Nelson County Comprehensive Plan to be Revised

The Board of Supervisors met jointly with the Planning Commission and representatives of the  Berkely Group on May 31, 2022, to start work on a new Comprehensive Plan. The current Nelson County Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2014 and so needs to be revised.  The Berkely Group is an independent consulting firm headquartered in Virginia that works primarily with rural counties in formulating their long-term development plans. The Berkley Group will begin by assessing the county’s strengths and weaknesses. It will look at the current population trends, current transportation, current infrastructure, climate and business development issues.  The group will then make recommendations and help the board formulate long term goals. They will provide a report on what they found in their research that will guide the board in the development of a new Comprehensive Plan.  The Berkely Group uses quantitative data and information gleaned from the board and members of the public through answers to the survey, open meetings, and public workshops. Finally, they will make recommendations to the board about what should be included in the Comprehensive Plan. While not a “law”, the plan is a set of  guideposts for all ordinances and regulations adopted in the county going forward.  

            If you are interested in finding out more about this planning process,  how the  Comprehensive Plan will effect decision making, and how you can get involved, go to www.nelson2042.com. The site Is functioning and will continue to be updated as the process moves forward. As a Nelson residents,  you should be on the lookout for a survey in the mail that will be  a critical way that you can get involved.  The answers to the survey will play a role in the recommendations made to the Board. You should receive the survey by July 1 and will need to complete and return it by August 15, 2022. In addition, three public workshops will take place this year, one on July 13, a  second on July 20, and a third  on August 3. The meeting time for all three workshops will be 6:30 pm but the locations have not yet been determined. So stayed tuned. It’s very important that we all do our part in the planning since it affects our future.

            The primary issues on the minds of the Board members at this meeting were housing and jobs. I will discuss these issues in a later article.