Regional planning commission sends proposed county land use plan to commissioners for vote

Jeff Barron, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
·2 min read

CARROLL − The Fairfield County Regional Planning Commission voted to send the long-debated land use plan to the county commissioners for their approval or rejection.

The vote was not unanimous.

The commissioners will now discuss the plan Tuesday and vote on whether to implement it or not on March 19.

"It's been a long road to get here," Commissioner Jeff Fix, who's been instrumental in forming the plan, said. "I think the fact that we pulled it back and visited with every village and every township and school superintendent and the farm bureau, we got so much feedback that was implemented into the plan. The plan is stronger because of that and I feel really good about the work that's been done."

Planning NEXT principal planner Vince Papsidero explains changes to the proposed Fairfield County land use plan Tuesday at the regional planning commission meeting at the Fairfield County Workforce Center in Carroll.. The RPC voted to send the plan to the county commissioners for their approval or rejection.
Planning NEXT principal planner Vince Papsidero explains changes to the proposed Fairfield County land use plan Tuesday at the regional planning commission meeting at the Fairfield County Workforce Center in Carroll.. The RPC voted to send the plan to the county commissioners for their approval or rejection.

The county wants to update its 2018 comprehensive development plan, which is where the current plan came from. The county is working with a company called Planning NEXT on the new plan. Fix previously said trying to figure out where to place housing, industry, retail and more is the purpose of the plan. He said local villages and townships can use the plan however they see fit and that nothing is forced on them.

The county commissioners wanted to approve and implement the plan year. But because of the public's pushback, they delayed it until now. Fix has held 26 meetings since then with public officials as the county has amended aspects of the plan.

Those amendments include as quoted in a slide show presentation at the RPC meeting:

  • Focusing growth inward to the existing cities and villages, while encouraging new growth in a limited number of new locations.

  • Promoting farmland preservation and open space conservation.

  • Limiting the impact of new growth on current taxpayers

"It's a great first step," Fix said of the plan. "We have a tremendous amount of work to do to help the townships and villages now go out and implement this. This is a great first step, but we've got a long way to go. At the end of the day, it's all about trying to preserve the land and protect the taxpayers."

Four planning commission members voted against the plan, including Jennifer Henery from Rushville and Ron Baker from Richland Township.

"Our constituents just felt that it wasn't tailored to us," Henery said. "That there's no need for it right now. We're not looking for a lot of growth happening within the village of Rushville right now."

Baker said his township is mostly farmland and that the farmland is not going anywhere anyway.

Visit the Fairfield County Regional Planning Commission website at www.co.fairfield.oh.us/rpc to see the updated land use plan.

jbarron@gannett.com

740-681-4340

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This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Fairfield County Commissioners to discuss/vote on land use plan Tuesday