The Mathews County Planning Commission and the Mathews County Board of Supervisors will hold a joint public hearing on the draft Mathews Comprehensive Plan 2030 at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the historic courthouse on Court Street.

The document was last updated in 2001 and has been a major focus of the planning commission, the county’s planning department, and an advisory committee of local residents since 2007. That year, the county and the Chesapeake Network for Education of Municipal Officials offered a series of community planning sessions titled "Second Tuesdays in Mathews."

Since then, there have been numerous public meetings to determine what Mathews residents feel are the most important land management and planning issues facing the county and what kinds of development and economic initiatives they want to see pursued.

Building on past efforts initiated by McSEED and Mathews Main Street, people consistently said they wanted to preserve the character, history, and...