MAYSVILLE — The Jackson County Commission has moved closer to finalizing their plan for future growth, spending a few hours discussing progress at a meeting earlier this month.
At a commission retreat Dec. 9 at the Pat Bell Conference Center in Maysville, Planning Manager Gina Mitsdarffer and consultant Jerry Weitz presented the commissioners with the timeline for the plan, results from the town hall meetings and other data.
A comprehensive plan is a document outlining policies and practices the county should implement over the next several years "to achieve its desired vision for growth and development," according to the county’s Web site. This includes looking at several kinds of development in Jackson County and garnering input from the
community on what residents want to see in the coming years.
The county created a steering committee of interested residents, held several town hall meetings in the four districts and gathered information through a lengthy questionnaire to add to the land use inventory and other data collected for the plan.
Weitz, Mitsdarffer and staff have already sent the summary of this information to the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission for approval, but there’s still a long road ahead before the Oct. 31, 2010, deadline to turn in a completed comprehensive plan.
The steering committee is expected to meet in January, Weitz said, and he also will work on the list of short-term actions or projects the county wants to see completed in the next five years.
He also recommended the county create two kinds of maps: a future land use map and a character area map.
The first kind of map color codes the county’s parcels into one of several categories, such as residential, commercial, industrial and recreation.
The second kind uses a different set of designations — rural, suburban and urban, for example.
Jackson County currently uses a hybrid of the two, but Weitz and Mitsdarffer encouraged the commission to consider using both kinds of maps to get a detailed look at how the county plans to grow.
"...That (the character map alone) doesn’t tell us how many residential units, how much commercial development, how much industrial. As a result you can’t quantify or predict with any certainty what your facility needs are going to be in the future," Weitz explained.
"On the other hand, if you have a plan that says we’re going to have residential here ... with (geographic information systems) technology, we can calculate how many units that’s going to be and then we can do with some certainty some analysis of everything from water supply needs to school enrollment projects to sewer needs."
All of these tasks won’t happen overnight, but Weitz said he believes his team can finish the work in a timely manner.
"All of that really consumes about four months’ time, so we’re expecting to try to go through the process of getting through the plan and getting it ready for submission in April or May, but definitely by June," he said.
This will leave time for the public hearings on the comprehensive plan and its submission to the state Department of Community Affairs.
If Jackson County doesn’t get its plan into the state by Oct. 31, 2010, the county will not be considered a qualified local government and could lose out on state grants, loans and other funding sources.