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Benton County consultant to begin outreach in LC area; committee told draft strategy due soon
Summary
County staff told the LC Citizen Advisory Committee a consultant will begin outreach in January after the county finalizes a community‑engagement strategy; the comprehensive plan rewrite will take more time and any policy changes must be accepted by the Board of Commissioners to become binding.
Petra (community development staff, interim) told the LC Citizen Advisory Committee that a consulting firm working on Benton County's comprehensive plan outreach is expected to present a final outreach strategy within a week and to begin community visits in January.
"Transportation policy is . . . a statewide planning goals. That's something that we are gonna have to address in the comp plan," Petra said, noting the outreach will include a "train‑the‑trainers" session in January to prepare local volunteers and staff to help gather community input.
Committee members were told the county is about six weeks behind schedule because of additional internal review of outreach strategy. Petra said staff will give final comments to the consultant on Wednesday and the consultant aims to deliver a draft of the outreach plan within the next week.
The consultant's early visits will focus on validating information already gathered in LC, Petra said, rather than repeating earlier fact‑finding steps. She described the LC area as relatively well organized compared with other unincorporated areas and said the consultant's work will be more of a validation process there.
Petra and other staff emphasized that rewriting the countywide comprehensive plan is a long process. "It's at least a one‑and‑a‑half to three year project to actually do the rewrite itself," Petra said. She added that any changes only become policy if the Board of Commissioners adopts the revised plan; once adopted, relevant provisions create legal requirements the county follows.
Committee members asked for a schedule of upcoming outreach and training; Petra offered to prepare materials and, if requested, bring speakers in specific months (for example, the Department of Land Conservation and Development) to explain permitted uses in village commercial and MPA (mixed‑purpose/agriculture) zones.
Committee members agreed to assemble a list of topics they want covered at upcoming meetings and to send those items to Petra so staff can develop training and presentations ahead of time.
The committee also discussed practical next steps: Petra will circulate a draft list of candidate agenda/training topics and coordinate with the consultant's planned visits. Staff reiterated they can synthesize state and county resources for the committee and provide a quarterly update on changes to land‑use law that could affect LC.
