(a) The department shall perform the duties, responsibilities, and functions and may exercise the power and authority described in this Code section. The department, utilizing the comprehensive plans of qualified local governments, shall undertake and carry out such activities as may be necessary to assist the Governor in encouraging, coordinating, developing, and implementing coordinated and comprehensive planning. Such activities may include, but shall not be limited to, the following:

(1) The department, utilizing the comprehensive plans of qualified local governments, shall assist the Governor in coordinated and comprehensive planning on the state level and throughout the state, including, but not limited to, assistance in the development of a comprehensive plan for the state;

(2) The department, utilizing the comprehensive plans of qualified local governments, shall assist the Governor in defining the state's long-term goals, objectives, and priorities and implementing those goals, objectives, and priorities through coordinated and comprehensive planning;

(3) The department shall examine and analyze plans of state agencies, comprehensive plans of regional development centers, and comprehensive plans of municipalities and counties, undertaken as part of the coordinated and comprehensive planning process, and advise the Governor with respect to those plans; and

(4) The department shall serve as policy liaison for the Governor, with respect to coordinated and comprehensive planning, with and among state agencies and local governments.

(b) The department shall establish in accordance with the provisions of Code Section 50-8-7.2 minimum standards and procedures for coordinated and comprehensive planning, including standards and procedures for preparation of plans, for implementation of plans, and for participation in the coordinated and comprehensive planning process. The department shall undertake and carry out such activities as may be specified by law. Such activities may include, but shall not be limited to, the following:

(1) As part of such minimum standards and procedures, the department shall establish minimum elements which shall be addressed and included in comprehensive plans of local governments which are prepared as part of the coordinated and comprehensive planning process. These elements shall include, but shall not be limited to, housing, human services, natural resources, the environment, vital areas, historic resources, infrastructure, land use other than zoning, recreation, transportation, and economic development;

(2) The department shall establish minimum standards and procedures which shall be used by local governments in developing, preparing, and implementing their comprehensive plans. The department shall incorporate the minimum standards and procedures with respect to natural resources, the environment, and vital areas of the state established and administered by the Department of Natural Resources pursuant to Code Section 12-2-8. In establishing such minimum standards and procedures, the department shall be authorized to differentiate among local governments and among regions based upon factors which the department determines merit differentiation, such as total population, density of population, geographic features, the size of tax base, the type and character of services furnished by local governments, the size of budget, and other factors;

(3) The department shall develop planning procedures with respect to regionally important resources, for planning with respect to developments of regional impact, and for encouraging interjurisdictional cooperation among local governments. The department shall determine, in its judgment and for each region, what shall constitute developments of regional impact. Such determinations by the department shall be made for each region after receiving any necessary information from the regional development center for the region, from local governments within the region, and from others within the region. The department's determinations shall be publicly promulgated, using such means as the commissioner may determine, so that all local governments within a region will receive notice of the department's determinations affecting that region; and

(4) The department shall establish and shall promulgate procedures for obtaining input from, and participation by, local governments and the public in establishing, amending, and updating from time to time the minimum standards and procedures.

(c) The department shall undertake and carry out such activities as the board or the commissioner may deem necessary for supervising regional development centers and as may be specified by law. Such activities may include, but shall not be limited to, the following:

(1) The department shall recommend to the board from time to time the boundaries for the regions for each of the regional development centers; and

(2) The department shall review and comment on comprehensive plans prepared by, and coordinated and comprehensive planning activities undertaken by or under the direction of, regional development centers.

(d) The department shall undertake and carry out such activities as may be necessary to mediate, or otherwise assist in resolving, conflicts. Such activities may include, but shall not be limited to, the following:

(1) The department may establish such procedures and guidelines for mediation or other forms of resolving conflicts as the commissioner may deem necessary. The procedures and guidelines shall specify the times within which steps in the mediation or other form of conflict resolution shall take place and shall provide that such times shall not exceed, in the aggregate, 90 days from the date on which mediation or other conflict resolution begins. The department shall promulgate and make public all such procedures and guidelines;

(2) The department may act to mediate or otherwise assist in resolving conflicts upon written request from any regional development center or local government or may act, without any such request, on its own initiative; (3) The department may establish rules and procedures which require that local governments submit for review any proposed action which would, based upon guidelines which the department may establish, affect regionally important resources or further any development of regional impact. Any such proposed action by a local government (other than a regional development center) shall be submitted for review to the local government's regional development center. Any such proposed action by a regional development center shall be submitted for review to the department. Review shall be in accordance with rules and procedures established by the department. The review shall result in a public finding by the regional development center or the department, as the case may be, that the action will be in the best interest of the state or that it will not be in the best interest of the state;

(4) Any conflict which remains after review pursuant to the procedures established under paragraph (3) of this subsection shall be submitted to mediation or such other form of resolving conflicts as the commissioner may deem necessary; and

(5) The department may decline to certify a local government as a qualified local government or may take or recommend action which would reduce state or other funding for a regional development center if such local government or regional development center, as the case may be, is a party to a conflict but fails to participate in the department's mediation or other means of resolving conflicts in a manner which, in the judgment of the department and a majority of the Board of Community Affairs, reflects a good faith effort to resolve the conflict.