Planning commission opens public hearing on draft countywide water and sewer plan; record left open for two weeks

The Saint Mary's County Planning Commission on Aug. 27 opened a public hearing on a proposed revision to the county Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan, a document staff says consolidates piecemeal amendments and updates the service-area maps used to guide where public water and sewer may be extended.

Planning Department staff described the draft July 2007 CWSP as an effort to align the water/sewer categories with the county's 1999 comprehensive land-use plan and subsequent rezoning. Staff said the draft would convert some parcels west and north of Leonardtown (previously categorized S6/W6, meaning service in six to ten years) to NPS (no planned service) because those parcels were removed from the Leonardtown development district and rezoned to rural categories. The draft also incorporates the Metropolitan Commission's capital-improvement budget (table 4.5) and makes procedural clarifications about how CWSP category changes relate to the zoning ordinance and to recent state law allowing delegated administrative hearings for some changes.

The nut graf: the CWSP determines where public water and sewer infrastructure is expected and therefore where growth and higher-density development are feasible. The draft before the commission would reduce planned service in several environmentally sensitive watersheds and update the county maps and procedures; it will be forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners and then to the Maryland Department of the Environment for final approval.

Staff presentation and technical context

Department of Land Use and Growth Management staff (identified in the meeting as "Mr. Jackman") told the commission that Maryland law in the Environment Article of the Annotated Code requires jurisdictions to prepare and periodically review a CWSP and said the county's current plan dated from 1993 with piecemeal updates…