Tonight!

The first meeting in a three meeting series is tonight at Greenwood Baptist Church (2401 Claussen Road), 5:00-7:00PM with a formal presentation by yours truely at 6:00PM.

We'll be talking about the County's Land Use - drafted maps will be displayed to discuss and mark upon while County staff takes notes on your reactions.

Charles Tomlinson of the The Morning News wrote a great article in yesterday's paper.

Our goal for the evening is to show off the drafted land use map and interact with the community to see what you want to see in the next 20-30 years. The Future Land Use map is the vision of the community and will be part of the County's Comprehensive Plan.

The City of Florence is also embarking on updating their comprehensive plan and City staff may be there too. We hope these two plans will come together in a coherent, seemless transition at the City/Unincorporated boundary.

Saving the Dream - home foreclosure information

Florence County may be buffered from recent national trends in home foreclosures, but we are not immune. The following graphics show that there are a significant number of foreclosures in the County, especially in newer developments of the City of Florence and Lake City.

The following maps are links to larger graphics that include the geographic distribution of foreclosures from January 2008 through February 2009. 

Congressman Clyburn is hosting a 'Save the Dream' seminar for those struggling with mortgages that will be held in Columbia March 13th- 15th. More information may be found at www.naca.com.

Buying a hybrid? Let the County help.

Just released!

Florence County will help County residents and businesses to buy new hybrid vehicles!

Residents and businesses can apply, using this online application, to receive $500 for a purchase of a new hybrid vehicle bought and registered in Florence County. Pictured here is Progress Energy's plug-in hybrid.

Funds are limited, so apply today!

Thinking of buying a hybrid soon, then send in the application to reserve a rebate for up to 15 days.

Help green up your future Florence!

Busy busy

Reserving meetings places, making maps, compiling data and refining our text - all in preparation of the upcoming Drop-In meetings for the new Future Land Use map.

Starting Thursday, March 12 and continuing for the following two weeks, County staff will be showing, talking and listening about the new land use coverages.

March 12 - Greenwood Church - 2401 Claussen Road

March 19 - Eastside Church - 3541 E. Palmetto St.

March 26 - Family Life Church - 2812 W. Palmetto St.

Three times in strategic locations (south, east and west) around the City - more than enough time to review the plan. We open at 5:00PM, have a formal presentation around 6:00PM and then finish up by 7:00PM.

Maps will focus on your parcels - find where you live and determine the future plans for your neighborhood. Want to change the way things look? - we're here to listen! ...also, these maps will be posted near reference desks at your local library begging for your input (have fun with dots!) - you'll see when you get there. ... the photo shows visitors to our office getting a preview.

See the Florence city area map here.

See what else we are doing here.

Questions? Send me a message here.

Facebook - here.

I-95 detours

Over the next three months, twenty-three miles of I-95 will be improved from Exit 171 in Florence, north towards Dillon, exit 194.

See the SCDOT webpage for more details.

Want to check for traffic before you head out? Look through the traffic cameras.

We like Trees!

Moats, Park and Ward earn arborist certifications by the International Society of Arboriculture. These three employees of the County Planning Department are part of efforts to review and produce tree preservation policies for the County.

We are very excited to become part of the foundation to look at better ways, more sustainable ways to develop in Florence County.

Sustainability has been a continuing theme. Tomorrow's County Council meeting will be include a resolution to incentivize the purchase by Florence County residents of hybrid vehicles as well as greening you home. Look at our previous blog for more info or this Morning News article.

Future Land Use, air quality notifications and the tree preservation policies are all examples that began with a sustainable direction.

Do you have an idea on how the County can be more sustainable? Please share! ...and please help!

Sustainability in Florence County

I am very excited about the next County Council meeting this Thursday at 9:00AM. Aside from the Community Facilities Element of the Comprehensive Plan being introduced, so are some very cool hybrid vehicle and 'greening your home' incentive programs for County residents.

That's right - the County will help you to 'green' your lifestyle! 

This link will open up the agenda - look on page 3, it's the first resolution. More specifically, the entire resolution can be found from this link on pages 20 and 21.

The County jumped on air quality initiatives at the first sign of potentially missing the new ozone standards. The Planning Department has been following our air quality very closely (see our August 2008 blog) and also presented a list of options to the Council on October 16, 2008. This incentive program was on the list together with an anti-idling policy for all employees.

The anti-idling policy is in the process of being incorporated into our Personnel Policy Manual!

Watch the Council meeting live.

Let us know what else we need to focus on to make our community better. Click on the this article's title to leave a comment.