When your city decides to create a planning commission, enabling legislation in Alabama states that your commission must prepare a master or comprehensive plan. Therefore, preparing and adopting a master plan is a mandatory requirement, not an option.

What you will learn:

• The legal authority and responsibility under Alabama law for planning commission and board of adjustment members - what each can do and cannot do.
• Where the planning commissions' authority ends and the board of adjustment's authority begins; the relationship between the city council and the planning commission.
• How the law says an aggrieved party can appeal a determination by boards of adjustment, building inspector, etc.

The purpose of this workshop is to provide local officials and the citizens who serve on local planning commissions and boards of adjustment with a basic understanding of the constitutional and statutory framework for comprehensive and regulatory planning in Alabama.