Junction City residents and property owners will have a chance to inspect a draft of what the town’s future development could look like if the proposed Future Land Use Map (FLUM) is approved.

The map will serve as the primary guide for Junction City and the surrounding area’s development for the next 10 to 15 years, according to Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Director Steve Hunter.

From 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, the public is invited to an open house at the Junction City Community Center to see the map, ask questions and voice their opinions.

“I think anybody who resides or owns property in Junction City, or on the fringe or southern part of Boyle County,” should be interested in what the map shows where different types of residential and commercial areas could be located, Hunter said.

The map is for future possible development, Hunter explained — “It’s not changing the zoning.” However, the FLUM would be the basis for the P&Z Commission to make a decision, if or when a developer wants a zone change, Hunter said.

Members of the FLUM committee have worked for nearly a year labeling land uses all over the Junction City community. They looked at and studied where they thought were the best areas for commercial development, job-based opportunities and where low-, moderate- and high-density residential areas should be located or protected in the future, Hunter said.

During Saturday’s informal open house, P&Z staff and FLUM committee members will be on hand to talk “one on one” with residents and property owners about their opinions on and ideas for future land use. They’ll also explain what each designation means.

Hunter will have copies of the FLUM on-hand for people to take with them, and he said he’d email information if someone wanted it.

Hunter said public input is good because “they know more about their own town than the planner does in Danville.”

The map being presented Saturday is a “better looking map” than the one Junction City had in 2007, Hunter said. The new FLUM “is more generalized. It’s blended.” Instead of each parcel being labeled as commercial, then right next door residential — which really just showed existing land use patterns — the new map “is more generalized. It has a better flow. There are better transitions from U.S. 127 to neighborhoods,” Hunter said. “Junction City’s map is a work of art.”

One of the unique features of Junction City’s FLUM is a huge area designated as “mixed-use employment.” This area is located adjacent to the airport, Hunter said. “It’s a flexible category,” which could be used for commercial or industrial development that is “employment based,” Hunter said. Being able to leverage the airport amenities and location on a state road “makes sense in the future. … They could hand it off to the Economic Development Partnership if Junction City wants to see growth in that general area.”