The Fairhope Times

Fairhope, Alabama thefairhopetimes.blogspot.com    Dickson presenting plan. New future land use map proposal. Baldwin County's planning department director Jay Dickson presented the draft of an updated master growth plan during a subcommittee meeting in Robertsdale Tuesday. He called it a "guideline for smart growth" to deal with the county's rapid population growth (30% more every decade) -- that his department had been working on it for about a year at the direction of the county commission. Eighty-seven thousand more housing units will be needed by the year 2050, mostly in the south part of the county based on current projections, he said, Out of three possible future growth scenarios studied (photo at very bottom),  focused growth with the higher population densities nearest municipalities was the preferred  strategy chosen. FUTURE LAND USE MAP Eight zones of land use are envisioned outside of municipalities: 1. Farmland Preservation; 2. Rural Preservation; 3. C...