A five-year Joint Comprehensive Plan update is out of the hands of its stakeholder committee after being submitted to city and county governments for review.
The stakeholder committee, which gathers community input and makes recommendations to local governments, held several meetings and conducted a public survey to gather input for the update to the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission.
“I think it’s a good plan. We received a lot of information. Our goal was to give a plan to the local governments that was flexible to enable them to read the contingencies we have identified, as well as things that may pop up in the future,” said Laurel Johnson, stakeholder committee chair. “It was almost like a college seminar on Gilmer County. We looked at geological, geographic, demographic and economic data for the county. In the plan, there’s a lot of proposals in regard to housing, transportation and water quality and various projects the local governments provided.”
The county must have a joint comprehensive plan, which addresses possible future projects and goals, to qualify for various grants, Johnson said. An example is changing the ability of the county to pave roads quicker if the upcoming T-SPLOST passes.
“A lot of the projects that are proposed are proposed with the thought that they may or may not happen, but if we can secure appropriate grants so the residents don’t have to pay for those projects out of the tax pocket of the cities or county … why wouldn’t we do that,” Johnson said.
There was great response to the community survey, which offered the public to have a say in the plan update.
“We were very proud that we got such good public involvement with the survey. Gilmer County holds the record for number one and number two for most survey results,” Johnson said.
A public hearing last week capped off the series of public meetings that have been held over the year.
Now that the plan has been submitted to the governments of Gilmer County, Ellijay and East Ellijay, those entities will have the opportunity to make revisions before submitting the plan.
“It will (then) be submitted to the Department of Community Affairs for their review and input, then it will go back to the local governments for actual approval,” said Johnson.
The final plan is to be submitted by December. Amendments can be made over the next five years in case of unforeseen events.
“It’s really the local residents coming together to have input on what direction we want to see with the county over the next five years. Our hope is it will be a useful document for cooperative action by the local governments and for setting their strategic plans for the future,” Johnson said.