On Nov. 13, the El Paso County Master Plan Advisory Committee held a meeting to discuss progress on the countyís master plan development process and review policies that might be included in the master plan. The county hired Houseal Lavigne Associates, a professional consulting firm specializing in community planning, urban design and economic development, to help create the plan.Nine of the 10 members of the advisory committee attended the meeting, including Andrea Barlow, committee chair; Tim Trowbridge, Becky Fuller, Sarah Brittain Jack, Mark Volcheff, Matt Carroll, Doug Stimple, Ryan Wanner and Tom Bailey. Wanner and Bailey were present via conference call. Various members of the EPC staff and about five members of the community also attended the meeting.Mark Gebhart, deputy director of the EPC Planning and Community Development department, said the ideal goal of the meeting would be to incorporate the goals and policies from the seven different area plans into one master document. However, there is little consistency from one plan to another, and his department is trying to match up policies that are the same but labeled differently, he said.Barlow said there are consistent themes in the plans that can lead the committee in a direction people want.Community members will have a chance to provide input on the master planís vision at a workshop on Dec. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the EPC Regional Development Center, Gebhart said. A PowerPoint presentation will explain the visionary process with a live phone poll allowing people a chance to provide immediate feedback from their cell phones, he said. Additionally, the workshop will be live-streamed and an online polling option will also be available.A video of the meeting will be available online along with the survey and will remain active for one month to allow other community members to provide feedback, he said.The committee discussed the timeline for creating the plan, including when and how the committee itself should weigh in on the visionary process and how to integrate the policies from each plan into the master plan.Volcheff said he was surprised none of the plans addressed the local military institutions; Craig Dossey, executive director of the planning and development department, said they should definitely be addressed in the master plan.Barlow said ultimately in the upcoming weeks the committee needs to figure out how to simplify the policies from the various plans to prevent redundancy, which the members agreed was a large task.
