La Plata, MD – August will be Comprehensive Plan Month in Charles County.
The draft comprehensive plan will be the focus of the Charles County Planning Commission for the next month, members decided Monday, July 27.
Commission members voted to include a third meeting for August, and the general consensus was that they will need to scour over the proposed plan chapter by chapter in an effort to bring new board members up to snuff on the history and changes proposed for the plan, which the county has been wrangling with for a number of years.
There have been major revisions to the plan in recent history, Planning Director Steve Ball explained.
“The most significant change involved shifting agricultural conservation area to rural residential land use,” Ball said. “The previous planning commission wanted to allow major subdivisions into rural areas, but state legislation was formed specifically to prevent that. One of the major revisions included the adoption of the tier map at the end of 2014. Once the tier map was adopted, our direction was to go back and change the comprehensive plan to be consistent with the tier map.
“Because we adopted a tier map that established requirements to limit large major subdivisions in rural areas, we were able to re-establish the agricultural conservation district,” Ball stated.
The planning commission started working on the plan in 2011, he explained, adding the board held a dozen or more public hearings, focused on the plan in 25 planning commission meetings and made numerous changes in response to citizens.
“We believe this plan promotes smart growth, discourages sprawl and protects environmental resources,” Ball said.
He said members could consider the plan as drafted and will have to hold a public hearing, consider public comments, and schedule a work session to review the plan.
“Now that you have a full board, we will have your collective wisdom on whether this plan is reflecting the values of our community,” Ball added.
“I need some sense of direction from my colleagues,” Chairman Gilbert Bowling Jr. said.
“The last time we did this, we tried to go through each comment and we got bogged down with it,” Ball responded. “We ended up taking them one page at a time.”
“Rather than go through each one individually, let’s go through the ones the state had comments on,” Bowling said. “I agree, we can get bogged down.”
“Being the newest member, I would like to go page by page,” Angela Sherard suggested. “This is an important instrument. Personally, I need to understand the foundation behind everything. I would prefer going through a work session before we go to public hearing.”
“I would like to have the public’s input early on,” said member Wayne Magoon.
“We need to understand it 100 percent, then come back and hear from the public,” member Rosalin Daya countered.
“I’m a little afraid of getting stuck in the weeds,” member Nancy Schertler noted.
Member Robin Barnes recommended that the board go through the different chapters. “That’s probably a more comprehensive way to do it,” he said.
“Chapter by chapter works for me, but I clearly want public input,” Magoon stated.
“Without committing to specifics, I would come back with one or two chapters per meeting,” Ball explained. “It would probably take four or five meetings, providing what else you have.”
Daya suggested dedicating meetings scheduled for Aug. 10 and 24 just to the comprehensive plan.
“How difficult would it be to call a special meeting?” Bowling asked Ball.
“It just has to be advertised two weeks, to make sure the room is available and members are available,” Ball said.
“I’m just hoping we can have an approved plan,” member Joan Jones said. “We’ve gone to the state and they’ve pretty much approved what we submitted.”
“It has been through the state review process, but there could be changes,” Ball said. “The county commissioners have the authority to make changes without sending it back to the planning commission.”
Members voted unanimously to add an extra meeting Aug. 31 in order to review what is proposed.
“Your job is to balance different interests,” Ball concluded. “The comprehensive plan is more of a reflection of the values of the community as to where and whether we should allow growth. There are interlocking policies and different ways of determining where you want the growth to go.
“I can frame the questions for you, but I can’t provide the answers,” he said.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com