A representative from the Livingston County Planning Department visited Tyrone Township to give an update on the county Master Plan.

Director of the county Planning Department Kathleen Kline-Hudson visited the Tyrone Township Planning Commission during their regular meeting, Tuesday night. With the county getting ready to prepare a new master plan, Kline-Hudson shared with commissioners how the process has been going. Since early 2016,the director said they have held vision preference workshops with the community, held a 7 part educational series with MSU Extension, and run a successful Facebook photo contest that will provide pictures within the finished plan. She said the new document they are drafting will be a lot different this time around. The Planning Department is working hard at finding hot trends that are pertinent to residents, and then assigning best practices for each trend. Tyrone Township Planning Commission chairman Mark Meisel said the county is streamlining the plan in areas they can, like by no longer including a future land use map. He said one advantage they had was being able to compare maps and identify possible border conflicts, however the townships have managed that among themselves well enough.

Kline–Hudson said the Planning Department felt that was best left in local hands, as well. She said the new plan will be very visual and when viewed online will have links to make it easy for the local governments to find what they need. Meisel said this will be valuable when Tyrone Township needs to look at updating their plan later this year. The Planning Department is hopeful to have the new Master Plan ready and in the hands of the Livingston County townships for review by fall. (MK)