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Shelby County to begin a new comprehensive plan

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During the May 24 Shelby County Commission meeting, Chief Development Officer David Willingham and Manager and Planning & Community Development Manager Christie Pannell Hester announced the beginning of a new comprehensive plan for the county. 

Willingham and Pannell Hester said they have engaged the Regional Planning Commission to supplement the county staff in this effort. The last one was done in 2004 and many things have changed since then. 

“We will lead that effort and the RPC will assist on the back end to take the data we get from public engagement,” Pannell Hester said. “We will be the ones in front lines and will start with an online survey to engage the public. “Everyone will have the opportunity to participate and provide feedback on what they want to see for the county.”

The target kick off for the online survey is near the end of June. In July, county members will do pop up meet and greets and visit public places to answer questions and get people engaged in the process. Focus groups will be added in late August and the time frame for the project will be around 18 months.

“It’s been a long time since 2004,” said County Manager Chad Scroggins “We drove our vision on park expansion and other amenities developed in the county. Since then, we have added about 50,000 more residents. We have been wanting to do this for the last several years, but it takes a lot of energy and effort. This will drive vision on how we invest in our communities going forward.”

During the county manager’s update, Scroggins shared that he took Sheriff John Samaniego and several members of the sheriff’s office on a tour of the new County Services 280 building to see how the progress is going.

“It was interesting to see the reaction on the sheriff’s face when he saw what was on paper now onsite inside the building and the services that will be able to be provided to the community,” he said. “He was amazed by the training forum, especially how they will be able to host training at that facility differently than anything they have been able to do before.”

Scroggins said that inside the building the walls are coming together to fill the space and it is something to be proud of. He added that the county is lucky they had the bid awarded last year before prices of lumber and construction materials increased.

“When you think about how 14 months ago, this was just a drawing on a piece of paper and now the structure is up and crews are doing grading outside for the parking lot. I believe our team included a lot of folks sitting around tables that came together to deve design of the building and did a phenomenal job and we are excited about what's coming.”

Scroggins added that the county’s legal team has done a phenomenal job settling some long term court cases and how that was significant for liability reduction for the county.

Bids were awarded for the following items:

David Mellon was also reappointed for an additional term to the Department of Human resources board.

At the end of the meeting, a proclamation was read honoring Dr. Marvin Copes, who has served as the Coordinator of Shelby County’s Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) for 13 years. It stated that Copes built the program into one of the largest AmericaCorp senior programs in the state of Alabama with over 1,000 volunteers and almost 100 work station opportunities, valued at millions of dollars in volunteer hours annually. 

“We commend Marvin Copes and thank you for all your years of service to the citizens of Shelby County,” said Commissioner Kevin Morris.

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