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What It Does
According to Andrea Sukanek of the planning and zoning office, the plan will be a complete guide to current and future resources and development including demographic profiles of each community and land use maps.
"Description of proposed land uses will be an important part of the plan," Sukanek said. "What we'll do for the existing land uses is look at the assessor data and what the existing land uses are.
Sukanek said future land use maps and proposals will follow the county's needs, according to residents.
"We're going to look at the existing needs of the county and ask the citizens what they think is lacking in the county or what they like about the county," she said. "We'll take that and decide where we go from there."
The document will also assist the planning and zoning commission in developing zoning standards and trends for each area of the county.
"We'll look at what we want for the county and where development should go then we'll try to plan the zoning districts so that it meets the goal for the future land use plan," Sukanek said.
It will also act as a guide for county decision making regarding zoning and financial expenditures.
"When the county commissioners are looking at spending some money on a project, maybe the master plan will say that people want better roads instead of sewers, they can see where to spend the money," Sukanek said.
The plan also will help avoid the duplication of efforts among public and private entities.
"If there's something in the master plan that the county thinks is important and it's something that a private entity is also looking at, they can form a collaboration to move that goal forward," Sukanek said.
Perhaps most importantly, the plan will create consistent decision making.
"For instance, if there's a zoning application that the commissioners are considering, this will be a guide for them," Sukanek said, adding that instead of basing their decision soley on the application, they can base it on the plan.
In all, the plan is meant to help with community goals and interests.
Sukanek said that when a planning and zoning commission hearing comes up, there is usually a lot of private interest that people have.
"This will be a way to look at the community as a whole instead of deciding whose private interests are more important," she said.
The Process
The plan's drafting process is currently itss first stage, which is data collection.
Along with informatio collected by a county-appointed steering committee of various officials with different fields of development expertise, data collections will include public input through written letters and surveys.
"We don't want to find out down the road that we should have been focusing on something that we weren't," Sukanek said. "We'll determine issues and implementation strategy based on data from citizens."
The majority of written and e-mailed input is expected to be collected in March through May of 2010.
Then two rounds of open houses each at various locations around the county will be held in April and May. At those meetings, the conditions of the plan are expected to be ready.
Final feedback on the entire document will then be taking in September and October before separate public hearings will be held by the planning and zoning commission and the county commission in November or December.
Surveys will be issued and collected throughout the year by an outreach committee.
"The goal is to maybe not just send out thousands of surveys and hope that some of them come back," Sukanek said. "The goal is to make it a little more personal and maybe set up at a location where people are going to be gathering and hand them out."
Surveys also will be e-mailed to those on a county mailing list and available on the planning and zoning office's Web site at www.franklinmo.org.
More information will be released when those surveys are released.
The final plan will have to be approved by the planning and zoning commission as well as the county commission before it is officially adopted.
The Consultant
County officials have hired Hilary Murphy of Murphy Consulting LLC, University City, to help guide them in the process.
Sukanek said they picked Murphy because she is independent and will be flexible with the county's needs.
"The one thing about the consultant was that we were looking for someone to help us and guide us, not give us directions," said Rich Wilson, planning and zoning commissioner. "We are planning on taking the process and working with the citizens who have input. She's basically going to see that we're on track."
How to Get Involved
Sukanek said the best way for citizens to be involved is to report feedback, fill out surveys and attend the open houses and public meetings.
The steering committee has been mostly filled, but she said there is always room for more help on the outreach committee spreading information and collecting data.
For more information on how to become involved in the process, call the planning and zoning office at 636-583-6393 or send an e-mail to planningandzoning@franklinmo.net.
