Following difficulties last year, members of a committee meant to update the Monroe County comprehensive plan met Thursday in an effort to breathe new life into the project with new outside assistance.

The committee consists of members of several county entities, including the Monroe County Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals, as well as several figures and business owners in the community.

This group previously met in June of last year, led by regional planner Linda Tragesser with the Southwestern Illinois Metropolitan and Regional Planning Commission.

As reported in an Oct. 18 article covering the Monroe County Board, it was explained by then-Monroe County Board Chairman Dennis Knobloch that little progress had been made on the comprehensive plan in those prior months.

As various members of the Monroe County Planning Commission had expressed dissatisfaction with  SIMPAC – the group  was undergoing organizational realignment last year and seemed unable to meet the county’s needs – Moran Economic Development was hired as a new consultant.

Moran Director of Planning Emily Calderon led the conversation at Thursday’s meeting, which primarily served as an introductory brainstorming session much like the June 2023 meeting had.

The county’s comprehensive plan has not been updated since 1994, though supplemental revisions were implemented in the early 2010s.

As Knobloch previously explained, the need for additional changes to the plan became evident in 2021 during discussion of a proposed expansion of Stumpy’s Spirits Distillery to be built near the intersection of Route 3 and Hanover Road south of Columbia.

At the time, several business interests and members of the community opposed to the expansion said the proposal didn’t align with the county’s comprehensive plan, focusing on traffic concerns and a request to rezone the property classification from A2 agricultural land to B2 highway business.