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Forum on land use plan June 12
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People interested in the future of Liberty County can mark June 12 on their calendars.
A meeting that day, 4-6 p.m. at Midway City Hall, will be a major opportunity for the public to learn about the comprehensive land use plan proposed for Liberty and make suggestions for inclusion in the final document.
The Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission is preparing the "comp plan," which must be submitted to the state Department of Community Affairs.
Sonny Timmerman, executive director of the LCPC, points to one of the more interesting sample questions the DCA offers plan writers:
If someone dropped from the sky into our community, would he or she know immediately where he or she was, based on distinctive characteristics? This is a way of describing a "sense of place," which DCA encourages.
Local planners officially answered no to the question, although if one dropped into parts of Fort Stewart or the historic district of Midway recognition might be possible.
Timmerman said, "Now if you were dropped into Savannah, especially certain parts of Savannah, you would be able to make a pretty good guess that you were in Savannah."
Beverly Davis, a consultant with the Reynolds, Smith and Hill firm hired to help with the plan, said, "The state intends the comp plan process to be very heavily dependent on public input. It's designed to get people excited about planning." 
The regular meetings of the LCPC are the third Tuesday of each month, but an additional separate series of formal and informal sessions will be held on the comprehensive plan.
The plan is to be submitted to DCA for approval by July 1, leaving fairly short lead-time considering the mass of data being collected.
The technical assessment volume portion of the study includes the historical population trends, population characteristics, and household information for Liberty County and for each of the seven municipalities in the county.
Similar statistics are included for economic development, transportation and intergovernmental coordination.
The LCPC hopes to announce a new website to deliver this and other information in the near future.
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