Aiken County Planning Commission unanimously recommends adoption of 2024–2034 Comprehensive Plan

The Aiken County Planning Commission voted unanimously Thursday to recommend that County Council adopt the Aiken County Comprehensive Plan 2024–2034 after a public hearing on the final draft.

Joel Duke, Aiken County planning director, presented the roughly 50-page plan as the product of more than a year of public outreach, noting a public involvement meeting with about 165 attendees and ten open work sessions. Duke said the plan lays out 13 issue areas with strategies, an annual evaluation schedule and priority investments. He said a March 16 amendment — prompted by public input — moved the boundary between the county’s rural area and the transition zone in the western part of the county from the railroad to Old Jackson Highway.

Several residents spoke during public comment. Samantha Melamed of Fox Pond Road thanked staff and commissioners for incorporating public feedback and praised the plan’s emphasis on conservation, water resources, open space and farmland preservation, protections for equestrian areas, targeted redevelopment, historic neighborhood preservation and quality-of-life investments such as parks and walkability. “This is the first meaningful update in 20 years,” Melamed said, urging the Commission to recommend adoption to enable needed zoning and land-use updates.

Other speakers praised the public process and the plan’s rural preservation expansions. At the same time, Don Moniak of Lake Shore Drive criticized past neglect of small parks, said the county’s land regulations will require extensive revision and identified what he described as map inaccuracies, including omitted places such as Vaucluse and a neighborhood he referenced as "Petti Coat Junction," and the absence of a Savannah River site. Moniak also said the draft lacks a resiliency chapter; the comment was not followed by a formal amendment on the floor.

Wendy Collins Gutfarb raised pending state legislation — Senate Bill 227 and House Bill 4050 — saying those measures would give local governments explicit authority to require that public facilities (schools, roads, public safety, water and wastewater) be in place concurrent with new development. She urged consideration of the bills’ intent as the county implements the plan.

After the hearing, Commissioner Andrew Marine moved that the Commission adopt a resolution recommending adoption of the Comprehensive Plan; Commissioner Liz Stewart seconded the motion. The motion passed by unanimous consent, with seven members present voting in favor. The Commission’s recommendation now goes to the Aiken County Council for final action.

The Planning Commission scheduled its next regular meeting for April 16, 2026. The March 19 meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m.