City workshop discusses use of undeveloped land

The City of Aiken is moving closer to developing a plan for its open space. A full-day workshop was held Wednesday afternoon to discuss future use of undeveloped land within Aiken, during which city officials, representatives of local groups and organizations and residents had the opportunity to weigh in.

The ideas were expressed to consultants with Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin Inc., a community planning and design firm based in Florida.

Earlier this year, City Council members approved the City's request to hire consultants to put together an outline which would provide guidelines for addressing open space.

Once the plan is complete, it will go to both the Planning Commission and City Council for approval. Sandra Korbelik, a senior planner with the City and a coordinator of the open space project, said the plan will focus on seven components: agricultural resources, bikeways and trails, equestrian resources, historic and cultural resources, natural resources, parks and roadways.

If the plan is approved, the open space guidelines will be added to the City's comprehensive plan.

During the afternoon session of the workshop, those who attended divided into seven groups, each group representing one the seven open space components, and created a list of goals and priorities they felt needed to be further studied for the plan. Many ideas were presented by each group, including an idea that the City should create a equestrian subcommittee to work with an open space commission, proposed by the equestrian group. The subcommittee would work to protect equestrian open space currently not protected.

An idea suggested by the roadway group was the designation of scenic roads in Aiken.

The natural resources group also suggested a natural resource subcommittee to work with the open space commission. A plan to connect city parks and bike trail, such as Virginia Oaks and Citizens Park was mentioned by the park group.

The agriculture group suggested creating agricultural overlay districts to protect agriculture producing land, and the historic resources group suggested establishing a criteria for establishing historic open space areas.

Korbelik said she was really excited about the response to the workshop.

"Everyone is so focussed, so passionate, they just really care," she said.

Korbelik said the consultants will research the information provided by the residents to help with their creation of a draft open space plan. Korbelik said the City is expecting the draft to be complete before Christmas this year.