Taking the Addendum into Action

The Babbitt Center and Water Education Colorado worked to educate practitioners, consultants, engineers, and other stakeholders about the Addendum during the fall of 2019. This education and outreach included two webinars hosted in collaboration with Colorado’s Special District Association and Colorado Municipal League, and four workshops around Colorado. Watch the webinars below.

October 25, 2019 Webinar

August 12, 2019 Webinar

For more information, please contact the Babbitt Center at babbittcenter@lincolninst.edu or 602-393-4309.

Growing Water Smart

Growing Water Smart is a joint program between the Lincoln Institute and the Sonoran Institute, and the partnership has expanded to include numerous other contributors like Utah State University’s Center for Water Efficient Landscaping (CWELL) delivering workshops that introduce communities to the full range of collaboration, communication, public engagement, planning, and policy implementation tools to realize their watershed health and community resiliency goals. Through Growing Water Smart, communities learn to better integrate land use and water planning.

Recognition

At the 2019 American Planning Association (APA) Colorado Chapter Conference held in Snowmass Village, Colorado, the Growing Water Smart program was awarded the 2019 APA Colorado Honor Award in the category of Sustainability and Environmental Planning.

Join Us

Participation in Growing Water Smart is by application on a biannual basis. Selection criteria is based upon:

• Diverse team composition including board members and senior staff from the town and/or county, such as:
  • Elected officials and planning commissioners;
  • City/town/county managers;
  • Water utility and water resource managers;
  • Land use planners;
  • Regional planning organizations;
  • Economic development staff;
  • Public health planners;
  • Consultants employed by the town or county; and
  • Developers.
• Whether the desired outcomes demonstrate readiness to focus on thoughtful land use and water planning integration and if they are cohesive with the stated goals.
• Firm commitment to participate and leadership to coordinate team activities, such as completing a community self-assessment and taking part in orientation activities. The workshop is offered at no cost for community teams selected and teams can apply for further technical assistance after the workshop’s conclusion. Overnight accommodations and most meals are provided, however travel to and from the workshop is not covered for in-person workshops, which are typically held retreat style.

For more information about upcoming workshops and the application process please contact Kristen Keener Busby at kbusby@lincolninst.edu or 602-566-7570 or visit growingwatersmart.org.