Survey shows residents favor preserving rural character in Huntingtown, Owings and St. Leonard; county schedules town halls

Calvert County planning staff presented survey results on Nov. 2 from public outreach for the Huntingtown, Owings and Saint Leonard town-center master-plan updates, telling the Board of County Commissioners that respondents prioritized land use, environment and parks, and that the county will hold town halls in October to gather more input.

Tay Harris, long-range planner for the county, said 389 people completed the Huntingtown survey, 214 completed the Owings survey and 488 completed the Saint Leonard survey. Across the three surveys respondents most frequently cited the town centers’ rural, small‑town character and open space as the features they most want retained. Top topics for master-plan updates were land use, environmental and natural resources, and parks and recreation.

Huntingtown and Owings respondents favored converting the town-center designation to a rural-commercial zoning district in the survey results Harris presented (61% of respondents for each of those two town‑center surveys), while 61% of Saint Leonard respondents said they would prefer to remain a town center. Planning staff emphasized those responses as part of a larger, ongoing conversation: staff said the rural-commercial versus town-center question is an early, open item and that the master-plan effort will consider intermediate zoning approaches such as a small-town or village-style district, or explicit “major” versus “minor” town-center distinctions.

Why it matters: Commissioners and residents raised repeated concerns about infrastructure — septic systems, public water and sewer and road capacity — and warned that any change in zoning language can be read as an invitation for development. Planning staff said the master-plan updates will consider soils, water/sewer constraints and existing zoning to avoid unintended outcomes.

Next steps and public outreach: Planning staff said the county will present these results to the Planning Commission on Sept. 17 (presentation scheduled as part of the record) and will hold three informational meetings: Oct. 6 at Crossroads Christian Church (general update), Oct. 14 at Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department (Huntingtown) and Oct. 20 at Grace Brethren Church (Owings), each at 6 p.m. Staff will post survey results on the town-center web pages, include them in the quarterly Planning Perspective newsletter and use social media to publicize the meetings.

Commissioner comments and cautions: Commissioners repeatedly urged staff to be explicit in language so residents do not conflate the master-plan zoning review with automatic allowance for large-scale development, and several commissioners asked staff to preserve protections for long-standing local businesses. Planning staff said the process is at an early stage and that no zoning changes are final; they called the current step “Step 1a” of public engagement.

Ending: Planning staff said they will solicit additional public feedback and return with options that reflect community input and technical constraints such as soil and wastewater capacity.