[APRIL 3, 2006]
The Logan County Board approved new board member
appointments for the Logan County Regional Planning Commission.
Planning commissionappointments beginning in April
Dean Sasse, Atlanta,
three-year term
Jean Ann Hutchinson,
Lincoln, three-year term
Judi Graff,
Middletown, two-year term
Dave Evans, Atlanta,
two-year term
Gerald Lolling,
Hartsburg, one-year term
Carol Gustufson,
Elkhart, one-year term
Jim Lindgren,
Atlanta, one-year term
The mayors of Lincoln, Atlanta and Mount Pulaski and the county
board chairman serve ex officio, along with one appointment from the
Lincoln City Council and one from the Logan County Board. The county
engineer is an ex officio nonvoting member
The newly written commission bylaws were approved by the Logan
County Board. With those changes, the commission will add secretary
and treasurer positions, and executive and finance committees will
also be added to the commission. The finance committee will help
look at where funds are coming from and where they can be raised to
help increase the benefits to municipalities.
During the county's March executive and economic development
committee meeting, county coordinator Dewey Colter commented that
the new board structure will instill more community involvement and
you will have more faith and confidence in that.
Planning and zoning chairman Dale Voyles said, "Along came Bill
Glaze (commission chairman) at the right time and right place. He
has been a breath of fresh air."
In addition, the commission plans to gradually take more of a
role in supporting the development of a geographic information
system. That work has been under development for over a year, and
county engineer Bret Aukamp is supervising the current phase of
parcel-mapping development.
The parcel mapping affords many overlay information
opportunities. Flood plain information is one that will play a
critical role in the Logan County GIS.
Flood plain, code enforcement
Flood plains are affecting a number of recent Logan County
building permit requests and creating code enforcement issues,
Colter said. He encourages municipalities to look at their current
maps to see if they are matching with the corporate maps.
Colter said that Logan County is next on the National Digital
Mapping Program for flood plains.
Commission chairman Bill Glaze and vice chairman Bill Martin
spearheaded the monumental task of getting a new comprehensive plan
in place for Logan County. The old 1978 plan had become obsolete.
Updating it puts Logan County and its communities in the running to
be competitive for economic development opportunities and improves
the possibilities of gaining grant funds.
The goal of the comprehensive plan is to serve as the primary map
that steers current and future decisions on issues that affect the
quality of life most desired by the residents. The new Logan County
plan has focused on land use and zoning. Housing and where seniors
will look to live in the county are also being considered.
The federal government now uses those plans as the basis for
decisions about whether to supply grant moneys when they are
requested. Without a plan in place you cannot even apply for most
grants now. When a request for funds is made, the project will be
measured for compatibility with our plan and assessed for the
economic value to the community and likely outcome of success in the
future. The government wants to make sure that the money is going to
bring a return to the community.
The plan is composed of many segments. There are numerous types
of maps for land-use consideration, such as waterways, underground
water sources, coal mines and soils. There are population
statistics, including income and age brackets, types of households,
numbers of homes rented or owned, and so on. The plan includes types
of businesses, health services, schools, types of transportation
available and other resource information. Individual community plans
are also included.
One of the optional plans that will be added within the
comprehensive plan is a greenways plan. Logan County was fortunate
to receive an Illinois Department of Natural Resources grant to do
this. Greenways are areas designated for recreation. They may
include designated bicycle trails, parks, fishing areas and canoe
trails. The Logan County plan will include some of these.
A preliminary draft of the comprehensive plan is anticipated this
month. You can look for it to be posted in Lincoln Daily News for
review.
Building request approved
A zoning variance of noncompliance use was granted for the
rebuilding of the Chestnut Grain Elevator. At last month's planning
commission meeting, grain elevator zoning was recognized as one of
the many zoning issues that need to be addressed in the county. A
number of grain elevators in the area have zoning that does not fit
the present zoning and were built prior to current zoning
regulations.
