The most recent effort to create a county comprehensive plan went down in flames in December 2011 after months of dissention. Now there is interest in reviving it in some form.
County Commissioners Gwen Lachelt and Julie Westendorff were asked about plan revival at an "On the Road" meeting Monday evening in Bayfield, and right before that at a Pine River Rotary Club meeting.
They and County Planning director Damian Peduto said the county commissioners will meet with county planning commissioners next Thursday, June 26, to discuss long range planning in general.
Peduto referred to a June 12 meeting that touched on this. "They are all thinking comprehensively," he said. "Everyone wants something that's efficient, that doesn't waste previous county expenditures and people's efforts. The previous effort was a vision process. A comp plan isn't that. It's goals and objectives."
The 2011 plan drew heated opposition linked to an alleged United Nations Agenda 21 takeover plot implemented by local governments under the guise of "sustainability."
With that plan shelved, the county has been operating under the 2001 comp plan. Peduto noted that plan was based on data from the 1990s. Plans need to be updated regularly, he said.
Lachelt said she and Westendorff "ran on the comp plan." Both were elected in 2012 in tight races.
The June 26 meeting will "start the process and see where each of the planning commission members stand," Lachelt said. "By statute we are required to have (a comp plan). The 2001 plan is good but very outdated."
Westendorff said, "It was three years ago that we had the draft come out. Only two people on the current planning commission were on the planning commission then. ... They are the ones who create the comp plan. They were briefed last week by county staff. There's a lot of valuable data in the 2011 plan, but it needs to be updated."
With county growth projections for the county, water is likely to be a major issue in the plan, Lachelt and Westendorff said.
