Comprehensive Plan

After a multi-year and -departmental effort, the Planning and Development Department is pleased to announce that City Council approved Clearwater 2045 at its January 18, 2024 meeting.

What is a Comprehensive Plan?

A comprehensive plan is a policy document that local governments adopt to guide decisions on the future growth and sustainability of the city. The comprehensive plan offers a vision of what the city aspires to be in the future, a roadmap to guide decisions to achieve the vision, and a measuring stick to evaluate progress.

A comprehensive plan is distinct in that it confronts the city’s important issues in a high-level, big-picture way. While other adopted plans deal with specialized topics such as parks, transportation, natural resources, or specific neighborhoods or areas, only a comprehensive plan lays out a 20-year vision for the community as a whole and truly acknowledges how Clearwater’s people, places, values, and aspirations are interconnected and interdependent. A comprehensive plan steps away from fine-grained details and overly specific issues and serves as a guiding document for city leaders and residents.

Why did the city update the Comprehensive Plan?

A comprehensive plan serves as a foundational tool that guides the community toward its desired outcomes and is meant to be a “living document” that should be revisited and updated over time to meet the changing conditions and evolving needs of the community. Florida law requires plans to be reviewed and updated every 7-10 years to reflect changes in growth, conditions, or policy direction. The most recent major revision to the city’s Comprehensive Plan was completed in 2008, with review and small-scale amendments done since then. Clearwater 2045 is a complete rewrite of the city’s Comprehensive Plan that will provide policy guidance for the city through 2045.