Update, 10:45 p.m.: Director of the RPC Jeffery Tyndall told Clarksville Now that the open houses that were scheduled for this upcoming week have been pushed back until January due to the tornados that devasted the community.

The dates for the opening houses have yet to be determined and will be announced at a later date.

Previously

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The next plan to guide future growth in Clarksville is nearing the final stages of completion after a year and a half of work.

The Regional Planning Commission (RPC) has acted as the Steering Committee through the process of creating the Clarksville-Montgomery County Comprehensive Plan. Jeffery Tyndall, who serves as director of the RPC, said one of his biggest takeaways from the plan was that the community’s elected officials are in tune with what the community wants.

At the beginning stages, members of the RPC met with the City Council, Montgomery County Commission, Technical Committee and a group of selected citizens. They asked each group to rank the top issues they want to be addressed.

“Even though each group did the exercise independently, they all came out with almost the same top-ranked issues,” Tyndall said. He said those are affordable housing, transportation, economic development and the need for open space.

Tyndall said their answers gave the RPC a good start and allowed them to hone in on addressing those issues in the Comprehensive Plan.

Tyndall said another big takeaway is that the current land use plan – which the RPC leans on to make decisions on rezoning, regulations and site plans – is dated back to 1999 and has not been updated since.

Open houses to inform and listen

The RPC will host three open houses to inform the public on the plan and collect more input.

Tyndall said those who attend should expect multiple stations with maps and charts that show the core plan elements, the future land use map, an implementation matrix and the different needs of the 13 planning areas.

The RPC has six more weeks to make changes before presenting the final plan to the City Council and County Commission in February.

The open houses will be at the RPC headquarters, 329 Main St., on these dates:

• Monday, Dec. 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, Dec. 12, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 16, 10 a.m.-noon

3 critical questions

To help develop the Comprehensive Plan, the firm Houseal Lavigne was brought in to serve as consultants. They have worked with over 400 other communities in accessing and delivering Comprehensive Plans, according to the RPC website.

Tyndall told Clarksville Now their consultants emphasized three questions to keep in mind whether you’re planning a wedding, your retirement or a Comprehensive Plan for a city and county:

• “Where are we today?”
• “Where do we want to be?”
• “How do we want to get there?”

“So, we’ve gone out to our community, we learned who we want to be, what kind of community we want to be, how we want to grow and what do we need and what are we missing,” Tyndall said. The RPC has reportedly engaged with over 1,200 citizens throughout the process, according to Tyndall.