Comprehensive Plan

What is a Comprehensive Plan?

A city's Comprehensive Plan can be defined as a long-range planning tool that is intended to be used by city staff, decision-makers and citizens to guide the growth and physical development of a community for 10 years, 20 years, or longer. The State of Texas has established laws with regard to the way in which incorporated communities can ensure the health, safety and welfare of their citizens. State law gives communities the power to regulate the use of land, but only if such regulations are based on a plan.

Primary Objectives

In basic terms, the primary objectives of a comprehensive plan are to accomplish the following:

  • Efficient delivery of public services
  • Coordination of public and private investment
  • Minimization of potential conflicts between land uses
  • Management of growth in an orderly manner
  • Cost-effective public investments
  • A rational and reasonable basis for making decisions about the community

Purpose

There are two interrelated purposes of a Comprehensive Plan:

  1. It allows the citizens of a community to create a shared vision of what they want the community to become
  2. It establishes ways in which a community can effectively realize this vision. This Comprehensive Plan is, therefore, a vision of what Melissa can become and is a long-range statement of the City's public policy

Citizen Input

In order to create this shared vision, a public participation process was undertaken to allow citizens an opportunity to provide their input into this comprehensive planning process. This was accomplished through the following:

  • Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC): an appointed group of citizens and leaders who served as liaisons between the planning process and Melissa citizens.
  • Survey: a survey was posted online from April 21, 2014 to May 27, 2014 to collect information from the community.
  • Public Hearing: a public hearing was held in March 2015 prior to Plan adoption to allow citizen input on the Plan draft.

Each of these opportunities for citizen input, as well as consistent participation from the CPAC, has provided a strong basis for the policies and recommendations within this 2015 Comprehensive Plan Update.

2015 Comprehensive Plan Update

Adoption Date: April 28, 2015

  1. Comprehensive Plan
  2. Figures

Complete Plan

  1. 2015 City of Melissa Comprehensive Plan Update - Complete (PDF)

Chapters

  1. 2015 City of Melissa Comprehensive Plan - Table of Contents (PDF)
  2. Chapter 1 - Existing Conditions Analysis (PDF)
  3. Chapter 2 - The Visioning Process (PDF)
  4. Chapter 3 - Future Land Use Plan (PDF)
  5. Chapter 4 - Utilities Assessment (PDF)
  6. Chapter 5 - Transportation Plan (PDF)
  7. Chapter 6 - Parks and Trails Plan (PDF)
  8. Chapter 7 - Public Services and Facilities Plan (PDF)
  9. Chapter 8 - City Center Concept Plan (PDF)
  10. Chapter 9 - Implementation Plan (PDF)