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Daniels County begins update to 2017 growth policy; consultants set survey and draft schedule
Summary
Interstate Engineering lead planner Rachel Laqua told the Daniels County commission that a public-input survey will run late September through October, draft plans will be prepared November–April and a final plan with an implementation table is targeted for mid-May to align with Commerce grant cycles.
Rachel Laqua, the lead planner from Interstate Engineering, told the Daniels County Board of County Commissioners at a meeting that the county will begin updating its 2017 growth policy with a timetable designed to yield a final plan by mid‑May.
Laqua said the update will start with an online public-input survey running from late September through October, augmented by QR‑coded postcards in the local paper and outreach through county social channels and the county website. She warned that attendance at in‑person policy meetings is often low and said the primary outreach would be digital: "Public input is really important in the planning process and so we'll get a lot of it through this survey," Laqua said.
The consultant proposed drafting the plan from November through April, holding an early-draft meeting with the commissioners and planning board in winter, and presenting an expanded public-input meeting and formal presentation in April. She said the target date for the completed plan is mid‑May so the county can compete for state Commerce grants and other funding, and promised to include an implementation table this time because the county lacked one in the 2017 document.
Laqua noted the county's 2017 growth policy appears to be missing the final seven pages that would have contained implementation steps, a problem she said occurred when previous staff left before finalization. She told the commission she will work to make the new plan actionable and prioritize small, demonstrable successes that can attract grant funding and community support.
The consultant also recommended closer coordination with the city of Scobby on growth-area mapping and zoning boundaries so that new development is directed toward existing service centers rather than scattered locations. She said the update will consider county zoning, the planning board's priorities and suggested follow-up tasks tied to a capital improvement plan (CIP) to make projects grant-ready.
Next steps: the county will review the proposed outreach materials and survey questions and return to the board and planning board with draft language and a public-input approach as scheduled.
