SUMMERDALE — The Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Commission is hoping to save its Horizon 2025 Comprehensive Plan for Baldwin County.

During a special-called meeting at Summerdale Town Hall on Thursday, the Commission met to discuss the Baldwin County Commission’s proposal to rescind the plan, which it will consider at its Aug. 7 meeting.

Thursday’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting focused on a letter drafted to county officials, asking for the issue to be tabled until October “to enable the Planning Commission, in consultation with the County Planning Department staff and with legal counsel, to review the Horizon 2025 Plan specifically to identify any provisions of the plan, which could be contrary to Act. No. 2012-598 as is suggested in draft Resolution 2012-075,” the letter states.

During Thursday’s meeting, the Planning Commission discussed the possibility of conflict with Act. No. 2012-598 which could cause it to be rescinded.

That act, which state legislators passed in May and goes into effect Wednesday, prohibits Baldwin County from creating environmental and developmental policies that would affect the rights of private property owners without due process.

As for Horizon 2025, it is a comprehensive plan for Baldwin County through the year 2025 and was approved by the County Commission on July 7, 2009.

“The County Commission was mandated by the state in 2006 to come up with a comprehensive plan,” Dyas said after the meeting. “We (the Planning Commission) spent over two years, public hearings and a lot of money working on it.”

The Horizon 2025 Plan was completed in 2008 and approved by the county the following year. It addresses such issues as housing, natural resources, historic elements and governmental design, as well as future land use, which seems to be at the crux of the controversy.

“The purpose of the existing land-use element is to examine the existing land uses and to determine present and future land-use needs for future growth in the county,” the land-use chapter’s introduction states.

Another issue the county is considering is the fact that the newly-passed state legislation also won’t allow for actions that can be traced back to Agenda 21, which was passed by the United Nations in 1992 to address sustainable development.

After discussing the issue, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to submit the letter to the County Commission, with the general consensus being that the Horizon 2025 Plan should be reviewed and repaired.

“We need a plan,” Planning Commission member George Williams said. “Before we toss something out, we must have something in its place.”

Fellow Planning Commission member Van McCamish agreed.

“It seems to me we’re making a whole lot of something out of nothing,” he said. “If there’s things wrong with it (the Horizon 2025 Plan), let’s change it.”

The Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Commission’s next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Baldwin County Central Annex Auditorium in Robertsdale.aria