GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Mapping out a new vision for Guilford County isn’t so clear for some residents living on the southeast side.
"They talked in circles the whole time," Guilford County resident Jake Dowd said.
Jake Dowd attended the county’s feedback meeting on its draft comprehensive plan
The plan is meant to be a roadmap for what the county could look like in the next 15 years factoring in current and anticipated growth as more developers show interest in the county.
It focuses on 7 themes such as housing options, infrastructure, maintaining green spaces, and transportation.
But Dowd said the county isn’t being clear on what all this means.
"Keep our community a community. I don’t have a clue on what they plan on bringing, whether it's hotels we don’t know. We have no idea what’s truly going to take place," Dowd said. "We’ve asked over and over as far as infrastructure."
Guilford County planning and development director Leslie Bell said they can't give specifics of what’s to come because it's up to the elected officials.
"It provides a roadmap for the next 15-20 years that provides our framework for policy for our elected officials and staff for implementation," Bell said.
Bell said growth is happening and the purpose of the meeting is to get feedback on what the community wants so the county knows what developments to invest in.
"The plan tries to balance the community services for the residents and housing development that comes," Bell said. "Either we plan for and manage that growth or if we didn’t have a plan then it wouldn’t plan a guide for the development community."
Tony Jacobelli said the meeting was helpful and thanked the county for allowing feedback.
"I thought it was well done. It’s a general plan," Jacobelli said. "People here want specifics because it could specifically affect them but I understand the plan can't do that right now."
Wrinkles in the draft plan will be ironed out by fall.
That’s when the final draft will be presented to county commissioners to vote on.
The county wants the feedback to continue.
Folks can complete an online survey through August 5.