A booth for Hancock County’s comprehensive plan was at the Riley Festival in downtown Greenfield in October.
Submitted photo
HANCOCK COUNTY — Leaders and their consultants are inviting the public to an event next week to collaborate and brainstorm on the future of the county.
The visioning workshop is for a new comprehensive plan for the unincorporated parts of the county as well as the towns of Shirley and Spring Lake. When finished, it will include visions for land use and thoroughfares along with an economic development strategy. The plan, called Future Hancock, will serve as a guide for those elements along with future growth, housing, parks, public services and related topics. It will replace the county’s current comprehensive plan, which was adopted in 2005 and underwent an in-house update in 2012.
The workshop is 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, on the second floor of the Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation Administration Building, 1806 W. State Road 234, Fortville. All residents and stakeholders of Hancock County are encouraged to attend and participate, including those who live in incorporated municipalities.
Work on the new plan comes as development booms in the western part of the county, bringing changes many officials welcome, like jobs and tax revenue; but also changes many residents don’t welcome, like increased traffic and stark differences to the once-rural landscape.
The process for the new plan kicked off earlier this year, led by an 11-member steering committee, local officials and the county’s consultant, Vandewalle &Associates.
Future Hancock’s project team will start the upcoming workshop with a brief presentation, but the majority of time will be spent hearing from attendees through interactive engagement exercises to learn more about their ideas for the county’s future.
The event aims to identify key issues, ideas, opportunities and challenges in the county that resonate with the community and set the course for creating a common vision and goals for guiding the comprehensive plan’s elements.
Jeannine Gray, a Hancock County Council member and member of the Future Hancock steering committee, is looking forward to the event.
“I’m hoping there is a tremendous turnout of county residents that will be there to hear where we are to date, and what the future holds, and be able to participate in the direction that our county goes,” she said. “That is vital.”
Bill Spalding, a Hancock County commissioner who also serves on the steering committee, said he’s been getting a lot of good input throughout the efforts on the plan so far, but is really looking forward to getting feedback from residents on what they want the county to look like both in the long and short term.
“How they can influence that plan to make them a stakeholder in all this,” he added.
The workshop will follow the Future Hancock team’s presence at events and communities throughout the county recently.
“Since the last comprehensive plan process occurred more than 15 years ago, our focus thus far has really been on building awareness of the plan to get the community excited about what’s to come,” Meredith Perks of Vandewalle &Associates told the Daily Reporter in an email.
Perks added the team has also held targeted focus group discussions for gaining insight into specific plan elements. The team has been collecting input through Future Hancock’s website as well. More than 450 people have signed up for emails from the site, and the site has drawn over 150 responses and comments.
More pop-up events and open houses will be scheduled in the future as the plan takes shape. Adoption of the final plan is estimated for September 2022.
Keep up with updates on the comprehensive plan and its events at futurehancock.com.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Hancock County Comprehensive Plan Visioning Workshop
WHEN: 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9
WHERE: Second floor of Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation Administration Building, 1806 W. State Road 234, Fortville
The location is handicap accessible and has elevator access to the meeting room
According to Mt. Vernon safety policy, masks are encouraged and participants are asked to wear a mask when not seated at a table
