The Town of Flora has released the Draft Comprehensive Plan for the Town for community members to read and provide feedback regarding their opinions on various aspects of the plan.
The plan tackles numerous ideas, such as land use, government and fiscal capacity, public facilities and services, placemaking, economic development, housing, transportation, agriculture, natural resources, parks and recreations, broadband access, historical and archaeological and hazard mitigation.
Comprehensive plans are long-term strategic documents that outline the community’s overall vision, goals and action steps with the intention to ensure sustained growth and overall prosperity. The Flora Draft Comprehensive Plan was contributed to by resident Don Shively, Flora Town Marshal James Bishop, resident Jamie Seibert, resident Kayla Tinsman, resident Laurie Brower, resident Morgan Craig, Flora Town Councilman Rob Kauffman and resident Sue Shively.
The Town utilized the GROW Flora planning process to collect data over 11 months to develop a long-range vision for the community that intends to promote balanced growth, preservation and community enhancements.
For land use, the plan intends to use the future land use map to guide development decisions, capitalize on future infrastructure investments to grow the town’s development footprint and strengthen the downtown area by reinforcing a Town Center culture and development pattern.
For government and fiscal capacity, the plan intends to enhance the town’s community culture by establishing an open dialogue for information sharing and proactively plan for future town investments.
For public facilities and services, the plan intends to ensure town utilities can provide adequate services to current and future residents and businesses, such as collaborating with the Indiana Department of Environment Management and stakeholders to continue improvements to the sanitary sewer treatment and distribution facilities and more.
For placemaking, the plan intends to strengthen the town’s community culture through public art, interpretive displays and overall beautification efforts and strengthen the town’s community pride by hosting year-round events, festivals and service efforts, such as expanding the Flora Community Garden to increase local access to healthy, fresh foods.
For economic development, the plan intends to establish and utilize incentive programs to build strong and vibrant developments and support and retain existing businesses, such as creating a mentoring program for business owners and entrepreneurs to create a network with others in the business sphere, and preserve and promote employment opportunities and lifelong education.
For housing, the plan intends to support the development of a diverse mix of housing options, foster the development of walkable neighborhoods, protect residential areas from the impacts of incompatible developments and uses and preserve safe and quality existing housing stock through code enforcement and maintenance programs.
For transportation, the plan intends to maintain and upgrade community roadways to support growth and development and ensure safe access to neighborhoods, businesses and local destinations for pedestrians of all ages and abilities, such as developing bike lanes and trails through Flora.
For agriculture, the plan intends to provide appropriate transitions and development buffers to preserve the surrounding farmland by working closely with the county Area Plan Commission to ensure land uses consider the town’s Future Land Use Map and reviewing local zoning ordinances to ensure all areas are zoned properly.
For natural resources, the plan intends to manage, mitigate and reduce the impact of future stormwater runoff within the town’s neighborhoods by developing a subdivision control ordinance to ensure that future developments manage stormwater efficiently and responsibly and more.
For parks and recreation, the plan intends to increase residential access to parks, open space and recreational activities and expand the town’s parks and recreation system through the use of established open space, community buildings and future developments, such as reestablishing the Flora Parks Board and providing amenity improvements such as ball field upgrades, new play equipment and a splash pad in Flora Community Park.
For broadband access, the plan intends to reduce known barriers to digital use through education and marketing; however, the committee marked all the strategies as lower priority compared to other developments proposed in the plan.
For historical and archaeological resources, the plan intends to revitalize downtown Flora to preserve the community’s history, such as beginning by reestablishing state-wide accreditation for the Flora Main Street organization and maintaining existing murals.
For hazard mitigation, the plan intends to provide adequate levels of health, safety and welfare protection as the town grows by working with Carroll County Emergency Management to complete a hazard mitigation plan and coordinating the review and input of new development proposals with all affected public agencies and utilities.
Community members have been encouraged to skim through the plan and provide feedback to the Flora Town Office at 574-967-4844. The document may be found here.
