Bryan County’s Comprehensive Plan Committee is one step closer to completing the community agenda, after the committee sat down to their second meeting on Tuesday.
Tricia Reynolds, planning director of the Coastal Georgia Regional Development Center, said the committee finalized a vision statement for the county and began working through the issues and opportunities to create policies to address those issues and opportunities.
"Of all the issue areas, we got through two, but we need to get through all of them. We got through development patterns and land use, and population growth," Reynolds said.
"The advisory committee members are willing to embrace smart growth principals and strategies, and they are starting to value the idea of thinking about where and how they want to develop," she said.
With the growth the committee sees happening in the county, Reynolds said there is a need to start thinking about moving toward a water and sewer authority, which would be responsible for the whole county.
County Administrator Phil Jones said the meeting went really well, with 10 members present out of the 12.
"All of them came ready to work," he said. "We did a quick rehash of the last meeting, and got into the issues and opportunities that we had previously identified."
The specific assessment topic areas include population, housing trends and conditions, economic development, natural resources, cultural and historical resources, land use, community facilities, transportation, and intergovernmental coordination.
Ray Pittman, an engineer for Thomas and Hutton, is one of the committee members.
"We have a really great, diverse group," Pittman said. "We spent this meeting going over how we anticipate future growth and residential growth, and the military in addition to the civilian growth. We also talked about services available, and infrastructure; manufactured homes and the lack of mixed use areas, and what people thought about what that should be done with that."
Pittman said the group also went over the desire for "innovative developments."
"We talked about how we could get something different than wants happening now with development, so that it could be more innovative than what it is now," he said.
As far as the next meeting goes, Pittman said the committee members all received a number of handouts to review, on the remaining issues and opportunities, so they can come back together next time and be ready to discuss it.
"The group is so energetic and there was a lot of detail and specific things that we went over, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the committee comes up with as we continue to move forward," Jones said.
The next meeting will be held Oct. 16 at the new Hwy. 204 fire station.
The Vision Statement for Bryan County’s Comprehensive Plan
Bryan County is a family-oriented community that values its education system, coastal amenities and unique rural character, where location and quality of life are recognized as important features of our vibrant and growing county.
Our goals are to master plan and prepare for growth, economic development and provide adequate facilities and services for our citizens while preserving our natural resources and native character.
Our priorities include: preserving our natural heritage while providing for quality growth by evolving higher standards for all types of development; continuing our commitment to sustaining a family-friendly community through exceptional educational opportunities; continuing economic development through job creation and attracting wealth-building enterprises; increasing recreational options and housing affordability.