WAGONER — Wagoner County officials have held the first of many public forums to discuss updates to the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, and hear from residents about their goals and visions for the county.
“I’d like to see more commercial properties in the county.”
“People in the cannabis industry are flooded with oversupply here.”
“I’d like to see it see it stay rural, but still have an active downtown.”
Those were just some of the comments from a room of about 40 business leaders, homeowners and curious Wagoner County residents at the Wagoner Civic Center Monday evening.
Scott Bruce, who has been working on the project, led the public forum with a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the plan background, the previous comprehensive plan, Wagoner County history and key discussion points.
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His first question to the crowd: What’s Wagoner County’s character?
Since that is a broad question with no single answer, he further explained in detail about Wagoner County’s three districts and research-based concepts behind them to generate thinking points:
• Western district: High growth from Broken Arrow and Coweta; interchange anticipated to be located near 273rd East Avenue; growth on the north side of the Muscogee Turnpike and extension of north/south connectors from 71st East Avenue.
• Central and south district: Primarily agriculture; slower single-family growth, impacted by floodplains
• East district: Lake oriented; smaller units and mobile homes; seniors; traditional lake residents, summer homes and moderate income; sewer infrastructure is a need.
One person in the audience asked where the money is coming from to start work on the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, and it was a good question for clarification — the purpose of the plan is to put ideas forward on what could occur. There isn’t any money involved.
Wagoner County has not had an updated comprehensive plan since 1981 when it had authority over Wagoner County and the cities of Wagoner and Coweta.
With more than 80,000 residents, the county's population has grown by 11%-14%, depending on the source, since 2010.
The former plan focused on existing conditions, such as natural resources, land uses, census data and future land use. Its goal was to “represent citizens, provide a functional, healthful and viable environment, and bring technical knowledge to the decisions making process,” as stated in a slide.
The new plan, or “now” plan, will focus on extension or expansion of evolving good planning practice, coordinating land use and zoning code, updating maps and base information, exploring emerging economic options, like hemp, defining county character per residents and stakeholders, i.e. who and what, and recommending an approach.
The 2030 plan includes but is not limited to:
• Improved access to data with a broader range of sources
• Future of agriculture, discusses cannabis and hemp
• Health (includes access to good food)
• Affordable (workforce) housing
• Recreation and tourism
• Public health and safety (emergency response)
• Youth and education (including higher education)
• Character and culture
• Funding sources (grant cobbling)
Some topics up for discussion included the possibility of adding multi-family housing, sewer improvements near the lake, trails to and along the Verdigris and Arkansas rivers, land uses near the new interchange, improved parks along the Verdigris River, new county fairgrounds along 289th Street, and capitalizing on hemp and cannabis growth.
Some additional suggestions and comments from the crowd included capitalizing on regional detention ponds, adding commercial businesses, and current land prices being a deterrent for future development.
There will be another public information and comment session in January, with a date and time to be determined.