Local comprehensive plan quality and regional ecosystem protection: The case of the Jordan Lake watershed, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Abstract

To better manage common-pool resources, planners and conservation specialists continue to call for comprehensive and spatial planning functions of local governments to focus on entire ecological units rather than areas defined by jurisdictional boundaries. Local comprehensive plans were quantitatively analyzed and case studies were conducted within an urbanizing lake watershed to determine how well plans support watershed protection. On average, plans are not supportive of lake water resource protection. Plan quality scores revealed a free rider problem, as scores were unexpectedly higher for non-users compared to users of Jordan Lake as a drinking water supply; in other words, local jurisdictions that benefit more from the water supply contributed less in terms of comprehensive planning to protect that supply. Core determinates of watershed protection in comprehensive plans were networks for information exchange, a civic culture supportive of collaborative governance, and a centralized role for planning. To more effectively address regional scale common-pool resources problems, we recommend that (1) state and federal governments require or incentivize coordinated planning among local governments, (2) plan quality principles be applied during creation of comprehensive plans, and (3) plan effectiveness be tracked through time. Integral with these recommendations, future research should identify and test methods and metrics to evaluate plan effectiveness and outcomes.