That was the consensus this evening of a committee studying potential overhauls of the city's comprehensive land use plan.

These areas of prime farmland, mainly off the main corridors in the Roanoke Rapids extraterritorial jurisdiction, runs counter to the committee's early plans of addressing growth issues in the city's Roanoke Avenue business district, meeting moderator Dale Holland, of Holland Consulting Planners, said. “What do you want to do with prime farmland? Prime farmlands are well drained, have stable soils. This is land on which you want to build something.”

While changing the map could signal the desire the city wants to develop outward instead of focusing on the avenue business district, Cathy Scott, executive director of the Halifax Development Commission said, “It's a positive reflection of the suitability for development.”

City Planning and Development Director Kelly Lasky said changing the map will not change zoning. “It changes the definition of suitability.”

Holland explained the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction is limited as it is. In keeping with that, he explained, much of the city's prime farmland is located in and around the Interstate 95 corridor and the entertainment overlay district.

About 70 percent of land in Roanoke Rapids is of moderate to high suitability. “In much of Eastern North Carolina that's unheard of. You've got really good conditions in the city and the ETJ.”

Holland noted that in the potential changing of the suitability map wetlands and potential wetlands should be highlighted. “That doesn't mean you can't build on it, but it could be a concern.”