Coweta County hopes to get significant public input for the updates to the comprehensive plan and comprehensive transportation plan.
The first public input meeting on Coweta County’s comprehensive plan update was held Thursday, and district transportation workshops start next week.
There will also be focus group meetings on five aspects of the comprehensive plan. And there is an online survey that all Cowetans are asked to fill out. The survey is at www.cowetaplans.com .
The county’s comprehensive plan and comprehensive transportation plan updates are being done simultaneously. The two plans are intended to guide growth as well as transportation projects through 2050.
By doing both the comprehensive plan and transportation plan updates together, “we are really hoping for a better coordination of land use and transportation,” said Coweta Planner Jenny Runions. It can help the county better prepare for funding opportunities, make sure that opportunities in the transportation plan are identified in the comprehensive plan, and vice versa.
Public input is a vital part of the planning process.
“Your role is one of the most important roles. We definitely need the public input,” Runions said at Thursday’s meeting. “We need you to identify common issues and special areas of concern.”
Public input will also be needed on the draft plans, when they are presented later this year.
A focus group meeting on “land use and growth management” will be held March 11. That workshop will look at the community vision and will include a “SWOT” analysis of the county’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
“It’s a very high-level, big picture vision for the community,” Runions said.
The “historic preservation and sense of place” meeting will be March 18. A focus group on “economic development and housing” will be March 30; a meeting on “natural resources” will be April 29, and a focus group on “broadband services and transportation” will be May 11.
The broadband services meeting is required by the state. “We’re going to be analyzing the gaps in the network we have in Coweta and looking at alternatives or other ways we might be able to fill in the gaps,” Runions said.
Later in the process, on June 8, there are plans for a virtual meeting on the community work program and a review of goals, needs and opportunities.
All meetings will be held through a virtual meeting platform, but will also have in-person options. Seating is limited for the in-person options because of social distancing, but most meeting locations should be able to hold 15 to 20 people. The meetings will be recorded so that people who were unable to attend can watch them.
While Thursday’s meeting was held through the Zoom platform, future meetings may be held on other platforms.
The community workshops for the transportation plan begin Feb. 18, when the District 4 workshop will be held at the Central Community Center. District 5’s event will be Feb. 22 at the Clay-Wood Community Center. Meetings will be Feb. 24 at the Madras Park gym for District 3, Feb. 25 at the Welcome Community Center for District 2, and March 2 at the East Coweta Senior Center for District 1. All workshops will be from 6-8 p.m.
For Thursday’s meeting, a handful of people attended the meeting in person, while there were 34 participants attending through Zoom, though many of those attendees were county officials or consultants working on the program. There were also representatives from the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Information about the plan process and the public input opportunities will be on the various websites for the plans – www.Cowetaplans.com and cowetactp.com , through social media and the Newnan Times-Herald, as well as fliers and signs around the community.
There are a few steps to the planning process, and right now county officials and consultants are in the “existing and future conditions” phase.
“We’re taking a base-line look at what land use and what transportation look like in the county today,” said Regan Hammond, transportation consultant with consulting firm VHB, which is working on the transportation plan.
The planning process is being done with a “growth-based framework” to manage the land use vision with land use and transportation, and it is based on the county’s land development guidance system, which created three growth areas based on a point system. The lowest point value areas will have agricultural uses and low density development. The middle areas will have a continuation of the current development pattern, while higher density development on sewer is being proposed for the highest point value areas.
For the planning process, those three areas are referred to as “rural character,” “growth maintenance” and “growth priority.”
During Thursday’s meeting, those in attendance split into breakout groups to talk about various needs in all three areas. Those participating, both in person and online, got to give input on transportation needs, whether or not there is a need for bike and pedestrian facilities, and also talked about the county’s current growth.
For more information on the plan or to participate, visit www.cowetaplans.com or cowetactp.com .
