HANCOCK COUNTY – (EXCERPTS FROM GREENFIELD REPORTER) A draft is finished for a plan designed to guide officials through decisions that will shape the county’s future, culminating a $250,000 effort that began over a year ago.
The draft 2022 comprehensive plan for the county and other information that’s been part of the effort, called Future Hancock, is available at futurehancock.com.
At nearly 200 pages, the draft outlines goals and aspirations for how the county will develop as far as aspects like housing, land use, transportation, recreation and infrastructure. The plan makes land use recommendations for the unincorporated parts of the county as well as the towns of Shirley and Spring Lake. A thoroughfare plan that addresses roads and transportation matters is also part of the update, as well as an economic development strategy for the county.
The plan is called comprehensive for good reason, said Mike Dale, executive director of the Hancock County Area Plan Commission.
“It really does, I think, a very thorough job,” Dale said, “this new plan…takes economic development to a whole other level, and there’s a long list of implementation strategies in there for following through the recommendations in the plan.”
To lead the update, county officials selected Vandewalle & Associates, a consulting firm with offices in Wisconsin and Ohio, in April 2021.
“It didn’t seem long at all really,” Dale said of the process. “And Vandewalle did a great job, they did a fantastic job at outreach. Even now, people can go online to the website and give comments. … I don’t think we’ve ever had a process that was more open and available to our constituents than this particular project.”
An open house and public hearing on that plan is coming up on Sept. 20.
You can read the full article here.
