Planners endorse revised plan to guide growth here

Calls for rezoning in St. Mary's County are scaled back

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009

The comprehensive growth plan provides general statements and policies regarding how land is to be developed, while the zoning ordinance defines the rules to implement those policies.

As this revision began, there were proposals to rezone as many as 1,000 properties as staff from the St. Mary's County Department of Land Use and Growth Management sought to tidy up rural and growth areas. That number has been drastically reduced.

After several work sessions, the planning commission recommended to keep the Mill Cove Harbor area of California in the Lexington Park Development District, which allows public water and sewer. The residents of that neighborhood asked to be removed from the designation after objecting to two dense waterfront developments proposed there. The planning commission added language to the neighborhood's area to define it was a low-density, transitional residential zone, which would lead to more rules on density and open space "and that addresses a lot of the concerns for the folks in Mill Cove," said Jeff Jackman, senior planner with land use and growth management, on Monday after the meeting.

The New Market area retains its town center designation instead of being downzoned to a village center, as staff had proposed. Village centers Loveville, Clements and Valley Lee would have become rural service areas, but planners kept them as village centers.

The overall sizes of three areas designated for growth — Hollywood, Mechanicsville and the Leonardtown Development District, were reduced.

Planning commission member Shelby P. Guazzo, a former county commissioner, said she disagreed with that and was the sole vote against the entire recommended comprehensive plan.

"I have worked long and hard on the comprehensive plan," she said. "I have studied it extensively." But because the Maryland Department of Planning mandates that counties review their growth plans every six years, she said, "This has been driven primarily by the state and the lack of understanding how much the county's done, to manage growth."

The county has revised its transferable development rights program to make it more expensive to build in the county's rural areas and pass an annual growth policy, splitting new growth to 30 percent in rural areas and the rest into growth areas. A new growth policy allows housing stock to increase up to 1.9 percent a year, but that ceiling has not been hit because of the housing market since the policy was adopted.

However, Guazzo said the county commissioners haven't done enough to preserve rural lands. "I am concerned that the board of county commissioners has not kept up with the funding needed to preserve land" by purchasing easements. "Our county commissioners have done very darn little if anything to foster that," she said.

By reducing the size of three growth areas in the comprehensive plan, properties are being unfairly downzoned, she said, because of Maryland planners' perception, calling it "a jerk response to the state."

"Do you believe the state has any better understanding of what we're doing" in growth management, commission member Merl Evans asked Derick Berlage, director of land use and growth management.

"I believe the state's awareness is growing, but we still have educating to do," Berlage said.

"I think there's so much good in here — that outweighs what I find lacking" in the overall recommendation, Evans said.

The county commissioners intend to vote on the comprehensive plan by the end of the year. Comprehensive rezoning would come afterward.

jbabcock@somdnews.com