Twenty Years After—Renewed Significance of the Comprehensive Plan Requirement

Part I of this Article reviews the case law and legislation that have addressed the relationship between planning and zoning to determine whether (and if so, what) meaningful changes have occurred. Part II discusses the trend toward statewide land use planning. Important examples of legislative activity in this area are briefly outlined, including shorelands and wetlands protection acts. Part III identifies areas of planning law likely to be of major concern in the coming years: plan adoption and amendment, rationalization of the planning process, and pre-emption of local control by both state and federal land use planning activity.