Published: July 11, 2008 02:02 pm            

Comprehensive plan update open house

Submitted by Whitfield County government



Whitfield County will host a Comprehensive Plan Update Open House on July 17 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Whitfield County Courthouse in the lower atrium area.

Community planners along with county staff will present a draft of the county Comprehensive Plan Update 2008-2018 Community Agenda. The update covers unincorporated Whitfield County and the cities of Dalton, Tunnel Hill and Varnell.

The open house format allows participants to drop in at their convenience and stay as little or as long as they wish, according to Marty Sewell, senior planner and project coordinator for MACTEC Engineering and Consulting Inc., the firm hired by the county to oversee the planning process and prepare the plan.

“We’ll have the Community Agenda document, including large scale maps, available for the public to review,” Sewell said. “In addition, our planning team will be on hand to speak individually with attendees about their concerns and to answer specific questions they might have.”

The Community Agenda includes an updated list of issues and opportunities, updated character area descriptions and the future development map (including strategies for implementing the vision of each character area), and a short-term work program.

Following the Open House, the county will post a digital copy of the Community Agenda on the county Web site www.whitfieldcountyga.com. A paper copy will be available for review in the Board of Commissioners office in the courthouse.

MACTEC and county officials received input from approximately 1,000 residents and stakeholders during the planning process from surveys, phone calls, e-mails/letters and meeting attendance. During community workshops held in March and April, attendees participated in discussions about growth issues, identified issues and opportunities, and began to establish a vision for the future. The Community Agenda presented at the Open House bases its recommendations on the input obtained from these meetings with the public.

Additional public input opportunities will take place during a round of required public hearings at the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners and the City Council meetings in Dalton, Tunnel Hill and Varnell. The Board of Commissioners and City councils are tentatively scheduled to hold public hearings and then consider the Transmittal Resolution for the Community Agenda in August. The resolution authorizes the county staff to submit the plan to the North Georgia Regional Development Center and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for review. The plan adoption process follows this review when the commissioners and City Councils each consider resolutions for adoption.

Officials say a comprehensive plan establishes a clear vision of the kind of place a community wants to be in the future, and provides a course of action to build what stakeholders envision. The plans, created by community residents, property owners and business owners with the assistance of the staff of the county and each municipality, serve as a policy guide on how the county and each community is to develop over time.

        

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