Manning City Council has viewed a draft of its new Comprehensive Plan.
Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments planner Susan Landfried presented the first draft of the 10-year plan April 20, and council will likely address the plan again at its regular meeting Monday.
"Overall, this plan took about nine months to prepare," said Landfried. "It documents public goals for the city of Manning throughout the next decade. All municipalities and counties are required by the state to adopt a comprehensive plan every 10 years."
Landfried said the process began last year with a "current conditions inventory," which began at Manning City Hall with an informal meeting of local officials and business owners.
"Our goal was to go out in the community instead of having them come to us," she said. "Overall, several major goals were identified in the plan, including maintaining a vibrant downtown, providing service opportunities and amenities for everyone, creating a healthy and safe community and expanding job opportunities consistent with a stable and efficient pattern of growth."
Landfried said one difficulty often mentioned by residents interviewed for the plan was a lack of public transportation.
"We heard consistently there is no transportation to jobs or even to the grocery store," she said.
City Administrator Scott Tanner said the plan actually has a goal to assess transportation needs, but does not specifically provide any action on such needs.
He said council will have to have two readings to adopt the plan.
During their most recent meeting, Manning City Council overruled a vote by its own Planning Commission.
The commission's vote concerned a fence around a protected entryway that will be at the current Althea Gibson Center on Commerce Street. The county is remodeling the building to house the Clarendon County Coroner's Office, the state Department of Social Services and the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.
County Administrator David Epperson, speaking before City Council, said that the planning commission insisted on closing the sally port for the Coroner's office, concerned about the public possibly seeing deceased residents from the road.
"This is where the coroner would be bringing bodies," said Epperson. "Having to fully enclose it would incur a much greater cost than what we have budgeted."
He said enclosing the port would cost $32,000. The county has already gone up in its budget on the project to $175,000.
"We proposed to them multiple different options, including an eight-foot vinyl fence," Epperson said.
City Council members agreed that the fence would be enough to shield the public from the port.
