Development of a Comprehensive Land Use Plan by Means of a Multiple Objective Mathematical Programming Model

An optimization model was developed which enabled Du Page County Planners to prepare a comprehensive land use plan that considers several objectives simultaneously and also satisfies constraints on desired growth patterns. The plan has been endorsed by several Homeowners Associations, interested citizens groups, and by the various municipalities which have jurisdiction over their individual cities. Thirty-one of the thirty-two municipalities have accepted the County's plan (revisions were asked on only 0.5 percent of the acreage). The County's plan reduced, by 50 percent, the unrealistic high acreages demanded by the communities plan for land uses which generate large net tax revenues.If the communities' plan were to be implemented it would cost an additional 414 million dollars in developmental and energy costs. Of course, it is possible that the communities would become aware of the needs of the citizenry and could change their plans as time progressed and thus the difference in costs would become smaller. On the other hand, many of these developmental costs are irreversible and money once spent on them cannot be recovered.The optimizing function was obtained by weighting the following objectives: minimize “conflict” between adjacent land uses, minimize travel time, minimize tax costs, minimize adverse environmental impact, and minimize costs of community facilities.The land use plan was also used to predict population and employment in various years. The land use plan and the transportation study interacted several times to consider how the results of one affected the other. Thus, this model provided a new framework for the decision-makers to evaluate their existing and proposed programs and policies.