Kevin Spradlin
Cumberland Times-News
November 17, 2008 12:42 am
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CUMBERLAND — The state Task Force on the Future for Growth and Development is planning a public forum in Frostburg early next month on the recommendation of future Smart Growth principles and the creation of a state development plan.
Sponsored by the Maryland Department of Planning, the forum is billed as the last in a series of “listening sessions” across the state. It’s the first opportunity for residents of Allegany and Garrett counties to speak on the report, which is due to lawmakers and Gov. Martin O’Malley by Dec. 1.
MDP Secretary Richard E. Hall said the report is not the state development plan but a “sketch plan” that state and local planners can utilize as jurisdictions move forward on the comprehensive planning process. Local officials, however, have expressed a concern it’s another way for downstate legislators to have an unwanted influence in rural Mountain Maryland.
One of those officials is Phil Hager, county planning coordinator for Allegany County government. He and others, including Garrett County Commissioner Fred Holliday, pushed for the latest listening session so state planners could gain a truer sense of the area. Hager said the task force’s initial report would likely be used as the foundation of a state development plan and, just as likely, as a source document for metro-area lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session.
In fact, one of the task force’s 13 mandates include determining “the parameters for a state development plan, state transportation plan, state housing plan and determine how these plans work together with local land-use plans,” as dictated in House Bill 773.
The task force is to serve as an advisory board to O’Malley’s Smart Growth Subcabinet through Dec. 31, 2010.
To date, the closest opportunity area residents had to attend such a session was six weeks ago in Hagerstown. Not many local residents or stakeholders attended the session.
The meeting was first scheduled for Dec. 9 at Frostburg State University. As of late Sunday, however, that date had been postponed. Notices will be published in the newspaper as the information becomes available.
“We need to speak up. I think we need to be concerned, particularly in rural areas,” said state Sen. George Edwards on Friday during the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce legislative committee meeting. “I support local land-use. I don’t think we want someone sitting down there in Baltimore or Annapolis telling us how to do things.”
Edwards said Western Maryland needs to follow Smart Growth principles in order to receive much-needed state funding for infrastructure improvements. But he didn’t see a need for the state to have more control over a county’s planning efforts.
Committee member Bill Valentine said he’s hoping for changes in the listening session scheduled for Allegany County. In Hagerstown, Valentine said attendees were given a series of pictures of potential development from which to choose in a manner that didn’t allow much flexibility.
“They were guiding your choice,” Valentine said. “I’d like to see the one in Frostburg be more open.”
Colleen Peterson of The Greater Cumberland Committee, a committee member, said the area needs to execute a “full-court pressure” on state planners. In Hagerstown, she said, “I think what was missing was the business voice. I think this is an opportunity for Mountain Maryland to say you can’t paint the state with the same brush.”
Peterson said she attended a planning meeting last week in Frederick. There were about 50 people there, she said, and “47 of them weren’t from rural parts of Maryland.”
Still, “these people had alternate views of what shouldn’t happen” in Western Maryland, Peterson said.
The consensus at the chamber meeting Friday was that area residents and professionals should take advantage of any opportunity to voice concerns to state planners.
More information can be found online at www.mdp.state.md.us/listeningsessions.htm. Readers also can complete an online survey similar to what listening session attendees completed.
Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.
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