Putnam Planning Approves New Traffic Study Regulations For Certain Developments

Putnam County Planning Commission unanimously approved new subdivision regulations implementing a traffic study requirement for certain developments Tuesday night.

This, after several conversations on how to best approach those cases. Planning Director Kevin Rush said the approval allows the planning department to require a traffic study and sets the standards for those traffic studies.

“The intent of this is that these are the standards we would use if we end up in a situation where the county and the developer cannot agree onto the scope of any off-site improvements,” Rush said.

Commissioners have been discussing the topic after new state requirements were enacted that prohibit regional and municipal planning commissions from requiring certain things from developers as conditions of approval. Rush said Tuesday’s regulations come with amendments since the last conversation, including removing automatic triggers for study and lowering the standards for who can conduct a traffic study.

Commission Chair Jere Mason said the document is not a perfect fix, but it is a start.

“We’ve got to start somewhere and this is not a concrete document,” Mason said. “We can amend this document any time we need to, any time we see fit we can add to it or subtract from it. We’ve got to start somewhere and this is as good of a starting place as any.”

Commissioner Phil Wilbourn said he wants to make sure that everyone is aware of the changes who might be affected by them. Rush said that he would put the information on the website and send to developers and real estate agents among others.