Next Comprehensive Plan Community Input Meeting Set for Carnesville

Another open meeting is planned by the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission to get input from citizens for the Franklin County’s Comprehensive Plan.

This time the meeting is set for Monday, September 30 at 7p at the Carnesville Community Center.

Franklin County’s Joint Comprehensive Plan involves all five of the County’s municipalities and at this meeting, residents of Carnesville will be able to ask questions and let the County know what they would like to see in their town over the next five years.

Similar public input meetings are being held in all five municipalities in the County.

Earlier this month, Adam Hazell with the GMRC was in Lavonia to hear from citizens there about their hopes for the City.

Hazell said the five-year comprehensive plan is designed to help local governments determine what they want to see in the future for their community, based on citizen input.

“We’re working on a document known as the Franklin County Joint Comprehensive Plan,” he told Lavonia citizens. “This is a document which is essentially a business plan for government. It’s whereby each community stops, takes the pulse of where things are, what’s working and what’s not, and where  we want to go with it in the future.”

The Georgia Planning Act of 1989 established the framework for how local governments in Georgia plan for their future in conjunction with neighboring governments, utility providers, and other stakeholders.

Hazell said the Comprehensive Plan is state-mandated, but he says there’s a good reason for that.

“It’s also a required document in the State of Georgia for those governments who want to continue access to state and federal funds. There’s what is called, Qualified Local Government Status.’ The State of Georgia, when it loans out money, they want to make sure that money is going towards something that’s part of a thoughtful process and not on the whim of the electorate,” Hazell explained.

If you cannot make it to the September 30th meeting in Carnesville, you can go online and take a survey at: surveymonkey.com/DPKK5TB.