By EDWARD HUSAR

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

A preliminary draft of the just-completed Adams County Comprehensive Plan has been released online prior to a series of open houses taking place next week

The open houses Tuesday and Wednesday will give the public a chance to hear about the Comprehensive Plan and offer comments.

The JEO Consulting Group of Wahoo, Neb., which was hired by the Adams County Board to develop the Comprehensive Plan, posted a 204-page "open house draft" of the plan on the company's Web site.

Also posted on the site are two key maps developed as part of the plan. One is a "county land use management plan" (CLUMP) map, which classifies unincorporated areas into three broad categories -- agriculture, urban reserve and transitional. The other is a "future land use map" that could serve as the framework for possible zoning regulations if county leaders ever decide to go in that direction.

JEO officials are not recommending that zoning regulations be adopted in Adams County. Instead, they list zoning as one of the "implementation tools" available to the County Board.

During the past two years, the committee and the consultants have heard little support for zoning, especially from people living in the rural areas of Adams County.

"We hear the public loud and clear," David Potter, a JEO planner, said at a committee meeting this spring.

Nonetheless, Potter said the consultants felt obligated to bring up zoning as a possible alternative in the event the County Board should decide it wants to adopt some land use regulations down the road.

The posted copy of the Comprehensive Plan says the plan itself is "merely an advisory document" that will serve little purpose unless county officials take some sort of implementation action in the months to come.

"Unfortunately, local governments sometimes take little or no action after adopting a comprehensive plan and, as a result, plans are completed without any plan for follow-up. When this happens, the comprehensive planning process becomes a waste of time and money for the local officials, staff, and residents involved," the report says.

The report says "regulation" is the most common tool used for land use management. This would include the use of zoning ordinances or other regulations that stipulate how parcels of land in a community may be used.

However, the report noted: "While many counties are drawn to traditional regulatory approaches to Plan implementation, Adams County has chosen to explore more flexible options based on education, incentives and voluntary compliance."

These non-regulatory techniques "are especially relevant in Adams County, where many public and local officials are opposed to zoning controls," the report says.

The report notes that Adams County does not currently exercise zoning control in any part of the county.

"Prior to taking the step of developing a zoning ordinance, this plan should be revised to include a specific discussion of land use categories, use preferences, and development patterns based upon countywide goals and policies, and infrastructure capacities," the document says.

"The County Land Use Management Policy presented herein should be further developed into a Future Land Use Plan which will further delineate the broad-based land use categories into more detailed land use types. Since zoning is an enforcement tool for a comprehensive plan, the plan needs to provide a greater level of direction than is contained here."

ON THE WEB:

www.jeoprojects.com

-- ehusar@whig.com/221-3378