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Garrett County planning commission approves annual report, forwards parks project list to commissioners
Summary
The Garrett County Planning Commission approved its state-required annual report and endorsed a list of parks and recreation capital projects to send to the county commissioners, while staff warned that real estate transfer tax revenues have declined from about $200,000 a year to roughly $146,000 this year.
Sierra, a planning department staff member, presented the Garrett County Planning Commission’s annual report and a recommended list of parks and recreation capital projects and asked the commission to approve the report for submission to the county commissioners.
The report is a state-required filing summarizing planning activity; Sierra said she pulled what data she could from the county’s building and subdivision databases but could not provide some specific historical lot-creation details. “I sent the annual report to everybody. That's something that the state requires. I don't know if anybody had any questions on it. It's just a mandated thing,” she said.
The report includes a recommended list of projects that staff gathered after soliciting requests from municipalities, service organizations and athletic groups. Sierra told the commission the county’s allocation for parks and open-space projects comes from the real estate transfer tax and that those revenues lag the real estate market by two to three years. “I would say, on average, the county gets around 200,000 ish a year, but this year, it's like a $146,000,” she said, describing a drop in available funds.
Why it matters: The annual report both satisfies a state filing requirement and directs which local parks and recreation projects will be eligible to receive capital funds when state or county grant opportunities open. Reduced transfer-tax receipts limit the county’s capacity to fund new development or acquisition projects, staff said.
Commission discussion and votes Sierra described the process used to solicit project requests and said most requests were modest; she noted that a Board of Education submission to resurface tennis courts was the only request turned down because staff concluded it could not be completed at this time. She also said Friendsville Elementary is eligible for community parks and playgrounds funding.
Commission members asked about timelines for acquisitions and state programs. Sierra cautioned that land-acquisition projects often take more than a year to complete and described the grant process as “full of fits and starts.” She also said a DNR-owned property at Savage River was under redesign review and would remain open to the public, and she offered to follow up with timelines.
The commission voted to approve the annual report and to recommend the projects list to the county commissioners. A motion to approve the annual report passed after a verbal vote; commissioners then moved to forward the project recommendations to the commissioners’ agenda for Monday. Specific vote tallies were not recorded in the transcript.
Clarifying details and next steps Sierra said she matched each proposed project to goals in the county’s land preservation, parks and recreation plan and indicated which goals each project would advance. She also said she had circulated an online training link that shows which commission members have completed a required training and would resend that link.
Staff intends to place the recommended projects on the county commissioners’ agenda for the next meeting; Sierra said she would follow up with additional timelines for Savage River and other state-funded efforts.
Ending The planning commission approved the report and the recommendations and will send them to the Garrett County commissioners for final action. Staff will provide follow-up information on project timelines and on the Savage River redesign as requested by commissioners.
