Comprehensive Plan

History of Comprehensive Plans in Lawrence County

The Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan Task Force was originally formed in early 1996. Its members were a diverse group of people including the many residents of Lawrence County who all gave their time, attention, and careful thought to help produce the Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan.

The vision of this diverse group of people became a reality on December 18, 1998, when the Lawrence County Commissioners unanimously vacated the 1975 County Comprehensive Plan per Resolution # 98-40 and in turn passed Resolution # 98-41 to adopt the 1998 Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan.

In 2004, the task of revising and completing the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan was undertaken. The documents generated in conjunction with the 1998 Plan, and revised documents produced in 2002 were reviewed and edited to produce the 2005 Comprehensive Plan.

Lawrence County Planning staff, along with legal council and the Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed and revised the documents to take into account changes that occurred in the County over the years since the 1998 document was adopted. It was determined that the best course of action was to produce one major revision of all documents and make the necessary changes to tie them all together. In conjunction with the revision of this plan are the revision and adoption of Lawrence County Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Ordinance, and the Lawrence County Zoning Map, the first major revision to these documents since their creation in the early 1970s.

Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan 2030

In 2018, the Lawrence County Planning & Zoning Office, Planning & Zoning Board and the County Commissioners budgeted for a new Comprehensive Plan to be done by 2020. In January 2019 the process began. Over the next year there were extensive public meetings and surveys for those who were unable to attend a meetings in person. Due to COVID-19 creative ways to get pubic involvement ensued. 

The Lawrence County Planning & Zoning Board acted as a review board for the Comprehensive Plan process. Each month at their monthly meetings updates and information was shared. Many Stakeholder meetings were scheduled. The Board Members consisted of:

  • Rick Tysdal, Chairman
  • Travis Schenk, Vice Chair
  • Daryl Johnson, County Commission Representative
  • Julie Stone
  • Mike Whalen
  • Kelly Fuller
  • Amy Gilpin

Staff and Consultants on the project were as follows:

  • Amber Vogt, Lawrence County Planning & Zoning Director
  • Bruce Outka. County Commissioners Attorney
  • Lysann Zeller, Black Hills Council of Local Government

On December 8, 2020 the Lawrence County Commission adopted the Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan 2030 per Resolution 2020-36.They also vacated the 2005 Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan per Resolution 2020-37. You can review the final adopted plan here Adopted Lawrence County Comprehensive Plan 2030 (12.8.2020)