While the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors seemed satisfied with most the first draft of the county’s new Comprehensive Plan, there is still some work to be done on future land use categories.

The first draft of the new Comp Plan was presented at a joint meeting of the Comp Plan Steering Committee and Transportation/Infrastructure Committee Monday by Mike Slaughter of Slaughter & Associates, who was hired to develop the new comp plan.

Supervisors received the first draft about a week ago; however, it was the first time members of the two committee’s had a chance to review the 60-page document.

“If you’d like to take some time over the holidays to read it, I’d be happy to meet with each committee separately and the board to go over it,” Slaughter said.

The plan addresses the county’s rapid growth and how county leaders hope to steer that growth over the next several years.

Some of the goals listed in the plan include encouraging affordable housing options; advocate for quality construction and development; protect property values for future growth and assessed values for tax revenue; encourage alternative modes of transportation, alleviate public safety and traffic concerns on existing roads and more.

The plan also includes an amended Future Land Use Plan.

“The current land use plan for Lafayette County would allow anything to happen anywhere with little no regulation at all,” the Comp Plan states. “(The Land Use Plan) identifies policies that will shape how and where development occurs. These policies cannot prevent all negative things or incompatible uses from happening, but hopefully, they will introduce some control and guide future decisions.”

Some of the categories include Agricultural, Residential Estate, Low, Moderate and High-Density Residential; Garden Residential; Manufacturing/Mobile Home Parks; Mixed Site-Built and Manufactured Home Subdivision; Office Commercial; General or Indoor Commercial; Major Thoroughfare Commercial; Industrial, Public Use and Floodplains and Floodways.

Slaughter said one the Land Uses were tweaked and approved by the supervisors, he could move forward with crafting a zoning ordinance.

“We looked at other counties and used variations of what they use and modified them to meet Lafayette County needs,” Slaughter said.

The supervisors agreed they, and members of the two committees, needed some more time to review the document to make recommendations of possible changes and agreed to meet again after the new year.