Greene County staff unveil comprehensive plan update, solicit public feedback

Greene County planning staff on Tuesday described a year-long update to the county's comprehensive plan and asked residents to take a public survey and join focus groups to shape draft goals and future zoning updates.

"We are gonna talk to you today about the comprehensive plan update," said Sydney Allen, director of planning and zoning, who opened the session and introduced her planning team. She said the plan will guide later regulation changes and review of rezoning and conditional-use applications.

Staff emphasized the plan is a long-range document of goals, maps and strategies rather than a zoning ordinance. The timeline outlined by staff calls for data collection and community engagement, development of draft goals and strategies, Planning Board review, public comment and a final adoption by county commissioners, followed by updates to the county's zoning regulations.

The county has conducted data collection since early summer and formally kicked off the project in September, staff said. Officials used regional examples and census data to design a SurveyMonkey questionnaire of 33 questions across nine sections that takes roughly five to ten minutes to complete. The survey has been open about two months and has attracted more than 280 responses so far.

Preliminary responses show demographic and preference trends staff said will inform the plan: 35% of respondents are age 55 or older; 75% both live and work in the county; roughly half supported expanding buses, trails and bike lanes; and 85% preferred inward growth on vacant properties within incorporated cities rather than outward expansion.

Staff also described public engagement to date: three field meetings in Rogersville, at the Willard Fire District and at the Election Center with interactive activities (dot exercises, sticky notes and iPads) and displays of existing maps, including the current future land use, zoning and environmental maps. Organizers said they will form community focus groups to help draft goals and will post plan updates on a project website.

Allen said the office will catalog public feedback and make it available for other county divisions that may need the information. "We want to make sure that what is generated from this process is truly for the community, not just what the four of us think sitting up in our offices," she said.

An attendee from Fair Grove asked whether smaller municipalities maintain planning staff; Allen replied that some do and some do not, and she encouraged residents to start with county staff or local aldermen and said the Southwest Missouri Council of Governments is a regional resource. Staff also offered paper copies of the survey and said QR codes and iPads were available at the meeting for immediate participation.

Next steps outlined by staff include continued survey outreach to underrepresented parts of the county, formation of focus groups, compilation of draft goals and strategies for each topic area (transportation, housing, environment, parks, economic development and public services), Planning Board review and a public comment period before commissioners consider adoption. After adoption, staff said they will begin updating zoning regulations to align with the new comprehensive plan.

Contact information and a link to the survey were provided at the meeting; staff encouraged residents to reach out by email or phone with ideas.