Last night the Planning Commission heard presentations of the new Community Facilities element and Administrative Procedures. The Community Facilities element is on its way to County Council: to be introduced on February 19th, public hearing on March 5th and final reading Mar 19th. These dates are shown at the calendar to the right and will be updated if there are any changes to the schedule.
The Administrative Procedures, however, will be returning to the Planning Commission February 24th. Language on how to approach non-compliant zoning requests will be revised. The revision will allow the Planning Commission to recommend zoning requests that are not compliant with the Comprehensive Plan.
For those that are confused about this change in language, a brief description may help. A little background first: the goal of any comprehensive plan is to capture the public's vision of what is perceived as the direction for the next 20-30 years. Of course this is difficult, which is the reason why the plan must be redone every ten years.
This vision is embodied into the document called the Comprehensive Plan. This Plan includes nine elements: Economic Development, Cultural Resources, Natural Resources, Population, Housing, Community Facilities, Future Land Use, Priority Investment and Transportation.
The next element is the Future Land Use. This part of the plan categorizes all of the County (except for those municipalities that do their own - Pamplico, Florence, Lake City) area into land use groups. These groupings will then be the basis for allowing certain zoning in the area. Also, as mentioned last night, is the basis for the potential of county-wide zoning.
This is where the Administrative Procedures (not an element, but dictates how to amend the Plan) come into play: For example, a zoning request is presented to the Commission that does not comply with the intent of the new comprehensive plan.
The Administrative Procedures presented last night to the Planning Commission would have forced the Commission to recommend denial of the rezoning to the Council. In order to approve the request, the Council would first be directed to change the Comprehensive Plan (public hearings, notice, input, etc.) to correct the Plan.
In essence, the Planning Commission is looking for more flexibility in their recommendation to the County Council when hearing such a request.
If you continue to be challenged in understanding the Plan or actions taken by the Commission last night, feel free to contact us.
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