Gastonia retained Metrocology to prepare the first update to the City’s existing Comprehensive Plan which had been adopted in 2011. The amount of change from 2011 to 2025, coupled with the need to prepare the new comprehensive plan within a shortened time frame to comply with State regulatory requirements necessitated a streamlined and strategic approach to deliver a document that would be both impactful while highlighting the scope needed for ongoing planning and outreach in the years to come.

Metrocology teamed with Town Studio to conduct a series of community meetings scheduled over an eight-month period to gather input from residents, understand current issues, and identify policies and planning goals to properly guide the decisions of elected officials and the day-to-day work of City departmental staff.

The process and deliverables established a robust set of policy initiatives to influence the direction and type of growth most supportive of resilient practices in urban design, environmental planning, and infrastructure investments. The central component tying these together with the partially updated UDO was the Place Types Map. This version of a Land Use Plan prioritizes the shaping of “place” through categories of land use which support walkability, transit, and mixed use. The intensity of these “nodes” is determined by the road network, green network, and relationship to the core of Gastonia. The Place Types Map will inform the eventual writing of a brand new UDO.