After residents fended off a proposed manufacturing megasite in Eagle Township, officials hope a new master plan will better reflect what residents want to see in future land use.
The document will guide how the township in Clinton County grows over the next several years.
Eagle Township Supervisor Troy Stroud said the draft plan was shaped by the community and covers issues like zoning and development.
“The major feedback we got is, our people are very comfortable with who we are as a community and continuing to grow that way,” Stroud said. “We’ve had very good sustained growth ... regardless of how the state’s been performing the last 10 years.”
The proposed plan comes after residents pushed back against a proposed 1,500-acre industrial tech campus that promised growth and jobs.
The plan outlines five goals for the future of the township:
- Ensuring the preservation of agricultural land uses and natural resources.
- Enhancing communications/broadband infrastructure to meet the needs of residents.
- Not expanding public water and sewers, which would encourage development that would threaten the planned character of Eagle.
- Ensuring the continued protection of groundwater, soils, bodies of water, ecosystems, and agricultural systems to preserve the sustainability of the Township's rural environment.
- Preventing large scale industrial/commercial growth that would threaten the agricultural/rural nature and limit to light industrial/small scale growth in specified areas as zoned, or designated, in the future land use map.
“[The master plan] is based on maintaining and enhancing the lives of our citizens, and that’s what I think every entity of government should be doing, is looking at how do you enhance what the people want,” Stroud said.
The master plan proposal found that residents prefer to maintain their rural surroundings and current employment levels.
Public comment on the draft master plan ends July 30.
