Over the next few weeks, the City of Georgetown will give us all opportunities to fill our cups with abundant joy. Worship, concerts, tree lightings, ice skating, and caroling will be part of our citywide celebrations. I am grateful for the people who work to ensure that these freedoms and traditions continue and to God for the blessings of this wonderful city.
For several months, I have considered writing on this platform about a different side of our city life. This other side involves the push and pull of citizen involvement versus government decision making surrounding the 2040 Comprehensive Plan and the forces of change that are on our doorsteps. Many of you have encouraged me to write on this platform about my involvement, concerns and the next steps in this very important process. It has been a personal struggle for me to articulate my thoughts without seeming judgmental or arrogant. However, being complacent is also problematic. I have been waiting for the right timing for my public comments.
Comprehensive plans play a pivotal role in guiding the future of cities throughout the country. They act as a roadmap guiding us toward sustainable, resilient and vibrant communities. You can’t build a house without blueprints. Likewise, you can’t grow a community without a vision, one that is captured in the Comprehensive Plan.
Ensuring Georgetown’s Future and the Regulation of its Development
Introduction
This post is a logical progression to my previous article which highlighted my involvement with the 2021 Comprehensive Plan (CP) task force which, in my opinion was not utilized in way that gave its members a sense of involvement or achievement. The final draft, sent to the Planning Commission in February of 2022 culminated in a plan that was woefully weak. However, as a unified community, it is time to move forward and decide how best to proceed and rectify the past shortcomings.
My name is Nick Robinson and I was one of the task force members that were invited, in January 2021, to develop a revision to the comprehensive plan that had last been authored in 2011. At that time, we were fired up and full of excitement with aspirations that we were going to develop a new plan that embodied the vision and the future of the City of Georgetown. It was thought that the revised plan would chart the evolution of the city in the coming decade.
If you go back 50 years ago, the population of Mt. Pleasant and Georgetown was about the same. Around 10,000 people. Now, they are the fourth largest city in SC with a population of 90,000. If you go back 50 years ago, Myrtle Beach had a summer season that usually ended after Labor Day. And now Horry County is the largest populated county in SC. Congestion and growth have taken over these two places.
