Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Bath residents will have an opportunity to act like sculptors, shaping and molding the future of the town at a public open house meeting on Monday night (Sept. 25). 

The meeting is hosted by the Town of Bath Planning Department who hopes to receive feedback from residents on how they’d like to see the town develop in the next ten years. It will be held from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall which is located inside Bath Historic High School at 103 S King Street. 

Residents’ ideas and opinions will be considered when Bath’s next land use plan is drafted. A land use plan helps present and future town leaders know actions to take and choices to make in directing the town’s future. Land use plans include vision statements, long-term goals and objectives which are often met by local governments. Land use plans help local governments make decisions on upcoming development proposals, how to best spend public funds and improvements to residents’ quality of life. 

Local governments in the coastal region of North Carolina are required under the Coastal Area Management Act to have a land use plan. Those plans are to include methods to address population growth while preserving natural resources. 

Though there will not be an official presentation on Monday, there will be a scrolling PowerPoint display and posters with interactive activities. Jamie Heath, a planner with Mid-East Commission, town staff and planning board members will be in attendance to answer any questions residents may have. 

“The powerpoint will give a primer on land use plans, review local demographic, economic and environmental data, and review the results of the public survey that was recently conducted for the land use plan update. The posters will include an existing land use map, future land use map interactive exercise, vision statement interactive exercise, and community goals interactive exercise,” Heath explained in an email to the Daily News.