The county comprehensive plan came one step closer to reality Wednesday as the Burleigh County Planning and Zoning Commission gave its seal of approval.

Wednesday's vote forwards the plan to the full Burleigh County Commission, which will be holding public hearings and taking a final vote.

The subject of a year's worth of discussions, meetings and votes, the Burleigh County Comprehensive plan is meant to create a guide for how the county should develop over the next 20 years and beyond. It has taken a rocky, controversial path to get to this point, with rural landowners expressing their ire at what they perceive to be a robbery of private property rights.

Some had a bone to pick with specific parts of the plan - such as cluster subdivisions and paving requirements - while others saw the very idea of a plan as a step in the wrong direction.

With these protests in mind, an advisory committee watered down the plan to merely make suggestions instead of to say the county "will" take certain actions in its zoning and development.

"It doesn't mandate anything, it just says we should take a look at it," Mayor John Warford said.

The plan passed forward Wednesday night was this same watered-down version, with some small amendments added by the planning commissioners

First, an amendment was added saying that the county should consider agriculture to be "an economic cornerstone" and specifically account for what effect any future construction will have on farmers and ranchers. The second emphasizes walking and biking trails in a section that encourages development of parks and other natural resources.

City planning director Carl Hokenstad said it should be viewed as a living document that "a guiding set or principles and policies" to mold the county's future development.

(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 250 -8264 or jonathan.rivoli.) @bismarcktribune.com