By Chris Wilson

During a series of March public workshops, the Alachua County growth management department asked citizens to comment on major community issues that should be part (or should not be a part) of the county’s Comprehensive Plan. The Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR) will be used to rate the county’s success addressing community issues through the Comprehensive Plan and will provide recommendations for changes to the plan.

While the entire process of writing the Report will take until late 2009, public opinions on the process will be taken through May. After that time, the county staff will be analyzing the recommendations and creating the report. There will be another public comment period in February or March 2009.

The last EAR in Alachua County was done in 1998.

The Comprehensive Plan is a blueprint for the future of Alachua County and the opportunity for the community to translate its desires for the future into policy, such as plans for development and natural resources. The plan is adopted as law.

There are twelve elements to the Comprehensive Plan, including future land use, transportation mobility, housing, potable water and sanitary sewer, solid waste, stormwater management, conservation and open space, recreation, intergovernmental coordination, capital improvements, economic and historic preservation.

The county’s current Comprehensive Plan has a horizon of 2020. The EAR process will last through September 2009, which is the deadline established by the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

The first step in the process, which will last through June, will identify the major issues relating to the Comprehensive Plan.

The county’s growth management staff has held four public workshops dealing with the plan. In our distribution area, meetings were held at Kanapaha Middle School, which about 25-30 citizens attended, and another meeting in Newberry at the municipal building, which was attended by this reporter and one Jonesville resident. Other meetings were held in Hawthorne and in east Gainesville at the County Health Department building.

According to principal planner Ken Zeichner, there are “major features” to the plan, including where urban and rural/agricultural areas should be.

“So far, we’ve indentified about a dozen major issues for more detailed analysis in phase 2 of the EAR,” says Zeichner.

One of the issues brought up by residents is the

Another area of concern is development. County staff members say they’ve heard from a lot of citizens who feel that the plan gives preference to developers, who can get around the Comprehensive Plan only through amendments which are reviewed by county staff and voted upon by the Board of County Commissioners. Staff members also say the other side of the coin is that developers and builders believe the process and the standards in the Comprehensvie Plan are too costly.

On May 6, the Local Planning Agency and the Board of County Commissioners will hold a joint meeting/workshop to discuss and comment on the input that has been received from citizens and other organizational bodies throughout the county. The meeting will culminate in a finalized list of issues to submit to the Department of Community Affairs.

Phase Two of the EAR, which will last through January 2009, is the development of recommendations for the update of the Comprehensive Plan. During this process, the recommendations will come from analysis of the major issues that were mentioned, changes in the community and assessments of the objectives and policies in the Comprehensive Plan and their effectiveness. This phase again will end with a joint meeting/workshop between the Local Planning Agency and the BOCC.

Phase Three of the process is the final workshops and public hearings on the EAR. This will be the final review of the Report and will end with the adoption of the EAR by the Board of County Commissioners in August 2009.

 
For more information about the EAR process and to review documents and maps of concern in the process, visit the county’s growth management website at www.alachuacounty.us/ear. You can send e-mail recommendations on what you would like to see addressed in the county’s Comprehensive Plan to ear@alachuacounty.us. If you are not sure what to address in your comments, there also is an online survey at the EAR website listed above that will guide you.