Wisconsin’s Comprehensive Planning Law, (s. 66.1001, Wis. Stats.) requires the following 9 elements to be addressed in a county’s or local municipality’s comprehensive plan:

For Vernon County’s comprehensive planning process each of these elements will be addressed by separate Element Workgroup Committees, which are chaired by members from the Comprehensive Plan Commission.  Each Element Workgroup will work to complete the sections of the plan relevant to their assigned element.

The workgroups will make decisions regarding the content and form of the element chapters.  If there are conflicts that are not resolved at the workgroup level, then the issue can be brought to the Comprehensive Plan Commission for a decision. 

The element workgroups will report to the Comprehensive Plan Commission at each monthly meeting on the progress made.  This will help avert contradictions between workgroups that could lead to inconsistencies in the final plan document.

Staff from relevant Vernon County Departments will be enlisted to assist each workgroup with the element development process.  The workgroups can organize citizen focus groups to help form or test the conclusions they are developing.  The workgroups need to consider the results from the neighborhood meetings and survey results that will be available by the end of 2008.  The preliminary element sections should be presented to any relevant county committee for review and comment.