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Committee seeks clearer contract terms with Northwest Regional Planning before full comprehensive-plan work begins
Summary
Northwest Regional Planning outlined the consultant scope — mapping, eight facilitated meetings, one public open house and optional digital survey — and county committee members discussed access to advisory services, budget constraints and a timetable for a contract to come before the county board.
Ashland County planning committee members discussed details of the consultant scope and a contract with Northwest Regional Planning, emphasizing how advisory support will be shared with subcommittee chairs, limits tied to budget and the timetable for county-board approval.
Emily, a planner with Northwest Regional Planning, told the committee the current scope of work covers eight facilitated committee meetings; one facilitated public open house (separate from the statutory public hearing); updates to maps, tables and narratives; draft and final plan documents in Word and PDF; mapping and future land-use maps; assistance preparing the statutory public hearing with a 30-day notice; and an optional digital public-opinion survey and a summary report. “We would provide digital copies of the draft and final plan in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats,” Emily said.
Committee members raised operational questions about how subcommittee leaders will use consultant expertise. Pat Kinney and others said subcommittee chairs need practical access to Northwest Regional Planning staff for clarifying technical and policy questions; Northwest staff said the usual workflow is that the consultant prepares an initial draft of each chapter and then shares it for subcommittee review. “Typically, we would share that maybe on SharePoint…those can be downloaded by the committee members, and that's available to review,” Emily said.
Members also flagged budget and time limits: consultants’ advisory time must be managed so one subcommittee does not consume disproportionate hours. “Somewhere in there…we should add a sentence or a paragraph, ‘as time and budget allow,’ so that we don't have a member just asking for endless hours that push the budget outside of the scope,” Pat said. Committee members proposed monthly reporting of consultant contact time as a way to track utilization.
On timing, Northwest Regional Planning staff said a condensed scope for contract language can be provided; the county board must adopt the public participation plan before consultant-facilitated plan work begins. Committee members expect a contract to be drafted and circulated to committee contacts (Dan Grady, Gary [surname variations in transcript], George Boussay) and then to county administration and legal review. The committee set an Aug. 18 meeting to review the contract and to begin detailed work once a contract is in place.
Ending: Consultants will send a draft contract and condensed scope for internal review; committee members will follow up at the Aug. 18 meeting and report back after county board and legal review.
