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Master Plan

8. Glossary of Planning Terms
as used in the Larimer County Master Plan

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Adequate public facilities (APF): Facilities and services (including water and sewer systems, fire protection and roads) that are available and have the capacity to serve new development without reducing levels of service below established minimum standards.
ADT: Average daily trips; used as a measure of impact on the transportation system.
Affordable housing: Housing which has a sales price or rent within the means of a low or moderate income household as defined by local, state or federal legislation.
Capital expansion fees (CEFs): Fees paid by new development for the impact of that development on public facilities; also known as impact fees or exactions.
Capital facilities: Land and structures used by the public including fire stations, parks and schools; also called public facilities.
Capital improvement program: A schedule and budget for future capital improvements (building or acquisition projects) for roads, utilities and other capital facilities, to be carried out over a specified time period.
Cluster; cluster development: A development design which concentrates buildings on a portion or portions of the site to leave the remainder undeveloped and used for agriculture, open space and/or natural resource protection.
Community Influence Area (CIA): An area designated in an Intergovernmental Agreement within which County development applications will be sent to the adjacent municipality for comment and review.
Concurrency: Adequate public facilities are available when the impacts of development occur.
Cooperative Planning Area (CPA): An area beyond a municipality's immediate urban planning area (Urban Growth Area or Growth Management Area) where urban level development is not appropriate within the municipal plan's time frame but where development may have an impact on present and future municipal growth patterns. CPAs will be defined in Intergovernmental Agreements and development standards in these areas will be based on jointly developed plans.
Cultural resource: A site or structure which is part of the area's cultural heritage; that is, which typifies a particular stage of man's activity in the area. Cultural resources include archeological sites, historic buildings and sites, and undisturbed natural sites that have historic or prehistoric associations including those with paleontological (fossil) specimens.
Design standard: A standard contained in a land use regulation which relates to design of a subdivision, site plan or structure; for example, the requirement for 80% open space in a Rural Conservation Development subdivision.
Development right: The right to develop property. This right may be purchased or transferred (see Transfer of development rights below).
Fee-in-lieu: A fee paid instead of making a land dedication, capital improvement or other requirement, and equivalent to that requirement. An example is a fee-in-lieu of a school site dedication as part of a subdivision approval.
Growth management: A system of land use regulations designed to influence the location, timing and character of development, instead of controlling the amount or rate of growth.
Growth Management Area (GMA): An area adjacent to a city or town and identified for future urban development according to a community plan in an Intergovernmental Agreement with the County; same as Urban Growth Area (see below).
Guiding principle: A statement of policy or intended direction.
Impact: The potential direct or indirect effects of a proposed development on activities, utilities, traffic, surrounding land uses, the environment and other factors.
Impact fees: Same as capital expansion fees (see above).
Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA): A contractual agreement between the County and another governmental entity. IGAs with municipalities are the County's primary means of achieving coordinated planning for the areas adjacent to town limits. The agreements define appropriate future urban areas (see Growth Management Areas above) and establish standards and procedures for development in these areas. They may also define Cooperative Planning Areas and Community Influence Areas (defined above).
Land use: A description of how land is used or occupied.
Land Use Code: A document containing or referencing all of Larimer County's land use regulations, including zoning district provisions and subdivision requirements. The document is also described as the unified Land Use Code because it brings together all the regulations under a single administrative procedure, with uniform definitions and other common elements to achieve a more understandable, user-friendly regulation.
Level of service: An established minimum capacity of public facilities or services that must be provided per unit of demand, e.g., per new housing unit.
Master plan: A document adopted by the Planning Commission to provide policy direction on the physical development of the County.
Mobility corridor: A corridor designated for future multi-modal transportation facilities.
Multi-modal transportation: A transportation system that includes several types (modes) of conveyances such as automobile, rail, bus, pedestrian and bicycle.
Paratransit: Specialized transit service to meet the needs of disabled persons.
Performance standards: Criteria that must be met by development to limit a particular defined impact.
Principle: See Guiding Principle above.
Quality of life: The personal perception of the physical, economic and emotional well-being that exists in the community.
Receiving areas: See transfer of development rights below.
Rural Conservation Development: The name for the required rural cluster subdivision; see cluster above.
Rural Land Use Process: Larimer County's voluntary procedure for development of properties that are 70 acres or larger; designed to provide an attractive alternative to division into 35-acre tracts.
Sending areas: See transfer of development rights below.
Strategy: A plan of action intended to accomplish a specific principle.
Sustainable economy: A system which maintains or enhances current economic opportunity and community well-being without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Transfer of development rights (TDR): Removal of the right to develop or build (usually described in number of dwelling units per acre) from one property (the sending area) and transfer of the right to a suitable property (the receiving area), in order to preserve open space, agriculture and/or natural resources on the first property.
Transit: A public transportation system, e.g., a public bus or light rail system.
Travel demand management program (TDM): A plan to alleviate traffic congestion through improved management of vehicle trip demand, often including strategies to reduce single-occupancy vehicles and encouraging travel at times of lower congestion.
Unified Land Use Code: See Land Use Code above.
Urban Growth Area (UGA): An area defined for urban development surrounding Loveland and Fort Collins and established by Intergovernmental Agreements in 1980 with those Cities; the term Growth Management Area is used in the Master Plan as a generic name for the same concept.
Wetland: The land transition between water and land systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water, including swamps, marshes, bogs, riparian areas, salt flats and vernal pools.

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