§ 4. PURPOSES

The Unified Development Code is adopted for the following purposes:

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To protect, promote, improve and provide for the public health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the City of Rockwall;

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To ensure the safe, orderly and efficient development and expansion of the City of Rockwall in accordance with and pursuant to its comprehensive plan, thoroughfare plan, and open space plan;

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To conserve, develop, protect and utilize natural resources, including, but not limited to, topography, vegetation, flood plain and other resources, in keeping with the public interest;

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To prevent the overcrowding of land and avoid undue concentration or diffusion of population or land uses;

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To protect and preserve places and areas of historical, cultural or architectural importance and significance to the community;

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To protect and conserve the value of land throughout the city and the value of buildings and improvements upon the land, and to minimize the conflicts among the uses of land and buildings;

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To provide for open spaces through the most efficient design and layout of the land;

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To prevent the pollution of air and water, to ensure the adequacy of drainage facilities, to safeguard water resources and to preserve the integrity and aesthetic quality of the community;

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To lessen congestion in the streets and provide convenient, safe and efficient circulation for vehicular and pedestrian traffic;

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To facilitate the adequate and efficient provision of transportation, water, wastewater, schools, parks, public safety and recreational facilities, and other public facilities and services; and

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To treat in one unified text those areas of regulation more typically dealt with in separate ordinances such as, but not exclusively, the zoning ordinance[s], the subdivision rules and regulations.