The Comprehensive Plan is intended as a guide for the Guilford County Planning Board and Planning and Development Staff to help ensure development within the county takes place in a manner that is consistent with the vision and priorities of Guilford County’s citizens and property owners. This guide will be used to create policy recommendations and to support potential updates to the Unified Development Ordinance to be proposed to the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners.

Under NC General Statute 160D-501(a), local governments must adopt and reasonably maintain a comprehensive plan or land-use plan; therefore, the Plan is scheduled to be updated as required by the state. Additionally, the Comprehensive Plan is a tool used by the county to inform land use decisions and is intended to guide coordinated, efficient, and orderly development within the county based on an analysis of present and future needs by assessing trends regarding demographics, economic, environmental, and cultural factors.

Work on the Plan update began in early 2023 and is anticipated to be completed by early 2024. Updates to the county’s Area Plans, which offer a more detailed look at planning issues within defined areas of the county, are anticipated to follow.

Guilford County has teamed up with Design Workshop as the primary consultant to update the Plan. Design Workshop was selected from among four (4) firms that responded to the county’s request for proposals.

To update the Plan, Guilford County and Design Workshop will engage with numerous stakeholder groups in the community. The process launched in March 2023 with a series of technical focus group meetings to help the consultant understand key issues facing the county. In addition, a steering committee will work collaboratively with the project team as an advisory group and as project ambassadors who will provide guidance and high-level perspective throughout the life of the project on key themes, challenges, and opportunities to be highlighted in the Plan update.  

The general public will have an opportunity to provide input and feedback through a “Community Pulse” survey and during three (3) community workshops at key milestones throughout the process to help planners understand broad community priorities.

Guilford County has ensured that there are many ways the community can engage in the plan development process. Consider attending the community workshops as well as completing the community survey. The time and location of meetings are updated on the page above as they are scheduled. Finally, once the final draft of the Plan update is complete, it will be presented to the Planning Board and the Board of Commissioners in a public meeting. The public will be given an opportunity to voice their opinions and provide input at these meetings. The Guilford County Planning and Development Department invites the public to reach out with any concerns or questions about the process by emailing CompPlan@guilfordcountync.gov.

The Plan update does not change any existing zoning designations. Instead, it will serve as a guide for the community, property owners, and County Planning staff for evaluating future development and proposed policy and infrastructure improvements. 

No. When the Plan updates are adopted, the only changes may be the goals and priorities of the community that guide new development and improvements to be funded within the county. The guide may recommend certain policy or regulatory changes, but those will be optional and would need to be acted upon by the Board of Commissioners in a separate review process.