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Staff outlines schedule for comprehensive plan update; Metcom describes Hollywood sewer options and funding changes
Summary
Planning staff set a target to release a staff draft of the comprehensive plan update in January, starting the 60‑day state review window; Metcom briefed the commission on sewer line extents near Broad Creek and Twin Ponds and said funding rules now favor countywide capital planning.
Planning staff told the commission on Nov. 24 that work on the county comprehensive plan update is progressing and that staff aims to deliver a staff draft to the Planning Commission around its first meeting in January to begin the statutorily required 60‑day review period with state agencies.
Jackman (planning staff) outlined a timeline that targets a staff draft in January, a public hearing roughly 60 days later (likely March), followed by iterative revisions and a potential Planning Commission recommended draft in April and a target for adoption later in the year. Staff said the timeline is ambitious but noted the county has until October to update the water resources element to meet state requirements.
The commission also received an update on sewer service for the Hollywood area from Chet Frederick, chief engineer for Metcom. Frederick said state law and internal funding policy changes shifted Metcom’s capital funding approach toward countywide cost sharing (a five‑year capital plan) rather than the prior patchwork of special taxing districts. He described existing sewer extents: a main that transitions from 8‑inch to 6‑inch near the St. John's Road/Broad Creek area and service that reaches the Broad Creek/Twin Ponds area; further extensions (for example to Satterley/Sotterley commercial area and Hollywood) depend on final decisions about where town‑center infrastructure should be focused and on funding availability.
Frederick said the facility plan for the Fifth and Eighth sanitary districts is near completion and that Metcom will present a capital/facilities plan to the commission (anticipated in January). Commissioners and staff discussed that delineation of town and village center boundaries in the comprehensive plan will materially affect where sewer and water lines are extended, and several commissioners urged the use of soils, environmental constraints and funding eligibility (priority funding area considerations) to shape the plan’s growth‑area boundaries rather than allowing infrastructure to evolve parcel by parcel.
Frederick and planning staff committed to present the Metcom facility plan and capital program details to the commission when available so the commission can incorporate infrastructure constraints into the comp‑plan deliberations.
