Stevens County, MN
Comprehensive Plan

The Stevens County Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on January 17, 2017.

Project Description

In early 2014, Stevens County hired Hometown Planning to assist in the development of the County's first Comprehensive Plan. Work on the project began in July 2014.

A Comprehensive Plan is a land use planning document that attempts to lay out a vision for the future of a community and a plan for future action.  Typically, there are several areas of focus within a “Comp Plan” - how land is used for public and private development, transportation infrastructure, natural resource management, economic development, coordination of governance and others. It asks, and answers, the following basic questions:
  1. Where are we now? What are the primary issues that the County is facing today? What is going right? What could be improved?
  2. How did we get here? What are the driving economic and social forces that have made the County what it is today?
  3. Where are we going? What does the community envision for the future? What kinds of things does it want to see in 20 years?
  4. How will we get there? What actions can citizens, businesses and government take to make the County a better place to live and work?

The process of developing the County's Comprehensive Plan will involve five primary methods:
  1. Task Force: A group of 8-12 people was formed in July 2014 to serve as the primary body to develop a basic outline for the Comprehensive Plan, discuss and review drafts and ultimately make a recommendation to the County's Planning Commission. This group will meet up to 8 times over the course of the project.
  2. Stakeholder Interviews: Hometown Planning staff will hold one-on-one interviews with up to 10 individuals to gather their input on the issues that they see facing the County and their thoughts for how the County should address them.
  3. Public Meetings/Hearings: There will be 3 separate meetings where the public will have a chance to express its thoughts on the development of the Comprehensive Plan - one at the beginning to help develop a general outline for the Plan, one to review a draft version of the Comprehensive Plan and one at the end when the County Planning Commission is set to make its final recommendation to the County Board.
  4. Surveys: Throughout the process there will be an opportunity to submit answers to a survey regarding the content of the Comprehensive Plan. The surveys are intended to help provide an opportunity for the public to comment on the development of the Plan even if they cannot attend the public meetings or otherwise participate on the Task Force or list of Stakeholder interviewees. Surveys will be available both in a web-based format and as hard copies that can be filled out and returned to the appropriate staff.
  5. Webpage: This webpage will serve as a way for the public to review the progress on the development of the Plan, including drafts of the Plan as it is developed, summaries of the outcome of the various meetings, and to see when upcoming public meetings are to be held.

E-mail Updates

If you would like to receive e-mail updates for this project, please sign up here:

Recent Meetings

County Board, January 17, 2017: A second hearing for the draft Comprehensive Plan has been scheduled for January 17, 2017 at 10:00am in the Board Room of the Stevens County Courthouse.

County Board, January 3, 2017: A first hearing for the draft Comprehensive Plan was held on January 3, 2017 at 10:00am in the Board Room of the Stevens County Courthouse.

Planning Commission, November 28, 2016: A public hearing to allow for review and comment on the draft Comprehensive Plan was held on November 28, 2016 at 7:00pm in the Board Room of the Stevens County Courthouse.

Past Meetings

Task Force, August 4, 2014: The first meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force was held on Monday, August 4th. The Task Force heard a brief presentation on Comprehensive Planning and then spent the rest of the time discussing the issues that its members see as the most important for the County to address now and over the next 1-10 years.

Public Meeting, August 21, 2014: The first public meeting was held on August 21, 2014 at 7:00 pm at the Stevens County Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The format of this meeting will be the same as that of the Task Force meeting described above.

Task Force, October 20, 2014: The second meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force was held on Monday, October 20, 2014. The Task Force reviewed a draft outline for the Plan and discussed some of the issues brought up at the August 21 public meeting. A summary of the input received at this meeting will be posted here when available.

Task Force, December 15, 2014:The third meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force was held on Monday December 15, 2014. A summary of responses to a Community Survey as well as responses to a survey sent to the cities and townships within the County was presented. The Committee also discussed how to structure the Comprehensive Plan and a general outline.

Task Force, April 6, 2015: The fourth meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force was held on Monday, April 6, 2015. This meeting focused on a review of a first draft of several sections in the Comprehensive Plan.

Task Force, August 3, 2015: The fifth meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force was held on Monday August 3, 2015. The meeting focused on a review of draft "Goals and Policies" for the County as well as beginning a discussion about specific strategies to accomplish those goals.

Task Force, December 14, 2015: The sixth meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force was held on Monday, December 14, 2015. Revisions to the draft "Goals and Policies" section based on input from the August meeting were reviewed. General discussions were also held about how to structure these goals and policies, the development of a vision statement for the County, and whether to develop a "future land use" map.

Task Force, March 7, 2016: The seventh meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force was held on Monday, March 7th, 2016. The Task Force continued discussing various elements of the draft Comprehensive Plan. 

​City/Township Meeting, April 6, 2016: A meeting was held with representatives from the City of Morris, and surrounding Townships of Hodges, Framnas, Morris and Darnen to discuss the status of an orderly annexation agreement that was adopted in 1978. The purpose of the meeting was to determine what impact this agreement had on the development of the County's Comprehensive Plan.

Planning Commission Meeting, July 18, 2016: The Planning Commission held a meeting to review and discuss edits to the draft Comprehensive Plan and associated maps.

    SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS

    If you have a comment, question or concern regarding this project, please let us know by filling out the form below. Please note that comments may be made part of the public record. Be sure to click on the "Submit" button when you are finished.
    NOTE: We do not sell, market to, or otherwise distribute contact information submitted with your comment. The information is used only for informational purposes or to respond to you in order to clarify or further understand your comment
Photo Credit:
Courthouse: Hometown Planning
Red Sky: Nic McPhee, July 13, 2006 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-SA 2.0)