Type of project/document:
Corridor Management Plan
Description of project/document
Corridor Management Plans (CMP)are required when nominating a route for National Scenic Byway or All American Road designation through the National Scenic Byways Program. Many states also require or at least recommend corridor management plans for state byway designation.
Types of planning and design that this project/document services:
The CMP is written in order to get the initial scenic byway designation from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byway Program. A CMP guides the management and development of the National Scenic Byway Corridor, including aspects such as visitor experience, public participation, and collaboration.
Other Forest Service frameworks, tools, and documents needed to complete this project/document:
A Corridor Management Plan for a scenic byway should fit within the larger Forest Plan framework, and should also be aligned with other previous Forest Service, community, and national efforts for scenic byway planning.
Other frameworks, tools, and sources consulted for drafting an Interpretive Plan include:
- Other management plans written for surrounding areas of the Forest
- Recreation Opportunity Spectrum
- Scenery Management System/Visual Management System
- Forest Service Outdoor Accessibility Guidelines and Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guideline
- The Forest Plan
- The Forest National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) Results
- Other documents created by partners and stakeholders, such as: transportation plans, regional recreation plans, county and community master plans, marketing plans of nearby municipalities, tourism information, surveys, etc
- Forest specialists--- specialists on the Forests are key resources in the development of byway management prescriptions, themes and storylines. These specialists include recreation specialists, public contact staff, biologists, archaeologists, etc.
Document/project outline:
Requirements for a CMP:
CMP Requirements for National Scenic Byway designation (which includes All American Road Designation):
To be considered for national designation, a byway must have completed and adopted a Corridor Management Plan in accordance with Section 9 of the Interim Policy. The required documentation includes:
•Plan Adopted. Provide the date your CMP was adopted. Draft CMPs that have not been adopted will not be considered.
•Plan Update. Indicate whether your State/Indian tribe/Federal land management agency requires that CMPs be regularly updated to reflect current priorities and if so, how often.
•Priorities for the Next Five (5) Years. If your State/Indian tribe/Federal land management agency does not require that CMPs be regularly updated to reflect current priorities, you will be asked to describe in ten concise bullet points or less your priorities for the byway for the next five (5) years.
The Corridor Management Plan must address each of the following points. In the nomination application, you will be asked to identify the principal pages in your document(s) that discuss this point and summarize the key findings or objectives from your plan.
- A map identifying the corridor boundaries, location, intrinsic qualities, and land uses in the corridor.
- An assessment of the intrinsic qualities and their “context” (the areas surrounding them).
- A strategy for maintaining and enhancing each of those intrinsic qualities.
- The agencies, groups, and individuals who are part of the team that will carry out the plan, including a list of their specific, individual responsibilities. Also, a schedule of when and how you’ll review the degree to which those responsibilities are being met.
- A strategy of how existing development might be enhanced and new development accommodated to preserve the intrinsic qualities of your byway.
- A plan for on-going public participation.
- A general review of the road’s safety record to locate hazards and poor design, and identify possible corrections.
- A plan to accommodate commercial traffic while ensuring the safety of sightseers in smaller vehicles, as well as bicyclists, joggers, and pedestrians.
- A listing and discussion of efforts to minimize anomalous intrusions on the visitor’s experience of the byway.
- Documentation of compliance with all existing local, state, and federal laws about the control of outdoor advertising.
- A plan to make sure that the number and placement of highway signs will not get in the way of the scenery, but still be sufficient to help tourists find their way. This includes, where appropriate, signs for international tourists who may not speak English fluently.
- Plans of how the byway will be marketed and publicized.
- Any proposals for modifying the roadway, including an evaluation about design standards and how proposed changes may affect the byway’s intrinsic qualities.
- A description of what you plan to do to explain and interpret your byway’s significant resources to visitors.
Additional Requirements for All-American Road Nomination Submissions:
In addition to the information requested above, All-American Road nominees will be asked to provide:
- A narrative on how the All-American Road would be promoted, interpreted, and marketed in order to attract travelers, especially those from other countries. The agencies responsible for these activities should be identified.
- A plan to encourage the accommodation of increased tourism, if this is projected. Some demonstration that the roadway, lodging and dining facilities, roadside rest areas, and other tourist necessities will be adequate for the number of visitors induced by the byway’s designation as an All-American Road.
- A plan for addressing multi-lingual information needs.
- A demonstration of the extent to which enforcement mechanisms are being implemented in accordance with the corridor management plan.
Additional information can be found on the National Scenic Byways website:
Improving the Quality of your Corridor Management Plan
In addition to the required elements, there are additional considerations to improve the effectiveness of your corridor management plan. Remember, your partners are critical to a byways success, so make sure that they are actively involved at all stages in the development of the plan. Very few byways are exclusively on National Forest lands, and even fewer are roads under National Forest jurisdiction. The byway organization should reflect the jurisdictions and communities that make byway neighborhood.
Vision
Corridor management planning is about making choices, determining priorities and identifying resources needed to accomplish objectives.
It is about exploring alternative courses of action regarding the future and defining a preferred future and identifying strategies and resources to make it happen. It is not one time static exercise. An effective plan is an ongoing and evolving process.
