Calvert County has long been known for its citizen participation, for its citizen workshops, its recruiting of groups to provide liaisons to work with the county, its public forums, its mailing of draft plans, and so on. No more.
Since the draft comprehensive plan was completed in May 2018, there has never been a public presentation of the Plan to the general public, only three open houses held with three days public notice. No public forum for the citizens to ask questions and to hear an explanation of why:
the buildout goal of no more than 37,000 households has been eliminated,
policies linking residential growth to the adequacy of roads, schools, and a safe water supply have also been eliminated
the town centers are expanding, or why boundaries are being proposed before town center plans are being prepared,
stream quality standards are being deleted, and so on.
Now changes are being proposed to the planning commission draft and a public hearing has been scheduled for July 23rd. We haven’t seen the wording except that we have learned that:
Huntingtown is to be expanded across Route 4 so that Commissioner McConkey's property can be upzoned to town center commercial.
There will no longer be a difference between major and minor town centers. Does this mean current minor Town Centers like Owings, St. Leonard, Huntingtown, Dunkirk and Lusby can have super big box stores and high density residential like Prince Frederick?!?
What? AND the public hearing is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. - long before most citizens get home from work. AND we just learned that speakers must sign in to speak before 6 p.m.!
Abe Lincoln once said:
“With public sentiment, nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed”.
Lincoln: Wit and Wisdom.
It appears that the Commissioners could learn from Abe. It’s time to let the Commissioners know what you think!
SIGN OUR PETITION! We've set up a petition outlining our primary concerns. It gets emailed directly to the Commissioners once you sign it. Check it out on our website: www.keepcalvertcountry.com