Comprehensive plan timeline extended

After a large turnout at a draft comprehensive plan open house Monday at Hotel Greenfield, city planners have decided to extend the input process a little more.

At its busiest point, the open house had about 30 people in attendance. MSA Professional Services Assistant Planner Jenna Gilliam said the feedback they are receiving for Greenfield’s comprehensive plan is very beneficial as they develop it.

“What we’ve decided, based on this, is that there needs to be a little more outreach to get this to the finish line,” Gilliam said. “This will help those who may not have had an opportunity for the last two meetings, or those who haven’t seen it, to have their feedback heard.”

Once the upcoming additional outreach and feedback period concludes a public hearing will be held by the planning and zoning board where they can recommend that the city council adopt the completed plan. Planners are saying the tentative timeline of the project is being extended by at least a month.

“Based on tonight, we’ve looked through what people have said and what we’ve heard. We’re going to update the draft plan again,” Gilliam said. “One of the main components is the land use map, which has been a work in process, like any community. We see one parcel that needs to change from commercial to industrial and things like that. You update it every time you look at it. This is just a draft of the plan. There will be another draft of the plan posted in two weeks.”

MSA will have a deadline on the project website saying when more feedback is due by. The project website can be found at rb.gy/5vit6g.

“We’re going to get this past the finish line but we did hear from people that we need a little more time,” Gilliam said.

Comprehensive plans have a lot of data in them and are used as a tool by municipalities for up to two decades. Gilliam said that it is recommended municipalities check their comprehensive plan at least every five years.