DURHAM, N.C. — Durham County planners are working on a new Comprehensive Land Use Plan — a map that creates a vision for how Durham County will grow and change as a community throughout the next couple decades.

What You Need To Know

Durham planers are putting together a new Comprehensive Land Use Plan

The map creates a vision for what Durham county should look like decades from now

Planners are asking for community input to help form the plan

Lisa Miller is the principle planner for the City of Durham. She’s in charge of putting together a plan to decide what Durham will look like 20 years in the future as it continues to grow.

The current plan the city has in place is from 18 years ago. Miller says back in 2005, the city looked a lot different.

She started working in the planning department as an intern in 2006, and she’s seen the city grow and change in many ways since then.

Miller often bikes to work and around the surrounding communities — and has chosen to not own a car — to learn more about the places she’s working on.

“I think planning is really interesting,” Miller said. “I think that really advocating for people to be heard and to have more power in the process and also to have better outcomes in our community as it changes. Those are things that are really important to me, and that's what keeps me passionate about it all the time.”

Miller has been working on this new land use plan since 2019. The main focus is connecting with residents to hear about what they want their home to look like in the future.

She wants to include ideas from marginalized communities that may not have had a say in what their county looked like during past plans.

“I think that the result, what's in the plan … you can see Durham residents’ fingerprints all over it in the way that they've engaged with this work,” Miller said. “And it's been really incredible to have residents be really passionate about it and share that with us along the way.”

Now that the planning team has a draft map, they are asking county residents to continue to give them input on their work. Miller wants to makes sure she’s heard the community correctly, and that the plan reflects residents' priorities.

Durham residents can share their thoughts through the planners’ online survey or by attending one of their upcoming engagement events.