Planning Consultant Eyed To Facilitate Growth Discussion

BERLIN– The town could soon hire a planning consultant to guide residents through a discussion about growth.

Planning Director Dave Engelhart told the Berlin Planning Commission last week to start thinking about items they’d like to discuss with a consultant. He said funding was allocated within his department’s budget to bring a planning expert to town later this year.

“I’d love to know if they could find another small town, similar to Berlin, that’s been on the same trajectory, and find out what went right and what went wrong,” commission member Matt Stoehr said.

Engelhart told the commission that because every proposed annexation brought out a mix of residents opposed to and in support of growth, he believed Berlin should bring in a consultant to help the town determine what its future should look like. He said there was funding for the project allocated within the planning department’s budget.

Stoehr was quick to express interest in the idea. He pointed out that the town was growing quickly and that residents needed to understand the impact of that. He noted that residents were concerned about taxes and utility fees but said there were other issues tied to growth that needed to be discussed. Stoehr said that even as a planning commission member, he didn’t have a good understanding of the town’s wastewater operations and wanted to know more about when growth would force a wastewater treatment plant expansion, for example.

More