The Burleigh County Comprehensive Land Use Plan update is in the initial data gathering phase with two public involvement meetings planned for next week.

"We're still in the data gathering phase where we're trying to collect physical information about the county," said Cindy Gray, representing SRF Consulting Group Inc., which was hired to refresh the 30-year-old plan.

The purpose of the public meeting is to find out what matters to the public and what issues Burleigh's residents want addressed in the plan, Gray said.

When completed, the updated plan is expected to aid policymakers in making decisions about the physical features of Burleigh.

Two committees - technical and policy - have been formed to help guide the plan's revision. These groups met for the first time this past week to meet Gray and go over the format for the public involvement meetings scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Bismarck Public Library and at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Wing Public School.

Bismarck Planning Department Director Carl Hokenstad says there has been some confusion regarding the county's comprehensive land use plan and the Metropolitan Planning Organization's regional land use study.

The MPO-sponsored study deals with specific use of land in an area adjacent to Bismarck and Mandan. The Burleigh plan doesn't map out suggested specific land uses as the MPO plan does, and it covers the entire county.

Next week's public involvement meetings are scheduled for two hours.

"We'll start out with a short background presentation involving development trends and population trends occurring in the county,"Gray said. "We'll then ask people, both individually and in small groups, to come up with lists of issues."

The highlight of the meeting, according to Gray, will be the use of electronic polling equipment.

"After the small groups come up with issues, which will be inputted to the electronic facilitation system, we'll formulate questions which people can answer using handheld equipment," Gray said.

The easy-to-use controllers allow participants to rank issues and answer multiple choice questions. There is enough equipment to handle a meeting of about 50 people.

"What we've geared up for is to allow people to have input without having to speak in front of a group. It gives everyone an equal voice," Gray said.

The equipment helps those people who aren't comfortable speaking in front of a group or want to remain anonymous to keep from offending friends, neighbors or relatives with their opinions.

Once SRF Consulting completes gathering data, it will use the information to formulate a county vision statement, goals and objectives.

"Those goals and objectives become the guiding principles as we go through the rest of the plan," Gray said.

A presentation of a draft plan to the Burleigh County Planning Commission and the Bismarck Planning Commission is scheduled for mid-November. Early next year, the plans will be submitted for consideration to the Burleigh County Commission and Bismarck City Commission.Bismarck is paying approximately one-third of the estimated $100,000 cost of the update.

Gray and Hokenstad agree that there likely will be some controversy connected to the comprehensive plan.

"In this situation, you're always trying to balance the interest of the people. There are those that want to retain the rural settings, while others are driven by development," Gray said. "If you allow development, then how do you allow it in a way that protects public costs and environmental impacts?"

This isn't exclusive to Burleigh County, but every county across the nation has the same concerns, Hokenstad said. It's particularly true in rapidly growing areas, such as Bismarck.

The existing Burleigh comprehensive land use plan is one of the first projects Hokenstad tackled when he starting working for the Bismarck planning department. There has been little in the way of revision since it was completed.

"A comprehensive plan back then was a different kind of plan. Back in the late 1960s and early '70s, it was more about policy and less about mapping features," Hokenstad said.

"They didn't have the tools then that they do now, such as digital mapping," Gray added. "Most comprehensive plans should, ideally, be revisited every five years. But often it isn't. Any type of plan like this is a work in progress … it's dynamic."

When complete, the plan will provide the direction and policies to guide county boards in future decision-making processes, Gray said.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)