Ol’ Man Winter continues to dominate our lives with melting ice and snow refreezing every night to make driving difficult. Thank you for your patience with our volunteers and employees as they do what they can to clear the streets. The layer of ice has made it nearly impossible to clear some of the streets but as it melts, they are clearing what they can.
There is a lot of buzz around town about the “new” ordinances and comprehensive plan for the City of Cole Camp. I fully support the Sunshine Law and understand why it is important for citizens to be kept aware of what public entities are doing. There is a down side, however. Whenever draft proposals, i.e. the proposed ordinances and comprehensive plan, are made available prior to any action being taken by the public entity, it can lead to misunderstandings. The proposed ordinances and the comprehensive plan have fallen victim to this situation. I will attempt to explain the process of what has happened and what will happen before either of these documents is adopted by the City.
These documents are currently under review by the Planning and Zoning Commission. This is the process as I understand it. The Commission is reviewing the draft proposal to assure that the proposed ordinances will be the ones needed by Cole Camp and do not conflict with the basic values and ethics of our citizens. It is a lengthy document and will take quite some time to review. Once the review is completed, PGAV (the company that wrote the ordinances) will make the recommended changes and present it to the Planning and Zoning Commission for their final approval. Once they have approved it, the Board of Aldermen will review the ordinances and either accept or reject it. This will be done at an open meeting of the Board of Aldermen. Once the ordinances are accepted by vote of the Board of Aldermen they become law.
The Comprehensive Plan Process is slightly different. There was a steering committee who assisted PGAV to collect information and compile it into the draft form. The steering committee presented their report to the Planning and Zoning Commission. They will review it and if they accept it, there will be a public hearing. Once they have made any needed changes, it will be presented to the Board of Aldermen. The Board of Aldermen will use the information as a roadmap of sorts for future development of the City of Cole Camp. There is no obligation for the Board to make any of the proposed changes.
I hope that this has cleared up some of the misconceptions that are going around town. If you have questions, please call or email me at City Hall.