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Growth partnership sets public hearings
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Other meetings set

In addition to Liberty County’s hearing, regional meetings will be held in the following areas:
• Long County: 6 p.m. Monday at the Long County Board of Education in Ludowici
• Tattnall County: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Glennville City Hall in Glennville
• Bryan County: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Richmond Hill City Hall in Richmond Hill
The Fort Stewart Growth Management Partnership will hold a public input meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday for Liberty County residents to discuss findings from its yearlong regional growth management study. The meeting will be in the courthouse annex board room.
According to Partnership Director Jeff Ricketson, the input received from these meetings will be incorporated into final recommendations of the study “and ultimately shape the way the region manages its growth.”
Liberty, Long, Bryan and Tattnall counties comprise the region, and in cooperation with their 12 municipalities, the partnership and county leaders hope to maximize the benefits of growth at Fort Stewart by working together to enact public policies that will encourage economic growth and make wise use of limited land and public resources.
Since 1970, the region’s population has tripled from 46,812 residents to an estimated 136,000.  And an additional 60,000 new residents are projected to live in the four-county region by 2030.  
Partnership members think continued increases in troop strength and employment at Fort Stewart will spur development in the communities surrounding the installation, many of which are relatively small and financially constrained.
“The purpose of the study is to assess the readiness of the region for continued growth and to provide recommendations to individual jurisdictions and the region as a whole,” Ricketson said.
Some of the top growth challenges identified in the study are transportation, health care, economic diversification, land use planning and provision of utilities.
Short-term recommendations include creating unified development codes for land use, increasing awareness of available health-care providers in the region, promoting Liberty County’s mass transit system and the Army’s mass transit benefit program, as well as encouraging industrial and commercial companies to locate in the region.
The full study can be accessed at www.growfortstewart.com. Ricketson said anyone with comments or suggestions on the study can be directed to him, at 408-2070 or at jricketson@thelcpc.org.
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