HOWARD
COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN –
A Special Called
Meeting of the Howard County Board of Commissioners and County Council was held
on
John B.
Harbaugh, Vice President James
Papacek, Vice President Larry
Murrell, Co. Attor.
Paul J. Raver, Member & County Plan Commission Pres. Mark Fulk, Pres. James, Shearer, Councilman Russiaville Leslie Ellison, Councilman Town Board
Max Custer, Member Jeff Hodges, Builder Cheryl Graham, Member Scott Maple, Maple
Michael
Imbler, Member Farms
Rollin Matchmes, Member/ Ext. Agent Robert McKean, Howard
James Miller, Member County Home Builders
Assoc.
Michael
Ullery, Builder Jolene Rule, Wildcat
Creek
Guardians
Jeff
Steers, WIOU/WZWZ Radio
Katie
Burns,
Tribune
Lynn Bolinger, Teacher & Cand. For Mayor
Mike
Kanable, President
Russiaville
Plan Com.
Auditor
Plan
Commission Director Glen Boise opened the meeting and turned control of the
discussion over to Ms. Kelli Lawrence, Planner from Ground Rules Inc. of
·
What are
the County’s strengths and weaknesses?
·
What areas
do we need to work on or change?
·
How do
people outside of our area perceive our community?
·
How would
our Community like to be perceived?
·
What
percentage of measurable growth do we want to achieve?
·
Where would
we like to see our land use development in 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years?
·
What
information is needed to make these decisions?
She
then opened the floor for participation and comments from those in attendance, not
confining the discussion, but welcoming any and all thoughts relative to planning
needs.
Commisioner
Harbaugh commented that the community would greatly benefit by working toward
offering the best school system and educated workforce in the state. Jeff Hodges felt City and County governments
should collaborate in extending the infrastructure, especially storm and
sanitary sewers, into the county to promote prosperous growth. Mr. Hodges also suggested creating a county
sewer district and promoting the proper applications of on-site sewer
systems. These changes would generate cost
effective building sites.
Mr.
Mike Imbler suggested the establishment of incentives to attract new business
such as tax breaks, free utilities for industries and land at low or no
cost. He said what we are currently
doing is not working. We need to be
creative and make changes in order to move forward.
Many
people on this steering committee agreed that the community would benefit from
a new spirit of cooperation between the City and County governments. Councilman Les Ellison assured that City and
County government is working well together and has worked together well in the
past on many community based projects.
Mr.
Jeff Steers recommended taking the proposed upgrades of U.S. 31 into
consideration when preparing the comprehensive plan. Mr. Glen Boise anticipates receiving the
results of environmental impact studies soon and meetings will be held later
this year to discuss these issues. The
Committee briefly considered the impact, if any, from the proposed I-69 road
project.
The
Committee contemplated various goals and how to go about reaching them.
A comment was made that
Mr. Michael Ullery thinks the county has done very well without a
comprehensive plan in place. He stated
that perhaps the community should consider whether a plan is actually
needed. Mr. Scott Maple suggested
identifying soil types before deciding which areas are prime farm ground that
should be preserved. Both Mr. Ullery and Mr. Maple stated concerns
about protection of property owners’ rights.
Mrs. Jolene Rule
addressed water quality issues relating to the Wildcat Creek and its
tributaries. She said that farmers have
already implemented buffer strips to filter out pesticides and animal waste to
help protect the water quality in streams.
Mrs. Rule felt the natural waterways should not be disturbed. She said, “We’re always trying to tweak that
system, but man doesn’t do as good a job as the one who put it there in the
first place.” In the long run, money
would be saved if development locates farther away from the streams.
Ms. Kelli Lawrence
said the community needs to consider how much percentage of growth and
measurable goals should be put into the plan.
Ms. Lawrence reiterated key issues that were discussed up to this point:
·
Promote
home ownership, affordable housing, and quality of life;
·
Protecting
the environment and watersheds;
·
Extending
the infrastructure into the county;
·
Drainage
issues and crossing farm fields;
·
Property
owner rights;
·
Consider
impact on traffic flow.
Mr. Rollin
Matchmes suggested the comprehensive plan should respect property owners’
rights. He also felt the plan should
identify land use areas that might encroach upon each other in order to reduce
islands of a particular type of use.
Mrs. Kathy
Harbaugh felt a 20-year plan was too extensive.
She said the comprehensive plan should be an on-going project and be
reviewed every 5 to 7 years. Ms. Kelli
Lawrence said long term together with short-term goals would save the community
money. Commissioner Harbaugh agreed and
stated he was opposed to an inflexible plan.
Ms. Lawrence said
the comprehensive plan would serve as a balancing act, to be used only as a
guide and not the law. Mr. Mike Imbler
disagreed. He said once the plan has
been implemented, it would be considered “law” such as preventing industrial
development in a residential area. Mr.
Glen Boise reminded Mr. Imbler there are zoning restrictions established that
consider the impact development might have on neighboring properties.
Mr. Mike Ullery
commented that we need to review the progress of our community in the past 10
years. Mr. Ullery felt that the income
ranges in the community need to taken into consideration when putting the plan
together.
Mr. Harbaugh
stated that the steering committee would need ample time to review the draft of
the plan. Mr. Bob McKean said the former
plan drafted three years ago had very little vision and inflexible
control. The new plan needs to have a
vision for the community and establish processes to help it grow. The plan must inspire home ownership, extend
the infrastructure into the county, offer incentives for business growth, promote
superior education, protect our natural resources and not contain unreasonable restrictions.
In conclusion, Ms.
Lawrence said the community needs to think about what type of perception it wants
to exhibit. Secondly, on what and where community
leaders would be willing to spend money?
Would the community leaders desire to invest in such activities as
extending the infrastructures; working on sewer systems and separating the
sewer water from storm water; promoting education; and, repairing the corridor
along the streams? These questions were
left open as the meeting came to a close.
__________________________
Commissioner
– Council Special Meeting April 1, 2003