Milton officials begin comp plan review
Milton officials say the town's draft comprehensive plan may require town officials to take action on more than 100 items.
“I'm struggling with how much of this becomes an obligation on the town to do something,” said Councilman Sam Garde. “As we know, there are 139 implementation strategies suggested in this document. I'm trying to establish, in my mind, what obligations I'm voting to take on to the town and its residents as a result of this comprehensive plan.”
Delaware requires specific goals in comprehensive plans; implementation strategies are not required. The strategies in Milton’s plan offer ways to meet stated goals, planning and zoning members said. The draft comprehensive plan is dated 2017, and will be in effect for 10 years, with a review mandated at the five-year mark.
After spending more than two hours reviewing the first 33 pages, council members opted to touch base with an attorney to ensure if current or future town administrations are unable to meet the goals or implementations that they won't be penalized.
“The goals are goals. They're not tasks,” said current Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Richard Trask. “There was never any intention on any of the goals or the implementations that every one of these things had to be done.”
Former and current planning and zoning commissioners and professional consultants have spent nearly three years overhauling Milton's 2010 comprehensive plan. In 2015, town officials were required to review that document and decided that instead of making minor revisions, they would undertake a full rewrite of the document. Engineering firm Pennoni Associates Inc. has assisted in the rewrite; the town has spent more than $50,000 on the project so far.
Officials have so far hosted more than a dozen public workshops and meetings and surveyed more than 600 residents on their vision for the town's future. Many of those responses have been incorporated into the current draft plan.
Other than questioning the purpose of the goals and implementation strategies, stated at the end of each chapter, officials tackled minor edits, including removing a reference to the town being named after poet John Milton, content that also was recently removed from the town's charter.
A workshops to continue the review has been scheduled for 1 p.m., Wednesday, March 29, at the Milton library. Milton Mayor Ted Kanakos said he expects to hold at least two more workshops and a public hearing before sending the document to Dover for legislative approval.
To review Milton's draft comprehensive plan, go to milton.delaware.gov/2017/02/10/2017-comprehensive-plan-workshop.
