Since a process to rewrite Bulloch County’s zoning ordinance and redraw a map was launched fall 2022 and recently concluded with an amendment to the Smart Bulloch 2040 Comprehensive Plan, some may feel déjà vu on hearing that county officials are now launching an overall update of the Comprehensive Plan.

But the previous, locally initiated amendment process was intended to deal with population growth and proposed housing construction resulting from the regional boom in industrial development. The new process that begins with an online survey now available and with a public hearing and information meeting Nov. 13 at 5 p.m. in the commissioners’ boardroom at the County Annex, 115 North Main St., is for a state-required five-year update, county Planning and Development Director James Pope explained on the phone.

“Our amendment, which was formally adopted in September … really just addressed the Future Growth Map, the growth areas and two of the character areas for unincorporated Bulloch County,” Pope said.

The amendment created new “suburban neighborhood” and “suburban corridor” character areas in the southeastern-most part of the county.

“But that was, again, an amendment,” he said. “This new update is an update required by the Department of Community Affairs that every local government in Georgia has to go through on whatever timetable they’re on, but every five years they have to update their plan.”

In fact, the Smart Bulloch 2040 Comprehensive Plan isn’t just the Bulloch County government’s plan. It is jointly a plan of the county for all of its unincorporated area and a plan of the cities of Brooklet, Portal and Register for the areas in their city limits. But the city of Statesboro has its own plan and is doing a separate update.

So the 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13 joint public hearing will help launch the update of the plan for the county’s unincorporated area, Brooklet, Portal and Register. Even though it will be held in their boardroom, this is not expected to be a meeting of the county commissioners.

Instead, Pope other staff members will host the meeting. One purpose will be to explain the process for updating the plan, but there will also be some activities for community members to give initial input on concerns and priorities, he said.

Then a second public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan update, intended to address county aspects of the plan, will be held during the Board of Commissioners regularly scheduled meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 21, again in the boardroom at the County Annex. That hearing will include an opportunity for citizens to speak to the commissioners about the plan, he said.

More than a map

The land use planning section, with its Future Development Maps, is just one chapter of the Smart Bulloch 2040 Plan. Other chapters address economic development, transportation, broadband connections, and a community work program.

“All of the elements within the plan will be looked at, not necessarily for wholesale change, but course correction,” Pope said. “Obviously things have changed since 2019.  Certainly with (Hyundai Motor Group and suppliers) locating here, you’ve got to look at certain things in a different light, like what does economic development look like for the county, moving forward.”

He said this may be just his opinion but he doesn’t expect many changes in the land-use portion of the plan, particularly the county Future Development Map, since that was addressed in the amendment.

“We’re going to be paying attention more to the economic development elements, our five-year work program for the county and the municipalities, which the five-year work program ties into various funding opportunities,” Pope said.

The work program serves as a “to-do list” for things such as transportation projects, public buildings and parks, in general terms.

Survey now open

The Bulloch County Joint Comprehensive Plan Survey is available for public input online at https://bit.ly/jointbullochplan2045 . It includes 16 survey items or questions. Some are multiple-choice lists for ranking or choosing a certain number of priorities. Some include an “other” blank or a space to explain an answer.

Item 8 states: “Rank the importance of focusing on issues or opportunities related to economic development and land use in the Comprehensive Plan (1 being most important; 7 being least).” Clicking arrows that appear on each line shuffles the options up or down.

The seven options given are “Preserving rural character,” “Attracting more higher paying jobs to the area,” “Creating additional opportunities for entertainment and commercial,” “Creating quality residential neighborhoods (sidewalks, lighting, etc.),” “Creating new industrial parks,” “Expansion of access to water and sewer services,” and “Implementing architectural, landscaping, and signage standards for high-traffic corridors.”

Item 9 allows a similar ranking of issues related to transportation and community facilities.

A steering committee is also being created for the Comprehensive Plan update. This will be a different group than the committee assigned to the previous amendment, and the county staff is recruiting members based on Georgia Department of Community Affairs guidelines, Pope said.

Transportation meeting

Between two Comprehensive Plan meetings, another, different but related public-input meeting will be held at a different location.  A meeting on the Unified Long-Range Transportation Plan that is being developed by the Goodwin, Mills, Cawood consulting firm, or GMC, will be held Thursday, Nov. 16, 5-7 p.m. in the Randy Newman Community Center at 206 Railroad St., Brooklet.

GMC is working on the plan under joint contract with Bulloch County and the city of Statesboro. However, a proposal Pope has submitted for a decision by the county commissioners during their 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7 meeting will have the county fund an amendment to the GMC contract specifically for a Southeast Bulloch Area transportation plan, as a supplement to the overall plan.

The Nov. 16 public input meeting in Brooklet will be related to this supplemental plan, which also links transportation concerns to land use issues likely to be included in the Comprehensive Plan, Pope said.

Another survey

Meanwhile, a survey is also available to give unput on the overall Long-Range Transportation Plan, but it is the same survey distributed before and after the joint Statesboro and Bulloch County open house held on the plan at First United Methodist Church in September.

Nothing specific to the Southeast Bulloch subplan has been added, but county and city officials are still encouraging people to participate in the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/LRTPlan .