Umling Departs for the Mountains
Even if no other senior county staff had left Charles County’s employ this year, Planning Director David Umling told The Bay Net that he’d still be leaving; but not because he didn’t like his job. The reason is more personal.
A year ago, Umling and his wife purchased a piece of property in the West Virginia mountains on which they plan to build an innovative environmentally friendly home for their retirement. They spent all summer making the 8 hour round-trip journey to the land each weekend to make improvements and were fed up with the commute. When a city planning job opened up in nearby Cumberland, Maryland, Umling jumped at the chance to work closer to their land and the mountains.
“It’s ironic that that position opened up when it did,” Umling told The Bay Net. “I wasn’t about to let it go by without taking a shot at it.”
As Charles County’s population increased in the last several years, Umling worked to help the county take greater control over its space. He has been instrumental in putting Charles County’s development on the path toward less sprawl, greater environment care and more functional urban design. With his guidance, the Department of Planning and Growth Management began changing our zoning codes to encourage better use of space and more functional mixed-use development.
“You can’t camp out on Route 5 and tell people, ‘You need to turn around ‘cause we’re all full up here.’ It doesn’t work that way,” said Umling. “I think the county has a great future. I’m looking forward to seeing some of these policies I’ve helped develop come to fruition.”
Umling gets excited about revitalizing urban areas. He told the Bay Net that it’s important that urban-style mixed use development zones, like commercial/residential, are useful for the lifestyle of the people inhabiting it. If residential and commercial projects simply occupy the same piece of property without being interdependent upon one another, it’s not truly useful; it just looks good on paper. Umling thinks the relationship between the commercial and residential aspects of a zone has to be functional if it’s actually going to reduce traffic.
“You can’t make people stop using their cars. You have to change it by making it attractive for them,” said Umling. “I’m glad for the opportunity I’ve had to be part of that transition.”
Umling’s work for the last three years in Charles County was the process of altering its development pattern from rural/suburban sprawl to a more urban space-saving/revitalizing pattern. His new job in Cumberland already has those patterns in place and he’s excited for the change in focus.
New Director for New Department
Deborah Hudson, of Mechanicsville, begins work as the Director of Administrative Services on Oct. 29. The Department of Administrative Services was recently formed to encompass the county offices of Information Technology, Fisc
