Survey results reviewed at planning commission meeting
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — Local residents were joined by representatives from the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission (EARPDC) on Tuesday evening at the ALFA building to review feedback and survey results regarding the city of LaFayette’s comprehensive plan.
EARPDC Principal Planner Shelby Peterson attended the planning commission meeting as part of the team that will share the information with the public.
“At the September meeting, we drafted the future land use map,” Peterson said. “We had several citizens work on their own maps. We took their feedback and used our professional discretion to synthesize that into one draft map. We brought that for everyone to review. We reviewed the survey results. That survey was open for 120 days and received 77 responses.”
Peterson explained how the EARPDC is using survey results to communicate with the public.
“We took all the results from that survey and put it into a document with graphs and data visualizations so that everyone could take a look at what their fellow citizens were thinking about the planning process,” she said. “We are going to have both the raw data and that survey document available for everyone to review at their leisure. We wrapped up the meeting by going over the draft housing goals. We got a little bit of feedback on that, so we’re going to take a look at those and rework them a little. Those will be reproven toward the end of our planning process next summer.”
Peterson also discussed trends that have emerged in the data.
“We got a lot of positive response, a lot of feedback,” she said. “People are very much interested in industrial and economic development, housing and improving the water system. That was a large part of our feedback. That is definitely going to be guiding where we go from here.”
New housing and shopping opportunities were at the forefront of many residents’ minds.
“People are really wanting to see some affordable housing — housing that’s accessible to lower-income citizens and won’t drive them out of the city,” Peterson said. “Location wasn’t brought up by anyone in the survey; it was more of a general ‘we need more affordable housing.’ Shopping was brought up a lot. There was a ton of general ‘we need more businesses, we need more restaurants.’ I would say the main thing that was brought up was retail opportunities.”
Looking ahead, Peterson outlined the next steps in the planning process.
“We are planning to have a final draft of this plan in August 2026,” she said. “We’ll continue public engagement and review these survey results. We still have several goal elements to go, so we’ll take a look at land use, transportation and economic development as topics together. Around the spring, we’ll provide all of these goals at one time for citizens to review, and we’ll hold public meetings on the full draft of the plan next summer. We hope to have it all wrapped up in August.”
