Franklin County Master Plan Still Under Development

While taking a back seat to arguably more pressing issues, Franklin County officials are continuing to work on a new comprehensive plan to provide a long-range vision for the next 10 to 15 years.

Planning Director Scottie Eagan this week said she is working to complete a draft of the document, called the Comprehensive Plan 2020, and hopes to take that document back to the plan steering committee and planning and zoning commission later this month.

The plan has been in development for some time.

More than two years ago, county officials held open house forums at five locations around the county to seek input for the plan.

Included in that process was a survey of county residents, which generated over 1,700 responses.

In that survey, the majority of residents rated the quality of life as “good” or “excellent.”

The majority of respondents also said the county should offer more public transportation options, establish a countywide parks program and extend water and sewer systems to areas that lack the services, but only a third said the county should fund those services with additional taxes or fees on residents.

According to presentation material used at the open houses, the comprehensive plan was supposed to be finalized sometime in late 2010.

Eagan said that hasn’t happened, however, and the county is no longer using a contractor to complete the plan.

“The master plan is still being worked on. I have taken over responsibility and have been meeting with county commissioners weekly to get their opinions and views on what has been drafted,” she said. “It is my plan to meet with them again next week, hopefully for one of the last times, and then get this information back to the committees.”

The county’s current master plan was adopted in 2002.