Citizens For Greater Centreville

The Queen Anne’s County Commissioners approved a resolution that sets a policy when deed restricted open space land is annexed into a municipality for development.

The county commissioners voted 5-0 on Dec. 18 to approve resolution no. 07-22, which was endorsed by the Regional Council of Governments of Queen Anne’s County in November.

The resolution states it’s the county commissioners’ policy to release the open space restrictions on land annexed into an incorporated town for development, but only if the developer complies with one of three options that will result in land preserved elsewhere in the county at a 2 to 1 ratio. (more…)

The Regional Council of Governments of Queen Anne’s County (COG) unanimously endorsed a draft resolution of the county commissioners to set guidelines for preserving open space at its Nov. 14 meeting at the Liberty Building.

Members of the county commission and all eight town councils voted. The resolution will soon go to a vote of the county commissioners.

“What this represents is quite a concession … The county commissioners have historically resisted giving up open space on annexation,” County Commission President Eric Wargotz said.

The resolution would allow developers to have deed-restricted open space annexed into a town so the deed restriction can be lifted and the property developed within the municipal limits, which is how the law stands now; however, the developer would have to mitigate the open space in one of two ways.

The developer could purchase and permanently preserve open space in one of the priority preservation areas in the county. The land preserved would have to be equal to at least twice the acreage of the annexed land from which the deed restriction was lifted.

The provision of having “at least” a two-to-one ratio was added after being recommended by COG President and Church Hill Town Commissioner Charlie Rhodes.

Cheryl Lewis, town manager of Barclay and Templeville, said requiring “at least” a two-to-one ratio provides the county commissioners with more flexibility in assessing the amount of open space to be mitigated.

The priority preservation areas include greenbelts outlined in municipalities’ comprehensive plans, but they also include large tracts of land throughout the county known as rural legacy areas.

Read more in the Star-Democrat

I am a resident of the Upper Mill Community off of Rolling Bridge Rd. The McCrone Gardner Family Trust proposal to build 220 low income townhomes and apts. as well as businesses involves land that borders our community. If any of your members are in opposition to the amendment to the community plan which involves two new growth areas, we would very much appreciate their support at the Town Planning Commission Meeting on Wed., Nov 7th. No public comment will be taken, But our community will be wearing signs to hopefully send a strong message of opposition. We will have extras for your members should they so desire. We will meet at 6:45 at the Planning Office on Coursevall Dr. to distribute signs and meet folks outside our community who have come to support us. We plan to meet again there directly after the meeting to assess what we’ve learned from the Planners and welcome comments from anyone outside our community.

On Thursday, Nov.8th at the County Planning Commission Mtg. at 8:45 A.M. ( also at Co. Planning Office on Coursevall Dr.), a rep from our community will make public comment in opposition to the proposal. We would be very appreciative of one or more of your members making public comment in opposition as well.

We recognize that it will take a wide reaching coalition of citizens promoting responsible growth to defeat this proposal, thus, our reaching out to you and your members. We also recognize that the extension of support goes both ways and we look forward to supporting your endeavors which are not directly in our backyard.

Thank you very much for your consideration of our request.
Forrest Schoenbachler