P&Z begins process of updating Comprehensive Plan

     A lot has changed in nine years.

     With that in mind, Michele Lubben and Jim McElheny of the Jones County Planning & Zoning Commission met with the Board of Supervisors to discuss the process in which the commission is updating the Comprehensive Plan.

     The most recent update of the plan, which guides future land use and other county decisions, was in 2012. Lubben said it is recommended that a county update its plan every five to 10 years.

     “We want to update everything,” Lubben told the board. “I don’t think we’re looking to change anything significantly. We want to take the data from nine years ago and see what has changed and what we need to address.”

     Rather than incorporating an outside source, McElheny is spearheading the update, saving the county money.

     “Jim has a lot of planning experience,” Lubben said.

     “If you were to go back and look at the 2012 report, a lot of the objectives have already been accomplished,” McElheny said. “So we’re going through, taking those out, then we will replace those with what we think are going to be the changes that are likely to occur over the next five to 10 years. Beyond that is pure guesswork.”

     Transportation and technology are among the biggest changes. McElheny gave the example of increased use of electric vehicles.

     “They’re figuring within the next 20 years, 90 percent of sales are going to be some form of electric vehicles,” McElheny said. “That brings out a whole series of things like charging stations. Where do they fit in a land use plan?

     “What we’re trying to do is narrow those influencers down to things that will have impacts on land use. What’s going to change in terms of zoning demand for us?”

     Lubben said P&Z has had two meetings and gone through some exercises as part of the update process. Public input will also be sought, she said, later this year.

     “We’ll keep working our way through to get ourselves prepared for public meetings,” Lubben said.

     McElheny said he discovered another issue as he worked through the old plan.

     “We’ve never had a future land use plan,” he said. “It’s always been written off that the zoning map was sufficient as a future land use plan.”

     Lubben said an outside source will be brought in to put together the P&Z findings, allowing for both electronic and hard copies once the new Comprehensive Plan is completed.