The City of Jemison held three public hearings Thursday, June 19 in order to listen to Steve Ostaseski of the Birmingham Regional Planning commission give a status update of Jemison’s comprehensive plan.

Members of the community along with Jemison City Council members, Mayor Eddie Reed and members of the Jemison Planning Commission were in attendance for all three hour-long meetings.

Ostaseski utilized the time to inform those present of future transportation issues, future land use, future residential and commercial development, as well as future parks or green space areas Jemison may be faced with, and some solutions to consider.

Some transportation issues discussed were the likelihood of CSX doubling its rail traffic from Chicago to Mobile which will run right through Jemison, potential improvements needed to County Road 44 when the new Jemison Intermediate School is built, improvements to Jemison’s main traffic arteries of County Road 42, Highway 31, County Road 44, County Road 29 and County Road 51.

Ostaseski also highlighted the plan if commercial development starts to occur along I-65 at the 219-mile marker.

“This is still a planning process,” Police Chief Brian Stilwell, member of the Planning Commission, said. “We appreciate all those who attended and gave input.”

Stilwell advised that more planning commission public meetings will be held in the future before the comprehensive plan is adopted.

“This comprehensive plan is merely a roadmap to assist us and future administrations in planning for the future,” Reed said. “Plans can be changed, but if we do not start planning tomorrow, today it will unfortunately be planned for us.”