The fundamental issue in corridor management planning is "What type of byway corridor do we want?" Once you have posed this question, a strategic planning process helps your forest and partners to focus on key questions such as:
- What is our byway like today?
- What do we want it to become?
- What values and principles should guide future initiatives and projects?
- What are our intrinsic qualities?
- Are there risks or opportunities that we need to address?
- What initiatives and project will help our byway meet its desired future?
- What are our priorities?
- What specific strategies and action steps are necessary to achieve our goals?
- What must be done to ensure successful implementation? and
- How will we monitor and evaluate our progress?
Creating and implementing an effective planning process or framework requires time and commitment.
Developing a Strategic CMP
Who needs to be involved to successfully preserve the intrinsic qualities along your byway, promote the byway, and provide for travelers. Who are the decision makers? How can you foster support for byway goals? Who has technical, financial or human resources that can support byway initiatives?
Where is your Byway & Who’s involved?
Who are we and where are we at?
This phase of the planning process aims to achieve a better understanding of what your byway community is like and why. It will provide basic information that will drive the rest of the process. It may also explode some myths about your community and create a more realistic picture. Analysis of your byway is essential in building coherent responses to real issues.
Steps should include:
- Identifying your intrinsic qualities. This includes not only places, but unique qualities and features. What are the resources that make up the intrinsic qualities?
- Identifying risks to your intrinsic qualities
- Identifying opportunities to maintain or enhance those qualities, and share them with visitors
- Identifying possible opportunities for promoting the area to potential visitors
- Assessment of the your organizations resources
- Determining the government units and primary land owners/managers with jurisdiction along the byway, this includes local and regional planning agencies, travel and tourism agencies,
- Listing the decision makers who’s support would be necessary to accomplish byway objectives.
- Who are the current visitors to the byway? What are the goals for visitation, (more, less, specific markets)?
- What are the general needs, expectations, and preferences of our visitors?
- What are we providing for the visitor in terms of experiences, opportunities, and services? Do the opportunities and services meet the expectations and preferences?
Identify your Byway Management Strategies
How do we get there?
Now that information about the byway has been collected, analyzed and a shared vision for your preferred future has been established, how you get there is the next challenge. This phase of the planning process deals with " the who, what, where, when and how". It translates your values, goals and objectives into strategies and action steps. A strategy describes a set of actions, which when implemented will help in the achievement of the objective. Action steps represent the "to do" list required for the successful implementation of the strategy.
HINT - Look to see if it has been done before-are there other plans and initiatives you can draw on, such as local travel marketing, resource plans, community or regional comprehensive plans.
What are the projects that help to achieve your goals. What are the priorities? What are the resources (don’t forget time, talent, financial needs, and/or regulatory or political support) necessary to achieve them? Have you mapped projected milestones on a time line?
Formulation and determination of strategies and action steps often involves the following:
- Generating possibility thinking in your byway community
- Examining what has worked elsewhere
- Evaluating and selecting the best options
- Estimating, identifying and mobilizing resources and determining who has authority for what
- Assigning responsibilities and tasks to manage and implement the strategies
- Developing a proposed schedule and milestones
- Identifying and recruiting leaders and taskforce members
Underpinning the formation of strategies and actions and the various tools for achieving these, are a set of Key Ingredients which need to be incorporated into your planning and action processes. These are:
- Establishing and maintaining community interest and involvement
- Creating an appropriate organization
- Identifying and mobilizing resources
- Developing an effective communication strategy
- Monitoring, evaluating and revising plans
- Developing leadership
Developing, Implementing and Monitoring the CMP
How do we know that we are on our way and when we have arrived?
This phase of the planning process focuses upon the design of appropriate monitoring, evaluation and feedback mechanisms. It is important that your byway determines the following:
Appropriate time frames
Evaluation criteria and monitoring mechanisms, including appropriate and practical performance indicators and key success factors
What are the financial resources that you need to be successful? Do you have a financial plan for achieving your goals? Is there a timeline with specific targets?
Ways to ensure ongoing community interest and support, including:
- keeping your partners and stakeholders fully aware and excited by developments
- receiving regular community feedback
- rewarding participation
- involving as many people as possible in practical tasks
- having fun
- Mechanisms to ensure documentation and recording of the processes
It is important to recognize milestones, share successes and evaluate challenges and shortcomings. Monitoring and analysis is crucial for revising and adapting your plan.
Planning is about guiding action towards shaping the future. It is by nature oriented towards action. It provides the basis for a community to become involved in their own economic future. As a process, it obviously has many potential benefits for your community as well as potential pitfalls.
Corridor plans should be incorporated into broader agency plans. The incorporation of special places in Forest Plan Revision is an ideal place to connect the corridor management plan in a holistic way. Annual work plans can also identify byway related projects.
More information on the National Scenic Byways Program is available online:
This website also includes contact information for the State coordinators:
A publication for Scenic Byways planning can be requested from San Dimas Technology and Development Center:
“Scenic Byways-A Design Guide for Roadside Improvements”
The America’s Byways Resource Center offers publications, a newsletter and training resources for scenic byways. Their website is:
Examples of this document/project:
TBD