The latest step in Knox County’s efforts to update its comprehensive plan will take place at the Hilliar Township House on Wednesday, December 4 at 7 p.m.
County, city, and township officials created the Together Knox process to update the county’s 2018 comprehensive plan. Together Knox is a joint effort of the county, the city of Mount Vernon, and Knox County Area Development Foundation.
According to planning director at the Knox County Regional Planning Commission, Darrel Severns, the meeting is being held to make sure the southern part of the county is included in the process.
“We had several folks from the southern part of the county on the steering committee,” said Severns. “The consultants just want to make sure they are being heard.”
Drenda Keese, one of two incoming county commissioners, said that representatives from Hilliar, Milford, Miller, Liberty, Clinton, and Morgan Townships as well as the Village of Centerburg have been invited to the meeting. Jason Rogers, a Hilliar Township trustee, confirmed that he and his fellow trustees will be in attendance.
Severns added that members of the public may attend.
“The local officials are the ones who were invited but the public is welcome,” he said.
The Knox County plan takes into account growth, development, and other factors related to life in the county. One of its primary purposes is to guide future land use.
The 2018 version of the plan states, “A comprehensive plan serves as a vision for the community as to how it expects land use to occur in the future.” It goes on to explain that while they are not zoning documents, “Comprehensive plans are valuable when they are sufficiently detailed and provide enough vision to guide a potential purchaser of land on how to use the property."
Jeff Gottke, president of the Knox County Area Development Foundation who is guiding the plan update process, said that the land use policies in the plan are not binding on local governments.
“The plan is just direction,” he said. “But it can be used to create local policy that is binding.”
Gottke’s understanding is in line with language in the current version of the plan.
“Adoption of a comprehensive plan, like this Plan Update, by Knox County’s city and villages would support their councils’ zoning in the event of a legal challenge, cities and villages need only show their zoning laws are in line with a coherent land use policy based on the community’s needs,” is the language included on page five of the plan.
