WARREN — The state approved Warren’s Comprehensive Plan in 2004, but the document designed to be the framework for all development in town was written long before that.

In 1991, to be precise. That’s right. It took 13 years for the state to review the plan, recommend any changes and then sign off on it.

In that time, the town went through major changes. The downtown gentrified. Stores and restaurants spread from Main Street to Water Street. And more and more houses sprung up in the Touisset area.

Parts of the plan, which outlines the town’s policies and plans for everything from land use to economic development, have become obsolete, says Town Planner Michelle Maher. It’s time for an update.

“It’s supposed to be your visionary document for 20 years,” said Maher. “We’re at the end of that now.”

So she and other town officials as well as outside consultants have started work to bring the plan up to date. To kick off the revision process, the town will hold a public workshop on Tuesday. Residents are encouraged to attend to discuss the future of Warren, their recommendations for residential and business development and any thoughts on other land-use issues.

The town has hired Samuel Shamoon, a retired Providence city planner, to do the bulk of the writing. His consultancy, Shamoon Planning, was selected from seven bidders.

Shamoon will work with attorneys at Ursillo, Teitz and Rich, a Providence law firm, to ensure that the wording of the document is legal. The lawyers will in turn start looking at the town’s zoning and planning laws to ensure that they’re brought in line with the updated plan.

In addition, the Institute for Public Policy at Roger Williams University will survey residents and local business owners to hear their views on any major issues. The telephone survey will be carried out in September.

And Mary Hutchins, of Mapping and Planning Services, will create computer maps for the plan.

Representatives of all the contractors will work with a steering committee of town officials that includes Maher, Planning Board chairman André Asselin and members John R. Piepowski and Jane R. MacDougall, and Town Council member John Hanley. A revised plan must be submitted to the state by February 2009.

That’s to meet a deadline for a five-year update. In actuality, said Maher, it will be at least a 15-year update because of the long time it took to get the original document approved.

As it’s written, the Comprehensive Plan recommends, among other things, preserving open space, maintaining access to the water, preserving historic buildings and fostering the town’s maritime character. It also divides the town into specific neighborhoods and recommends changes in each.

Maher said the neighborhood divisions have created problems. For example, the area around Water Street straddles more than one neighborhood and, said Maher, needs one, unified plan for development.

“Each area affects the whole town,” she said. “You can’t think that these areas are segregated.”

She mentioned certain issues that need to be addressed in the plan — traffic congestion in the downtown, for one, and managing development in historically agricultural areas on the eastern edges of town.

The current incarnation of the plan talks about those and other issues in general but it doesn’t lay out practical measures to deal with them.

“We have the vision but how do you protect it and enhance it with all the other pressures on us now?” Maher said.

The workshop Tuesday starts at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at Town Hall.

akuffner@projo.com