Work Scope

The work scope for the Unified Plan specifies the project's many different tasks and how and by whom they will be accomplished. Although it is a highly detailed document, the overall framework of the Unified Plan process is quite simple. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs requires that each local comprehensive plan include:

• A Community Assessment
• A Community Participation Program (PDF)
• A Community Agenda

The work scope for the Unified Plan is structured to address all three of these required components.

Community Assessment is the first stage and focuses on gathering and analyzing information about existing conditions and current trends in Gwinnett County, reviewing existing County and municipal plans, and interviewing key Countywide stakeholders. This stage also incorporates the investigations that are specific to the needs of the Comprehensive Plan, the Consolidated Plan, and the Comprehensive Transportation Plan. The work done in this phase lays a factual and conceptual foundation upon which the rest of the Unified Plan process is built.

Community Participation is the stage of the planning process that solicits community values and desires from County residents and stakeholders and ensures that a wide variety of voices are heard during the process. Presenting the Community Assessment findings to the public is an important part of this phase as are focus groups and the Planning Advisory Committee (PAC). The Planning Advisory Committee is a group of stakeholders appointed by the Board of Commissioners to act as a sounding board and provide input in the development of plan policies. However, the central feature of this part of the work scope and its most innovative feature - is a scenario development and testing process. Gwinnett County has a number of different paths to the future available. Gwinnett's future may not necessarily mirror its past. This part of the process will make clear the consequences of choosing one over the others and will identify a path that will have the greatest benefits.

Developing the Community Agenda was the final stage. The Community Agenda incorporates the results of the scenario evaluation process into an overall vision for the future of Gwinnett County and describes the policies and actions needed to achieve the vision. The Community Agenda becomes the basis of the final plan and also outlines an implementation program needed to put these policies into practice. In this stage of the process, the three components of the 2030 Unified Plan (Consolidated Plan, Comprehensive Transportation Plan, and Comprehensive Plan) are merged and adjusted to each other.