By ELENA MARSH
Insider Staff Writer
With only one more major meeting to go, the Moore County Land Use Plan Steering Committee is finishing up its work in order to hand up recommendations to the Moore County Board of Commissioners this spring.
Members of the 30-person committee have spent the past two months reviewing the goals of the 2013 Land Use Plan and submitting suggested edits via email to the county’s planning department.
Goals in the plan are, in priority:
* preserve and protect the ambience and heritage of the county;
* enhance built and natural environments to improve resident health;
* optimize the uses of land within the county;
* provide information and seek citizen participation; and
* accommodate a variety of housing types.
Tuesday night’s meeting saw members review the submitted assignments by their peers as well as discuss in small groups the changes they would make to the plan. The assignment was completed at both the January and February meetings.
“The consensus among the committee so far that I have seen is that the document is difficult to enforce,” said Ginger Bauerband, a member of the county planning staff. Bauerband has helped with meetings in an administrative role, taking minutes and handling email communications.
Notes and recommendations from the past two meetings are set to be sent to Bauerband and the county Planning Department on Tuesday. In March, the final meeting will be a presentation of the comments from the committee. Not every individual comment will be presented, but instead, a general consensus of committee observations and recommendations will be presented after planning staff collects all the group’s data.
The next meeting will also see a draft of a proposed land use map for the group to discuss.
Water and sewer in the county have become an important part of the conversation around growth. A project bringing sewer to the Seven Lakes business district could see the area grow in activity and new businesses.
“There aren’t a lot of specifics about Seven Lakes that’s been talked about (in the Land Use Plan meetings),” said Tom LoSapio, the committee representative for Seven Lakes. “It is a really developing area, and I think the basic feeling is that everything is on hold until 211 comes through.”
Extension of sewer service in and around Vass is continuing to make headway with its expansion across the eastern part of the county. In December, commissioners expressed a desire to explore a partnership with Southern Pines to potentially expand the county’s access to water.
With growth also comes a desire to protect the natural environment of the county. Jeff Marcus, who works as the Longleaf Pine Restoration director at the North Carolina Nature Conservancy, also sits on the committee as the natural resources representative. Marcus pointed out that there are multiple interests in the room, and that there is some tension between those that want to see development respond to growth and others that want to preserve as much of the rural county as possible.
“I think there is some potential in this plan to make some improvements with things like limiting development to areas of existing infrastructure,” he said. “There is certainly a lot of potential for this document to provide better protections for natural resources than what we have now.”
Contact Elena Marsh at (910) 693-2484 or elena@thepilot.com.
