Board adopts updated Fairfield Township comprehensive plan after consultant presentation

Trustees voted March 10 to adopt the Fairfield Township comprehensive plan update recommended by the township zoning commission (resolution 26-31). The motion passed on roll call with all trustees voting "yes."

Planner Jay Stewart of Stewart Land Use presented a summary of the update, describing the process (steering committee, open house, online and paper surveys) and the plan’s main parts: an updated future land use map, a housing chapter that recommends use of residential PUDs and incentives for senior housing, and four focus-area plans for 5 Points, the Princeton Road corridor, Route 4 Gateway and the Gilmore Road mixed-use district. Stewart advised trustees to use the plan as a guide when considering rezonings and to follow up with a zoning resolution update to implement recommendations.

Trustees asked about public outreach and timelines; staff and the consultant said the zoning commission had already recommended approval and signaled the plan’s use during future budget and zoning decisions. The plan also contains an implementation chapter with prioritized actions for year one, year two and beyond to help trustees program capital and planning work.

What’s next: the plan’s adoption gives staff and the zoning commission a policy framework for reviewing rezoning requests and preparing zoning-code updates; trustees suggested adding comp-plan year-one tasks to the board’s annual calendar and returning specific implementation steps for budget season.