LAURINBURG — The Scotland County Board of Commissioners will be discussing whether Scotland County residents will have a voice in future decisions concerning where tactical training facilities can be located.

In a meeting held by the Scotland County Planning and Zoning Board on Aug. 19, members voted to recommend that the Board of Commissioners approve a text change to the Scotland County Zoning Ordinance in reference to combat and tactical training facilities.

“I’m grateful that the Scotland County Planning and Zoning Board raised some important issues at their last meeting regarding the zoning law change,” said Rick Owens, a Scotland County resident, “but now it’s really up to the Scotland County Commission to listen to its community.”

Because of the Labor Day holiday, the county’s usual Monday night meeting will be held on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“This month’s meeting will be held at Scotland Place,” said Jason Robinson, public information officer for Scotland County.

The text amendment is on the agenda for the Board of Commissioners meeting and residents are set to speak on the topic, and a vote on the amendment is expected to be taken.

Residents are urging commissioners to either deny the text change outright or slow down the process and postpone a vote on the issue so that more careful consideration can be given to all future implications of the proposed text change

“I urge the Commission to carefully consider the feedback they’ve been hearing from residents on this issue,” said Owens. “This has all moved too fast. I hope they will choose to take a step back and slow down this process, or at the very least, require a conditional use permit for Neighborhood Commercial.”

There is currently an online petition placed by concerned county residents that has reached 206 signatures and another by the Deercroft Community that has 123 signatures. The link to the petition is https://www.change.org/p/scotland-county-commissioners-scotland-county-families-before-defense-contractors.

Scotland Place is located at 1210 Turnpike Road in Laurinburg.

JJ Melton can be reached at jmelton@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.