The Marshall County Council heard a request to support and fund an updated County Comprehensive Plan in next year’s budget.
During last week’s meeting, Greg Hildebrand, director of the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation told members that the current plan is 20 years old and the plan before that was 30 years old. He encouraged the council to keep the funding in next year’s Plan Commission budget to cover half of the cost and then budget the other half in 2026.
Hildebrand spoke of the “worthwhile” cause the Comprehensive Plan provides, saying, “It gives a guiding light on what development people of the county would like to see, and where that development should take place.” The MCECD director said there are a couple of issues in the current plan that haven’t been addressed such as the plans to make U.S. 30 & 31 a limited access highway. He also said there are some items in the current plan that haven’t been addressed that should be moved into the new plan.
Hidebrand told council members updating a comprehensive plan is a year-long process and MACOG, the Michiana Area Council of Governments, can assist. The price tag is $60,000 and that cost could be spread over two years. He said a big part of the cost is public engagement through meetings and participation at events to get input from the citizens.
Council member Nicole Cox said she read the county’s current Comprehensive Plan which is supportive of saving and protecting farmland.
Hildebrand told them the old comp plan said the county’s population growth from 1974 to 2020 was 30% but he believes that was a typo and it should have been 3%. He also said in the last 20 years the county’s growth has been less than 3%. Hildebrand said attracting more population to the county is needed and can happen with good paying jobs and providing a nice quality of life. He explained that more citizens would be paying more income tax dollars to help fund emergency services and new industries with higher paying jobs would help pay more property taxes reducing what individual homeowners would pay.
When asked what the process was, Hildebrand said a couple of members of the Plan Commission would be on a committee along with several folks from all levels of society from throughout the county that have an interest in seeing the county grow and improve. The committee would spend a good amount of time making recommendations. Those recommendations would be shared with the public and narrowed down to what the citizens feel is important. That plan would then be presented to the commissioner for final approval.
Hildebrand said the Comprehensive Plan should be commissioner driven but he was before the council seeking funding support in next year’s budget.
County Council members seemed receptive to the idea with Councilman Tim Harman saying he supported it.
The County Council will consider the funding request at their September meeting when they hear the second reading of the 2025 budget.
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