18 August 2004 Master Plan Public Hearing

First Master Plan Public Hearing

The first of two public hearings for the final draft of the master plan was held at Lawrenceburg High School auditorium Wednesday night. Seven of the Plan Commission members were in attendance to answer questions from the audience, as well as half the advisory board.

Travis Miller gave a power point presentation of the process, components, goals, and strategies of the plan

Questions from the public included issues of road conditions, (particularly mentioning road slips,) which were viewed as impediments to development permits.

Plan commission chairman, Mark Mitter, and member, Rick Pope, (who also has experience on the Soil and Water Conservation Board,) gave detailed explanations of how development requests are evaluated.

Advisory Board member, Bob Sauerbrey, gave the background on slippage issues and explained some of the historical impacts of improper development of hillsides, referring to “short term profits and long term problems” for the county. Hamilton County being built on seven hills and, specifically, Mount Adams was used as an example. It was noted that Cincinnati had the highest rate of slippage issues in the entire country. (Great views often on poor substrate.)

Warren County’s issue with unbridled development was also discussed, as was their current situation with having to use moratoriums on development.

Lastly there was a question about getting cooperation with schools so that they were not all clustered on one campus. Walkability to the schools and the actual size of schools for lower grades were both mentioned.

Travis Miller, Planning Director, saw cooperation as a two-way street. He noted that hopefully, the school boards and administration would see the county plan as something worth considering, particularly because it had input from such a large cross-section of citizens and special interest areas. The planning department, for their part always considers the impact on the school districts- requesting letters from the school superintendent as part of the packet for each development.

The meeting adjourned around 8:30.

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township