PLAN SOUTH
solutions for communities
Barrow County, Townhome Ordinance
Client. Barrow County Board of Commissioners
Overview. Barrow County has seen exponential residential growth over the past five years. Their zoning code, adopted over 20 years ago, did not contemplate for the current townhome market. Commissioners and citizens wanted greater design flexibility that would provide more usable open space and a balance between walkable communities and adequate sight distance at alleys for vehicular traffic.
Role and Responsibilities. Input sessions of Planning and Development Staff, Consolidation of issues into draft proposal, Research of peer and aspirational community ordinances, Development of exhibits, Creation of technical draft for adoption and "layman's draft" that distills technical draft elements and reinforces with visuals
Oglethorpe County, Permit Automation
Client. Oglethorpe County Planning Department, Building Inspections Department
Overview. The planning and permitting departments sought to decrease repetitive data entry, reduce customer foot traffic and increase consistency across permits issued from their departments. Additionally, leadership wanted to make permit applications available 24/7 and allow online payments using credit cards while minimizing disruption to their current processes for permit issuance. Plan South implemented a solution using online forms, cloud-based storage and Adobe products. Permit staff was provided an initial introduction and a complete user manual. Plan South continues to support the project, but county staff are able to modify when needed without direct assistance.
Role and Responsibilities. Creation of forms (Typeform), development of user manual, customization of issued permits to align with County branding (Adobe), Staff training, Account creation related to software(Typeform, Stripe), Design of permit "wizard" to assist applicants in determining appropriate path to compliance, Design and implementation on county website (Wix.com).
Oglethorpe County, Broadband Project
Client. Oglethorpe County Economic Development Authority
Overview. In 2018, the Oglethorpe County Economic Development Authority convened a sub-committee to focus on the perceived issue of lack of reliable internet access for residents. The sub-committee held periodic meetings with providers, developed and executed a community-wide broadband survey, prepared a report of findings, solicited and received $350,000 in funding from the Board of Commissioners for implementation of a "pilot project" to deploy a broadband solution. Currently, there is an active Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to select an appropriate partner for the pilot program.
Role and Responsibilities. Coordination of committee, agenda and meeting preparation, Development and creation of Strategic Action Plan (Canva), Development and implementation of broadband survey (Survey Monkey, Print Media) and coordination of volunteers for in-person interviews, Analysis of survey results, translation into infographics and compilation into Broadband Report (Survey Monkey, Excel, Canva), Creation of heat map from geographic results (Heat Mapper and Excel), Deployment of Broadband Report (Flipsnack, Printed media), Development of Request for Qualifications document.
Oglethorpe County, Unified Development Code
Client. Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners
Overview. Oglethorpe County adopted a subdivision ordinance in 1995 and a zoning ordinance in 2005. Over the course of decades, development patterns in the community changed and necessitated significant amendments, as well as better alignment between the two documents. Beginning in October of 2017, the process of discussing a rewrite of the codes to develop a unified document began. In May of 2018, the Oglethorpe County Unified Development Code was adopted by the Board of Commissioners. Significant revisions included a completely revised subdivision ordinance that tied dense residential development to the availability of infrastructure, a stormwater ordinance and revised street standards.
Role and Responsibilities. Administered work sessions of Zoning Board and Board of Commissioners to identify areas of weakness, Identified scenarios and vetted outcomes of subdivision ordinance revisions, Managed sub-consultant to write technical sections of new ordinance, General updates that included revised formatting, removal of redundant or conflicting language, collation and reformatting of two decades of text amendments, Authorship of Final Document
