Land use forum Tuesday
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on January 27, 2008 2:00 AM
From staff reports
MOUNT OLIVE -- Town officials want to know what residents and business owners want to see when it comes to land use in their community.
Mount Olive will have a land use forum Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Senior Citizens Building, 711 Northwest Center St., Mount Olive.
Mount Olive planning officer Danny Keel said the city has sent letters to businessowners, but that all residents are invited to attend and join in the discussion about how to update the town's current land use plan. The plan was last updated in 1996, and a lot has changed since then, he said.
"A land use plan is basically done to give you an outlook on expected growth and what you plan to do," he added.
Bob Clark of Clark Planning and Associates, LLC has been working on the updated plan since spring 2007. He has teamed up with Bob Masters of Carolina Opportunities, who worked in the mid-1990s with the town helping with an economic development strategy, and Karen Mulcahy of East Carolina University, who is doing the mapping work.
An updated land use plan should provide an opportunity to look at development with fresh eyes, Clark said.
"The former mayor, Ruff Huggins, and the board wanted this to dovetail in with the downtown revitalization that has been going on," he said. "This (forum) is an opportunity for people to tell the town what they want the town to focus on."