The Habersham County Commission approved the joint comprehensive plan during their regular meeting on Monday night. The county approved the plan following Alto, Clarkesville, Demorest, and Mt. Airy council approvals over the last month.
The plan has been in the works for nearly a year with all five entities working together and collaborating on how the county will look in the coming years.
Habersham County Director of Planning and Development Mike Beecham explained to the Commissioners that a comprehensive plan advisory committee was selected about a year ago. The committee began meeting with the Georgia Mountain Regional Commission members to begin assembling the plan.
He said the committee met about every other month. During the plan development, there were at minimum seven public hearings discussing the plan throughout the county with at least one held in each city.
Beecham told commissioners that the county had an online survey where they received input from 700 respondents.
“For a county our size, that is actually pretty good,” he said. However, he added that he wished there was more participation in the survey.
The plan is essentially the same plan as five years ago and it is updated every five years.
“Not a whole lot has changed locally as far as what we want the county to look like in the future,” Beecham said. “We received a number of responses that the citizens want to preserve our rural character. They want to preserve our small town charm.”
He stated that there was one change that stands out.
“One significant change is that the department heads participate a little more in the community work program.”
The community work program is basically a five-year capital improvement plan that is outlined in the comprehensive plan. By doing this, it could make available grants from the state.
Commissioner Bruce Harkness stated that he had read the document.
“It was an amazing document. I want to thank whoever and everybody that worked on this. They did a great job,” Harkness told Beecham. “I was very happy with the job you all did.”
“This board as a body, all five of us in some measure or another want to listen to what the citizens have said about preserving the natural parts of our county,” added commission chair Ty Akins.
