The community has an opportunity Wednesday night to say what Macon-Bibb County should look like in the coming decades.

The Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission is beginning the process of updating the 20-year Comprehensive Plan, which projects the expected future needs for growth, development and transportation.

The state of Georgia requires communities to refresh the plan every five years and hold public meetings like this week’s kickoff.

“We will explain what the Comprehensive Plan is and the process it takes to develop it,” said Gregory Brown, P&Z’s assistant planning director.

Over the next five months, planners will solicit community input, conduct workshops with the public and stakeholders before developing the plan and holding a second public hearing to discuss it before submitting the final product to the state.

The plan is necessary to be a qualified local government that can receive grant funding from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Brown said.

P&Z’s in-house records, such as rezoning applications and land use changes, in addition to water and sewer expansion can help anticipate where community development is headed, he said.

The plan will summarize all that research and include public input.

“It’s used as a guide to basically see what determines how the community shapes growth and development, and as a managerial tool to guide the decision-making process,” Brown said.

The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Commission Chambers at 700 Poplar St.

– Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.