County Seeks Input In Land Use Revision
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Kosciusko County planners are seeking to update their land use plan and want public input in the process.
To do so, the county plan office will host two meetings aimed at encouraging comments from residents. What they hope to gauge are opinions on development issues pertaining to different regions of the county, said assistant planner Tonya Ford.
The meetings will be from 10 a.m. to noon and 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday.
The land use plan is part of the county's overall master plan and is used as a reference for planners faced with decisions on zoning and development issues.
Issues involving land use include zoning, transportation and even parks - which the county doesn't have.
"We'd like to hear what they think about it. Where they'd like to see these things happen," Ford said.
Ford said she hopes they can avoid microcosmic zoning concerns that generally fall in the "Not In My Back Yard" category, widely referred to as NIMBYs.
"I know we're going to get some of that at the meeting, (but) we don't really want everybody to come and unload everything off their chest," Ford said.
"I know they're going to be concerned about their property, but we also want them to give us input about the whole county," Ford said.
Input from the meetings will be shaped into a proposal that will be recommended to the county commissioners for their approval. That is not expected to happen until early 1997.
The commissioners have several choices in the matter. They could approve the recommendation, send back for further consideration, flatly disapprove or table it.
Commissioner-elect Brad Jackson talked during the recent campaign about the need to retain the county's rural environment, and openly talked of a possible advisory board that would look at development issues.
Jackson said he wants to preserve agriculture while allowing for future development.
"It's a very touchy issue," he said.
If approved, the land use plan won't be set in stone, and will use "target zones" where preferred types of development are "best suited," Ford said.
One of the results could include new zoning classifications, if warranted, Ford said. [[In-content Ad]]
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Kosciusko County planners are seeking to update their land use plan and want public input in the process.
To do so, the county plan office will host two meetings aimed at encouraging comments from residents. What they hope to gauge are opinions on development issues pertaining to different regions of the county, said assistant planner Tonya Ford.
The meetings will be from 10 a.m. to noon and 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday.
The land use plan is part of the county's overall master plan and is used as a reference for planners faced with decisions on zoning and development issues.
Issues involving land use include zoning, transportation and even parks - which the county doesn't have.
"We'd like to hear what they think about it. Where they'd like to see these things happen," Ford said.
Ford said she hopes they can avoid microcosmic zoning concerns that generally fall in the "Not In My Back Yard" category, widely referred to as NIMBYs.
"I know we're going to get some of that at the meeting, (but) we don't really want everybody to come and unload everything off their chest," Ford said.
"I know they're going to be concerned about their property, but we also want them to give us input about the whole county," Ford said.
Input from the meetings will be shaped into a proposal that will be recommended to the county commissioners for their approval. That is not expected to happen until early 1997.
The commissioners have several choices in the matter. They could approve the recommendation, send back for further consideration, flatly disapprove or table it.
Commissioner-elect Brad Jackson talked during the recent campaign about the need to retain the county's rural environment, and openly talked of a possible advisory board that would look at development issues.
Jackson said he wants to preserve agriculture while allowing for future development.
"It's a very touchy issue," he said.
If approved, the land use plan won't be set in stone, and will use "target zones" where preferred types of development are "best suited," Ford said.
One of the results could include new zoning classifications, if warranted, Ford said. [[In-content Ad]]