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Planning commission reviews comprehensive-plan schedule, endorses growth-policy procedures for county commissioners
Summary
Staff briefed the Planning Commission Oct. 14 on progress toward a comprehensive-plan public-hearing draft due around Nov. 24 and the commission unanimously forwarded proposed annual growth-policy procedures to the Board of County Commissioners for adoption.
Planning staff told the St. Mary's County Planning Commission on Oct. 14 that work is underway on a comprehensive-plan update and that a public-hearing draft is targeted for about Nov. 24, with a planning commission public hearing expected in late January.
Jeff Jackman, planning staff, said the update will consolidate several components into a new land-use chapter and add a water-resources element and a "priority places" section. He said some supporting analyses will arrive later (for example, METCOM's county-wide facilities plan connected to Marley Taylor wastewater facilities) and that those analyses can be appended to or incorporated into the plan following the public-hearing draft.
Separately, staff presented administrative procedures for implementing the Board of County Commissioners' Aug. 19 annual growth policy (1.9 percent annual growth factor). The two-page procedures document describes how the Department of Land Use and Growth Management will calculate the maximum number of dwelling-unit approvals by district, maintain a queue of subdivisions, allocate annual capacity (with set phasing caps for projects of various sizes) and handle exemptions (projects with prior approvals, minor subdivisions submitted before the policy effective date, and certain PUDs that have already satisfied adequate public-facility requirements).
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the queue, when projects enter it and how allocations will be assigned; staff confirmed subdivisions receive queue placement on application and are allocated only after they have all required agency approvals (except for school allocations). The commission agreed to forward the procedures to the Board of County Commissioners with the Planning Commission's endorsement.
Why it matters: The comprehensive-plan update will guide land-use decisions and infrastructure priorities for the county; the growth-policy procedures set the administrative rules for how limited school-capacity allocations and annual growth targets are distributed among projects.
