In its effort to do an effective job of planning the areas's transportation routes, the Metropolitan Planning Organization is missing an important tool that Uteig Engineers will provide.

Ulteig is working on a future land use plan encompassing 200 square miles around the Bismarck-Mandan area. The $115,000 MPO-sponsored project is about 40 percent complete and is expected to be finished by June 1.

"It's hard to do an effective job planning streets and roads without knowing the setting or what they will be used for," MPO Director Steve Saunders said. "It seemed to the MPO boards and its member jurisdictions (Bismarck, Mandan, Lincoln, Burleigh and Morton) that we had an important tool missing, a future land use plan, so we issued a request for proposal, which was awarded to Ulteig."

Joel Quanbeck, Ulteig senior planner, said that future land use plans can be difficult.

"People think about land as belonging to the property owner, and they should be determining what can be done with it. People don't like to be told what they can do with their land," Quanbeck said.

"But there is a positive side to land use plans. Everybody can know what to expect. It's nice for unknowns to become knowns. It also gives more power to people who make decisions on the basis of a plan."

Local governments are particularly interested in land use plans because it makes the decision-making process more defined and less subject to question.

But to come up with a plan that most people can agree to, a lot of input needs to be gathered, ranging from the lay of the land to the intentions of property owners to develop said land. Ulteig is going through great lengths to map the area and, at the same time, gather input from a variety of stakeholders.

Quanbeck said that a flat piece of land lends itself to industrial and commercial development. But critical to these types of development are access to railroad and truck traffic. Residential development can take place in more rugged terrain. There are 18 different factors of influence that Ulteig will use in making its land use determinations, such as existing transportation routes, proposed routes, existing land uses, existing and proposed infrastructure, floodplains, archaeological sites, wetlands and land slope.

Ulteig has come up with 10 different land uses it can assign property. The plan will look at what is most suitable for individual parcels and what is optimal for a combination of parcels. These include low-density residential rural, low-density residential urban, medium residential urban, high-density residential urban, parks and open spaces, office commercial, neighborhood commercial, mixed use, industrial and agriculture/reserve.

Each of the jurisdictions was given a wish list of what they wanted to see. Also, more than 50 stakeholders were identified, including the jurisdictions, existing private property holders, special interest groups and environmental groups.

One such group was the Bismarck-Mandan Development Association, Quanbeck said. The association brought a lot of information to the table, having been involved in development over the past 30 years.

"We're starting to see a lot of interest and concern from developers. It behooves everybody that has a state in it to look at it now before the draft and final adoption," Quanbeck said. "These parties want to stay informed and be involved in the process. This is coming from both private and public agencies."

Burleigh County is hoping to incorporate some of the information in its Comprehensive Land Use plan, but Quanbeck said most of Ulteig's work will take place within Bismarck's four-mile extraterritorial zone and Mandan's two-mile zone.

Ulteig's plan won't be looking at areas that have already been studied, including the Highway 83 corridor study that the MPO finished last year, the Harmon Lake area and Lincoln, which has its own comprehensive land use plan.

"What we often see happening is that counties and cities don't coordinate their land use plans," Quanbeck said. "This will be a great tool for these jurisdictions to clean up any ambiguities and provide them a common framework to make decisions."

Quanbeck said that leadership does change, but the plan will provide a basis for consistent decision-making.

Ulteig plans on having a draft ready for the MPO at the beginning of March, and it will then set up community forums. Plans are to hold the forums in the City/County Building's Tom Baker Room so they can be televised live, allowing for call-in questions.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)