White County citizens packed the board meeting room of the White County Administration Building Tuesday evening to hear more about the development of a new White County Joint Comprehensive Plan for the county and cities of Cleveland and Helen.
The group received a detailed overview of what a comprehensive plan is from Joe Rothwell, Regional Planner with the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission. Rothwell also shared information about past plans, including how they were developed and implemented. He said so far they have received over 520 citizen comments, which is more than all of the comments received in the 2021 comprehensive plan.
Rothwell said comprehensive planning helps communities grow better by wise management of resources along with smart investments in utilities, facilities, and services.
During the citizen comment time, around a half dozen people shared their views and asked questions on a variety of topics.
More of the citizens were there to find out more about the plan and how it would be developed than those making comments or suggestions. Most of those at the Tuesday meeting had already shared their views via a survey form.
Sell: Community input ‘will help us plan’
White County Community and Economic Development Director John Sell, after the meeting, expressed his pleasure at how the community has responded,
“We’re very excited that we had a packed house here. That shows the commitment from the citizens to be involved with this process, which will help us to plan,” he said. “We’re excited to get their opinions to know what they want us to do, what they don’t want us to do.”
Sell said there are “a lot of great comments” in the 520 surveys that have already been submitted.
Officials will continue collecting online surveys through the end of this year and hold another public meeting in the fall.
Citizens may share their views in the online survey by clicking here, scanning the QR code above, or by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/r/WhiteCounty2025.
