The Orange County Board of Commissioners received a presentation on the latest draft of the County Land Use Plan 2050 at a meeting on March 11. The plan aims to address the county’s growth and evolution by developing an updated land-use plan for the next 25 years.
Several phases of the project were completed throughout 2023 and 2024, including officially launching it, identifying new issues and opportunities, and evaluating planning influences. The fourth and current phase, which is expected to last until this fall, is developing the actual plan.
The presentation for the Board of County Commissioners was delivered by Leigh Anne King, a director and project manager at Clarion Associates, the urban planning firm running the project. King outlined the key vision themes of the plan, which all converged on the overall idea of cultivating sustainable development.
“Within that center of this Venn diagram to cultivate sustainable development is continuing to protect critical watershed areas, open spaces, and preserving agricultural lands, advancing opportunities for attainable equitable housing and employment, and implementing sustainable transportation systems and economic development initiatives,” she said.
With two community engagement windows already completed, King said that receiving feedback will continue to be a key part of the development of the plan going forward.
“The intention is that there will be many more rounds of opportunity to be providing comment, feedback, revisions to the document as we move towards that final phase, which is the adoption phase,” she said. “So, many more months and opportunities for providing feedback, both for board members as well as advisory boards, and members of our community at large.”
The presentation visualized the framework of the plan in a pyramid with overall vision themes supported by goals, which in turn were supported by policies. For example, within the goal for agriculture, working lands, and open spaces there were policies of preserving working lands for farming and forestry, preserving natural heritage, and supporting local agriculture.
The framework for the land-use plan outlined by Clarion project manager Leigh Anne King during her presentation to the Board of County Commissioners.
Within the goal for the economy and employment, there were policies of supporting commercial and industrial uses of designated economic development areas and rural activity nodes while also ensuring sustainability.
These policies are among a total of 58 action items across nine specific goals detailed in the draft document.
Speaking with 97.9 The Hill in November, board chair Jamezetta Bedford discussed the dilemmas faced by the planners as they balance many different necessities.
“We all love having the parks and the open and the farmland and preserving agriculture. And yes, we would like to have more housing. And yes, we would like to have a little more economic development,” she said. “It’s a trade-off there. So the commissioners asked really good questions, and they’re going to then try to pick elements from each of these.”
The timeline for the near future includes a briefing for the Board of County Commissioners on April 8, followed by a period of revising the draft plan and the opening of a community engagement window from May 12 to July 31. The window will include online surveys, webinars, and in-person meetings. When the commissioners return from their summer recess in August, they will receive another briefing about the results of the community engagement window.
The Planning Board will spend the fall developing and eventually endorsing a plan, and the county commissioners are scheduled to hold a hearing for adoption of the plan in January.
Featured photo via the Orange County government.
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