The comprehensive plan, or comprehensive development plan as it is referred to by Nebraska law, is the "heart" of a local government’s planning and implementation program that guides physical growth and development in Nebraska villages, cities, or counties. The comprehensive plan serves as a guide, a road map, for the preservation of valued existing conditions and development of desired future changes.

The comprehensive plan provides goals, policies, and action strategies in the areas of land use, public facilities and utilities, transportation, housing, as well as recommendations for plan implementation and plan maintenance. The planning process results in the creation of general, as well as specific and practical, directions and guidelines for both community and economic development.

Portions of the City’s current comprehensive plan have been amended many times since it was adopted in 1997, but it has never been updated as a whole since its adoption. La Vista is now updating the entire comprehensive plan with a Look Out to La Vista’s next 20 years.