The steering committee for Together Knox, the initiative updating Knox County's Comprehensive Plan, held its final meeting on Thursday, Dec. 18, in Mount Vernon.
The Comprehensive Plan serves as a long-term strategy for guiding future growth, development, and conservation across the county.
It is being updated by the Knox County Area Development Foundation, the Regional Planning Commission, the county commissioners, and the city of Mount Vernon.
Jeff Gottke, president of the Knox County Area Development Foundation and project lead for Together Knox, explained that four local organizations decided the existing plan needed an update "based on the plan outliving its usefulness and the changing conditions in the county."
The steering committee will now begin finalizing a draft of the plan to be sent to the county, Mount Vernon, and local townships.
Many of these entities will hold public hearings on the plan, though it is unclear whether they will make any changes to it.
“The Knox County commissioners and others will meet and consider the plan with three readings and public input,” Gottke said. “But it would be difficult to change [the plan]. It would complicate things if the city changed something that the county did not like.”