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MIDDLESEX TWP — The township has been working to update its comprehensive plan, which has remained unchanged since 2004.

The planning commission voted to advance its updated comprehensive plan to the next level, where it will be reviewed by the township’s supervisors at a future public hearing.

The meeting on Wednesday evening, Feb. 28, was the fourth time the comprehensive plan went before the planning commission. The main topic of conversation on Wednesday regarded tweaks to the commission’s proposed changes for the plan’s “designated growth area,” the part of the township where orderly and efficient development is expected to progress.

The growth area is “just a tool that’s part of the comprehensive plan,” said township manager Jeffrey Winkle.

During the meeting, one member of the planning commission, Dave Fowler, raised concerns about the plan’s ability to balance the township’s rural character with the need to allow for future urban development. Fowler was especially concerned that future development would encroach on the Glade Run watershed area.

“The survey shows that our main focus for the comprehensive plan should be the preservation of our rural nature,” Fowler said during the meeting. “I think we should make this thing as restrictive as possible, not as broad as possible.”

“They were just talking about some of the environmentally sensitive areas of the community, and their desire to help those areas,” Winkle said.

“There’s continuing work that needs to be done,” Fowler said.

There is no timetable yet for when the supervisors will hold the public hearing for the comprehensive plan.