Comprehensive Plan

Comprehensive Plan and Recreation and Parks Master Plan Updates (2026)

The City is initiating an update to its Comprehensive Plan in accordance with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ (“DCA”) Standards and Procedures for Local Comprehensive Planning. Concurrently, the City will also be updating its Recreation and Parks Master Plan. The Comprehensive Plan serves as the City’s primary policy document, guiding decisions related to future growth, land use, infrastructure, housing, and economic development over a 10- to 20-year period. The Recreation and Parks Master Plan, last updated in 2019, strategically addresses and enhances the City’s greenspace and greenways, recreation, parks, open space, and trails. It assesses the current inventory and determines the potential of adding more recreation and parks initiatives.

Stay tuned for further information about the planning process and upcoming public engagement opportunities.

The NEXT TEN Comprehensive Plan 5-Year Update (2022)

The Next Ten is the City’s Comprehensive Plan and was first adopted in 2017 as a major 10-year update to the 2007 Comprehensive Plan. Per state of Georgia requirements for comprehensive planning, local municipalities must complete a comprehensive plan and conduct an update every 5 years. On October 18, 2022 the Mayor and City Council approved a resolution to adopt the Comprehensive Plan.

The NEXT TEN Comprehensive Plan (2017)

Following an 18-month planning process, the City in February 2017 adopted the Next Ten Comprehensive Plan, a 10-year policy and planning document guiding land use and redevelopment. The Comprehensive Plan includes a city-wide plan as well as four small area plans providing focus on areas encompassing Roswell Road, Perimeter Center, the MARTA stations and Powers Ferry Landing areas.

Crossroads Small Area Plan

The City of Sandy Springs is developing a plan for the “Crossroads” area, which includes the area east and west of Roswell Road from I-285 to the southern end of The Prado shopping center. The goal of the plan is to address the current and future needs of the community while envisioning how the area could evolve in the next 10-15 years

Prior Public Input Milestones

March 28, 2022. The Sandy Springs community is invited to participate in a discussion about the Next Ten Comprehensive Plan 5-year Update. The 5-year update will look at the 2017 Next Ten Comprehensive Plan accomplishments to date, and encourage a community conversation about the next five years of plan implementation. This meeting is the first of several public engagement opportunities planned as part of the 2022 Next Ten Comprehensive Plan 5-year update process.

June 9, 2022. Attendees reviewed the draft recommendations for the Next Ten Comprehensive Plan 5-year Update. This is a 5-year update to the 2017 Next Ten Comprehensive Plan and will highlight the accomplishments over the past five years.

Public outreach has also been conducted at the Sandy Springs Farmers Market, local parks and events.

State Minimum Planning Standards

The state of Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs (DCA) sets the guidelines for local comprehensive planning per the Georgia Planning Act of 1989.

The requirements for Sandy Springs for this 5-year update is to revisit the Plan Elements in the 2017 Next Ten to evaluate the Vision and the Needs and Opportunities for each: Housing, Land Use, Economic Development, Greenspace Sustainability and Broadband. We must also document a Report of Accomplishments (ROA) since the 2017 Next Ten, and create a new 5-year Community Work Program (CWP). The Next Ten 5-year update must be completed and reviewed by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) with DCA, and adopted by the Mayor and City Council by October 31, 2022.

Comprehensive Plan