Heath Planning Commission backs 2025 comprehensive plan updates, flags irrigation, mapping and parkland issues

The Heath Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend approval of the city's 2025 comprehensive plan update with a set of amendments and clarifications to be forwarded to the City Council.

The commission asked staff to: remove the 2018 comparison columns from the land-use table and relabel rows to match the future land-use map; add clarifying language defining what the plan means by "developed" and "vacant" (including the distinction between platted and unplatted land); and verify several acreage and mapping figures tied to the city's GIS data. Commissioners also debated a change to Objective 8.5 that replaces the word "encourage" with "require" in language about self-sustaining amenities such as irrigation and on-site water systems.

Why it matters: the changes affect how staff and developers interpret the city's long-range guidance and which items would need subsequent code or zoning text amendments to be enforceable. Commissioners said some recommended changes in the plan are strategic (policy direction) and would require later ordinance updates to become mandatory rules for development.

Discussion and key points - Objective 8.5 wording change: Commissioners drilled into a single-word change in Objective 8.5 that replaces "encourage" with "require" for…