BRINNON — A community open house on updates to Jefferson County’s comprehensive plan is planned in Brinnon tonight.
The meeting will be from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Brinnon Community Center, 306144 U.S. Highway 101.
Officials with the Jefferson County Department of Community Development and the county planning commission will host the meeting to tell about the updates and receive community input on changes members of the public would like to see.
“It’s part of our community outreach,” said David Johnson, associate planner. “We call it the ‘road show’ since we’ve gone though a bunch of communities in the county.”
This is the last public meeting scheduled before the planning commission begins drafting the updates.
These meetings started in July and were held across Jefferson County in Port Hadlock’s Jefferson County Library, Port Ludlow, Clearwater, Gardiner and Quilcene.
This is the second held in Brinnon because turnout was low the first time around, according to Johnson.
Tonight’s meeting will begin with an open house where community members can ask questions about the comprehensive plan and share their thoughts.
“We’re looking for what they like about living in Jefferson County and what they’d like to see changed,” Johnson said.
“Then we can figure out how to do that with the comprehensive plan.”
The county’s comprehensive plan was last updated in 2004. It is required to be updated every seven years to keep up with local and state laws as well as with changes in the local community.
The county aims to have the updated comprehensive plan ready by June 2018. Johnson said planners hope to have a draft copy ready for review by October 2017.
“It got pushed back due to the recession,” Johnson said. “It requires a lot of work and a lot of staff time, so we got an extension to 2018, but that’s it.”
The comprehensive plan has 11 elements. Johnson said the elements that are discussed the most at community meetings tend to be economic development, the environment, housing, water and septic, and health care.
“In this county, there’s always a lot about keeping our rural areas,” Johnson said. “People also come here for the natural beauty, so that comes up a lot as well.”
After the open house, the planning commission will meet to discuss the public’s comments.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@ peninsuladailynews.com.
