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Ashland County planning committee debates consultant role, deadlines; chair to resign
Summary
Committee members clashed over how to balance Northwest Regional Planning’s contracted schedule with local drafting and public input for a comprehensive-plan update; Chair George Boussaint announced he will resign the chairmanship and a chair election will be placed on the next agenda.
Acting chair called the Ashland County Planning Committee to order and members spent the bulk of the meeting arguing over how to proceed with updating the county’s 2016 comprehensive plan, whether to rely on Northwest Regional Planning (NWRPC) to lead the schedule and how to align the consultant’s survey questions with local goals and objectives.
The debate mattered because committee members identified an April 2027 grant close-out and an expected public hearing in fall 2026 as hard deadlines. Erica, a committee member, said the plan “has to be finalized, paid, everything done by April 2027” for grant purposes and urged the group to accelerate work now so later months can accommodate public hearings.
Members split on process. George Boussaint said the committee should draft local objectives in parallel with consultant work so subcommittees can bring concrete recommendations back to the group; others argued NWRPC will provide necessary background, consolidate the survey and deliver draft chapters the committee can review. Pat Kenny and Charlie Ortman both emphasized that survey questions need to map to concrete, measurable goals the committee wants in the plan.
Tensions over process came to a head when George announced a change in leadership: “I’m going to resign from the chairmanship of the committee, although I’ll stay on the committee,” he said. The vice chair agreed to work on the next agenda and Dan Grady committed to put an item on the next meeting agenda to hold an election for a new chair.
The committee did not take a formal vote on chairmanship at this meeting. Next steps are to schedule a meeting with Northwest Regional Planning to cover months 4 and 5 of the consultant’s scope of work, and to place the chair election on the next agenda so members can decide a permanent chair.
The committee also agreed to continue review of the 2016 plan’s goals and objectives in the coming meetings and to reserve time for local discussion of priorities once NWRPC delivers draft material.
