By Jamie Mercer

The Observer

As the Feb. 2 Olive Branch Mayor and Board of Aldermen meeting wound down, board member Don Tullos asked that a late addition be made to night’s agenda.

Tullos, who is in his first term as an alderman, said it was his understanding that the city’s comprehensive plan would be completed by December 2009. Since that date had come and gone, Tullos asked for an update from city officials as to when the board could expect the plan.

“I was in Jackson last week, and a fellow made the comment, ‘if you don’t have a plan, then you plan to fail,’” Tullos said. “I want to see where we stand.”

Comprehensive planning is a term used in the United States by land use planners to describe a process that determines community goals and aspirations in terms of community development. The outcome of comprehensive planning is the Comprehensive Plan which dictates public policy in terms of transportation, utilities, land use, recreation and housing.

Comprehensive plans typically encompass large geographical areas, a broad range of topics, and cover a long-term time horizon.

According to B.J. Page, city planner, preparing a comprehensive plan involves several phases.

“It’s a lot of work,” Page explained. “It’s a big, big bulky work in the first phase.”

Comprehensive Planning follows a typical planning process which consists of approximately eight different steps. By following this process, planners are able to determine a wide range of interconnecting issues that affect an urban area. Each step can be seen as interdependent and many times planners will revise the order to best fit their needs.

Planners must identify issues, state goals, collect data, prepare the plan, create implementation plans, evaluate alternatives, adopt the plan, and implement and monitor the plan.

Workshops would be held around the city to allow citizens to offer their input into the plan, Page said. This would allow city officials to determine goals and objectives.

“The comprehensive plan is something that’s not just developed by the staff, but has input from the residents,” Page stated. “Based on the information brought out of these workshops, we can develop alternative plans.

“There are a lot of different ways to look at a certain issue,” he added. “You have to look at alternatives, and in the end, what might end up being selected might be a combination of all the different ideas.”

After the city puts together a preliminary plan, more public meetings are held to gather more input. The plan is then presented to the city’s planning commission.

State law requires one public hearing to be held before the board of aldermen can adopt the comprehensive plan.

“Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, we could have our comprehensive plan by the middle of November,” Page said.
However, Page told board members that mid-November could not be considered a firm date because of the variables involved in completing the comprehensive plan.

“When you get to the public hearings, you don’t know what direction these things are going to take,” he explained. “There are always things that could come into the time frame.”

Tullos said that he and Mayor Sam Rikard have talked to several businesses about moving to Olive Branch.

“One of the things we’ve been told these businesses like to see is a comprehensive plan,” Tullos declared.

“At least now we know we’re moving in the right direction,” he continued. “At least by the end of the year, which is a year later than I thought, we’ll have something coming down the pike.”