Following a public meeting on the Warren County master plan, the group that is working with the county to develop the plan is compiling public input as it seeks to release a discovery report in May.

According to i5Group Project Manager Stephen Ibendahl, his company, which is working with the county to prepare a new master plan, is taking the input it has received from an online survey and the recent public meeting as part of information it is using to compile what he calls a discovery report to be released in May.

The report will not only include information from public input, but also discussions with county stakeholders to craft the next step ultimately leading to a new master plan.

Ibendahl said that the report will end up being a “100 page document or so” encapsulating the county’s existing conditions along with the input received so far. He said the master plan public meeting on March 25 drew about 50 residents, but added that close to 1,100 residents have already filled out the online survey regarding a possible master plan.

“I am very pleased with the results of the survey,” he said. “There is a pretty good distribution of folks in the cities and unincorporated parts of the county.”

He added that residents who have responded to the surveys have provided some “very thoughtful comments” that have given insight into the county.

Ibendahl said as his group does the analysis they will also try to break down responses into long-time residents versus newer residents to get a better feel for what different types of residents are looking for.

The discovery report would include a compilation of the final survey numbers in a statistical analysis of what residents have suggested during the process.

“There is definitely an art and science to it,” Ibendahl said about converting resident and stakeholder input into tangible ideas. He said as the master plan process proceeds his group would be looking at input to see where they can find areas of agreement within the county. He noted that while there will be strong opinions on a number of issues they have always been able to find some areas of agreement between residents in previous master plan projects.

Following the release of the discovery report, Ibendahl said his group would focus on areas such as growth analysis and scenario planning. One example he gave was attempting to project population growth into the future.

“We can’t predict the future,” he said. “But we can make assumptions of potential growth based upon trends.”

Ibendahl said he wanted to remind people that they are still in the early part of the master plan process and that his group wants residents to be aware of every step of the process along the way. He said it was important for residents to be involved from the ground up to help ensure the final plan that is adopted by the Warren County Commission closely correlates to the county’s actual needs.