The Lafayette County Comprehensive Plan continues to move forward. This week the steering committee met to discuss a draft of their goals and objectives.

The committee members made suggestions to Mike Slaughter, who was hired by the county to update the comprehensive plan.

Most of the suggested changes dealt with verbiage and phrasing, but there were also some additions committee members would like added.

It was suggested Harmontown be more inclusive in the goals and objectives, in particular community safety in regard to emergency services.

Workforce housing

Other items the committee went over in regard to goals and objectives was creating a visual perception and an image for Lafayette County outside of Oxford and the University of Mississippi, land use development, transportation and community facilities.

Zoning and updating subdivision regulations also came up during the meeting, but one hot button topic remained the need for more affordable workforce housing.

“We should be a community for all people and housing is a big problem,” said committee member T.J. Ray. “We need to encourage more affordable housing opportunities.”

One such development came before the county planning commission and Ray during their monthly meeting Monday. Developer Brantley Cox would like to put 150 homes that would be in the workforce housing threshold of $149,000. The development was tabled until more information regarding water issues can be obtained, a common problem with many new residential housing projects in the county and an issue the committee agreed needs to be addressed.

Slaughter is expected to give an updated presentation to the county board of supervisors during their regularly scheduled meeting Monday at 5 p.m.