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County staff: rural activity centers are generally well located; board asks use-comparison along US-441
Summary
Staff presented a GIS-based assessment of Marion County's rural activity centers (RACs), mapping each center with a five-mile service buffer. Commissioners asked staff to compare commercial entitlements in existing commercial zoned areas with RAC allowances along the US-441 corridor and to return with a uses comparison.
Marion County planning staff told commissioners that existing rural activity centers (RACs) appear to be strategically located and occupied, based on a GIS review presented at the April 4 workshop.
Ken, who prepared the map, explained he used a five-mile buffer around each RAC. "I used a 5 mile buffer because of multiple reasons. 1, 5 miles in rural areas is not very far. 2, if a rural activity center maximizes its development before you can create a new 1 within to be set 5 miles spacing distance there. And in the rural areas, a food desert is 10 miles, so this is half of that," he said.
Staff recommended no immediate changes to RAC locations, but commissioners asked for a focused comparison of day-to-day uses allowed under existing commercial zonings versus what a RAC designation permits along key corridors. In particular, some commissioners suggested examining the US-441 corridor where commercial zoning and RAC placement differ, and where freight/throughput considerations have influenced the county's decisions.
Why it matters: RACs are intended as mixed-use nodes to serve surrounding rural populations so residents need not travel into incorporated centers for routine goods and services. Commissioners asked staff to return with a use-by-use comparison to determine whether RACs or existing commercial zonings better serve everyday needs in those corridors.
Next steps: staff will provide a comparison of allowable uses in commercial-zoned parcels and RAC-designated nodes for corridors identified by commissioners, and will bring back the map layers used in the workshop for commissioner review.
