Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government’s (TPCG) Department of Planning and Zoning announces that public Kick-Off meetings for the Comprehensive Plan Update have been scheduled for mid-August. The meetings, planned for August 11, 12 and 13, 2009, will be held at different locations around the parish for the convenience of parish residents. These meetings will be conducted by the parish’s planning consultant, Providence Engineering & Environmental Group, LLC. Emphasizing the importance of these meetings, Pat Gordon, Parish Planning Director, said that these meetings will be used to gather public ideas and opinions about the things that are important to parish residents and to learn how they want the parish to look in 20 years. “Although a draft of the Vision Statement as well as a citizen survey can be found on the TPCG website,” he said, “participants will be led through at process at these meetings to shape a Vision Statement which will be the backbone of the new Comprehensive Plan Update.” The August 11 meeting will be held at H. L. Bourgeois High School on LA 24 North. The August 12 meeting is slated for the Bourg Lions Club building in Bourg, and the final Kick-Off meeting will be in the Parish Council Meeting Room on the 2nd floor of the Government Tower on August 13. All meetings will begin promptly at 6:00 p.m., with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. Each meeting is slated to end at 8:00 p.m. Gordon stated that the public is invited to these meetings. “Pick the one that is most convenient to you and please attend and participate,” he said. He also said that there will be additional opportunities for public participation next year as the plan enters its final phase, but it was very important for the public to help the parish and its consultant shape the underpinnings of the plan now. In each meeting the public will be led through an exercise designed to help them focus on how they want the parish to look in the future, not how they think may things may look. “This is an important distinction,” said Planning Commission Chairman, Danny Babin. “We can achieve no preferred future without a dream. This is the primary purpose of the Vision Statement.” For more information: Contact Jennifer Robinson at (985) 873-6569.