Planning commission begins five-year review of county Comprehensive Plan; staff to update maps and census data

Hunter Richardson, chairman of the King & Queen County Planning Commission, opened the Aug. 5 meeting by saying the time had come to review the county’s Comprehensive Plan and noting that “the County must review the plan at least once every 5 years.”

Donna Elliott Sprouse, director of community development, told commissioners the current Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2019 and is a complete rewrite of the prior plan. She said it is not the staff’s intent to rewrite the plan again but to identify chapters and pages that need updating. “I have prepared a checklist for the Commission to help identify pages and sections of the current plan that I believe needs to be updated,” Sprouse said, and asked commissioners to review the list and bring additional comments to the next meeting.

Sprouse said staff will begin updating text using new census data and will update the plan maps accordingly. Commissioners raised transportation and safety concerns, with multiple members asking for more attention to road improvements on Route 33 in the Mattaponi area to support safety and economic development.

Kelly Evko, economic development director, said she attended to hear commission feedback and suggested the Economic Development Authority could provide material for the Comprehensive Plan’s economic-development section. Evko said the Board of Supervisors recently increased her hours from 10 hours per month to 10 hours per week and that Timmons has been working on a development study the EDA expects to review at a Board workshop later this month.

Sprouse asked whether commissioners wanted to receive marked-up text or clean map updates as chapters are revised; the commission preferred marked-up text and clean maps. Richardson said the Comprehensive Plan update will be moved to the commission’s Old Business section next month so members and staff can continue work on the updates.

As part of staff comments, Sprouse also provided copies of quarterly reports the Planning and Zoning Department presents to the Board of Supervisors and said monthly meeting packets are now posted on the commission’s webpage. She explained that the Library of Virginia retention schedule requires zoning records be kept permanently and said the Board has budgeted funds to have permanent files scanned and saved to cloud storage with backups.

The commission set its next meeting for Sept. 3, 2024, at 6 p.m. There were no public comments during the meeting.

The commission approved the May 6, 2024 minutes by motion and recorded votes. At the meeting’s close, Michael Fleming moved to adjourn and members ratified the motion by voice vote.