St. Mary’s Commissioners Tommy McKay, left, Kenny Dement, Larry Jarboe, Tom Mattingly and Dan Raley — The Bay Net photo by Sean Rice

After a heavy dose of criticism from citizens last month, the St. Mary’s Board of Commissioners decided to put the brakes on a plan to overhaul the county’s Transferable Development Rights (TDR) land preservation program.

The voluntary plan was put in place to preserve farmland and open space, and to steer development to the county’s development zones – but most in county government agree the plan is not working as intended.

Last month the commissioners held a final public hearing on the issue before moving forward with a vote on the plan. A few citizens lambasted the program; claiming it does more harm than good to farming, and will wreak havoc on the housing market. On farmer even said the plan borders on socialism.

See earlier articles here for more information on the program.

At last week’s commissioner meeting, only Commissioner Larry Jarboe advocated taking the plan to a vote. The other four commissioners voted to suspend indefinitely the time period the board has to act on the proposal.

Commissioners Tommy McKay, Dan Raley and Tom Mattingly spoke out against hastily approving the plan without further public education and comment. Both Mattingly and Raley said there are rumors and “misconceptions” going around about the program, but neither commissioner elaborated on their comments.

McKay said he would rather the issue go before the voters as a referendum than pass it hastily.

The Bay Net caught up with Raley, Mattingly and McKay to find out what issues are preventing the plan from moving forward.

“The worst thing that we could do is pass something of this magnitude that we know from day one needs to be modified and changed,” Raley told his fellow commissioners last week.

All three commissioners said they don’t think the public, and landowners who will be directly affected, know enough about the plan.

“I’m pretty sure there’s a sizable percentage of people out there that don’t know what’s going on yet,” Raley said.

Once a TDR is sold from a piece of property, that land can no longer be used for anything other than farming. Raley said maybe some secondary uses should be considered, such as schools or churches.

“That’s a conversation we haven’t had yet,” Raley said in a telephone interview.

As for “misconceptions”, Raley said the comments going around calling the program just a camouflage for forced 1 house per 10 acres zoning is false. But, he said, there are still questions to be answered.

“This program will significantly increase the demand for TDRs, but what have we done to the supply? Raley asked. “Farmers may hold on to see if their TDRs become more valuable … this would make the demand for TDRs mandatory, while the supply side stays voluntary.”

“Adopting it and going back and fixing it, that’s not a good option,” Commissioner Mattingly told The Bay Net. &l