Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Com-
mission is charged by law with the function and duty of
"making and adopting a master plan for the physical
development of the [R]egion." The permissible scope
and content of this plan, as outlined in the enabling
legislation, extend to all phases of regional develop-
ment, implicitly emphasizing, however, the preparation
of spatial designs for the use of land and for supporting
transportation and utility facilities.
The scope and complexity of areawide development
prohibit the making and adopting of an entire com-
prehensive development plan at one time. The Commis-
sion has, therefore, determined to proceed with the
preparation of individual plan elements which together
form the comprehensive plan. Each element is intended
to deal with an identified areawide developmental or
environmental objective. The individual elements are
coordinated by being related to an areawide land use
plan. Thus, the land use plan constitutes the most basic
regional plan element, the element on which other
elements are based.
The Regional Planning Commission first adopted a
regional land use plan in 1966. That plan had a design
year of 1990. Following a period of about 10 years, the
design year 1990 plan underwent a major review and
reevaluation, including an analysis of land development
trends and their conformance to, and departure from, the
year 1990 land use plan. This plan reappraisal was
supported by 1970 and 1975 regional land use inventory
data and 1970 U. S. Bureau of the Census population
and household data. This major plan reappraisal resulted
in a determination that the basic principles and concepts
of the 1990 land use plan should be carried forward into
a design year 2000 land use plan, which was adopted
by the Commission in 1977. Similarly, following a period
of about 10 years, another major review and reevalua-
tion effort was undertaken using 1980, 1985, and 1990
land use inventory data and 1980 and 1990 U. S. Bureau
of the Census population and household data. The basic
principles and concepts of the plan were again carried
forward, into a design year 2010 land use plan, adopted
by the Commission in 1992. These plans are respectively
documented in SEWRPC Planning Reports Nos. 7, 25,
and 40.1

In 1997, the Regional Planning Commission undertook a
project intended to extend the design year 2010 plan 10
years further into the future, to a new design year of
2020. Because of the short period of time since adoption
of the design year 2010 plan and because new land
use, population, and household data were not available,
a major plan reevaluation effort was not possible. This
report documents the planning process applied to extend
the year 2010 plan to the design year 2020, and presents
the resulting regional land use plan for that design year.
THE REGION
The Southeastern Wisconsin Region, as shown on Map 1,
consists of Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Wal-
worth, Washington, and Waukesha Counties. Exclusive of
Lake Michigan, these seven counties have a total area of
2,689 square miles, or about 5 percent of the total area
of Wisconsin. These counties, nevertheless, account for
about 37 percent of the total population of the State, about
38 percent of all jobs in the State, and about 40 percent
of the total tangible wealth of the State as measured by
equalized property value. Exclusive of school and other
special-purpose districts, the Region contains 154 local
units of government, all of which participate in the work of
the Commission.
1The first regional land use plan is documented in
SEWRPC Planning Report No. 7, Land Use-Transpor-
tation Study, Volume One, Inventory Findings: 1963, May
1965; Volume Two, Forecasts and Alternative Plans: 1990,
June 1966; and Volume Three, Recommended Regional
Land Use and Transportation Plans: 1990, November
1966. The second regional land use plan is documented
in SEWRPC Planning Report No. 25, A Regional Land
Use Plan and a Regional Transportation Plan for South-
eastern Wisconsin-2000, Volume One, Inventory Find-
ings, April 1975, and Volume Two, Alternative and
Recommended Plans, May 1978. The third regional land
use plan is documented in SEWRPC Planning Report
No. 40, A Regional Land Use Plan for Southeastern
Wisconsin-2010, January 1992.