Oktibbeha County holds public hearing on draft comprehensive plan; consultant recommends two edits, board acknowledges hearing

The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors opened a public hearing on the county's draft comprehensive plan and heard requests from its planning consultant to make two edits and return a final draft for board review.

Nathan Willingham, a planning consultant with Slaward and Willingham, told the board he recommends adding a summary of the most recent public engagement to the plan’s public involvement section and making an edit on the plan’s animal-control language. "Number 1, on page 12, I was asked that we would be allowed to incorporate the final public hearing and the most recent public engagement meeting into the overview of public involvement," Willingham said. He added: "on page 57, we still need to make an edit that was requested in our previous meeting regarding animal control." Willingham said those two changes would be sufficient to bring a completed draft back to the board for final action.

Willingham described additional, non-decisional topics raised by members of the public and board members, including potential rails-to-trails projects and utility consolidation. On rail-trail feasibility he said title research is the "first step always" and outlined how ownership issues affect whether the county can acquire railroad corridors for trails: "what's necessary as first step is to actually get someone who's qualified to do the title research and title opinions to work with the railroad and determine what the actual factual status of that property is." He cautioned that some corridors may already have reverted to adjacent owners or carry reversion clauses that would affect project feasibility.

Board members and staff described planned steps to finalize the plan and the supporting materials. County staff reported the draft plan has been published to the county’s website for public review and that the consultant hosted an open house on Sept. 22 that drew about two dozen attendees.

After discussion, the board acknowledged the public hearing by motion; the board recorded a 4-0 vote to acknowledge the hearing. The consultant and staff will incorporate the requested edits and return a final draft for the board’s consideration.

The hearing included questions from supervisors about how the plan’s place-type maps were drawn, how future zoning or regulatory changes would relate to the plan, and whether the plan should specify a county role in encouraging—rather than mandating—utility consolidations. Willingham said the plan is intended to set general development character and that more detailed implementation (for example, specific regulatory tools) would follow if the county proceeds with regulatory updates.

The board recessed the meeting for a scheduled break and directed staff and the consultant to prepare a revised draft incorporating the edits and clarifications discussed during the public hearing.