Pocomoke planning panel says consultant—ommunity profile understates local growth, asks for more local trend data and outreach

At a Pocomoke City planning commission work session, commissioners and staff reviewed the consultant raft comprehensive plan and criticized its community profile for overemphasizing slow or declining growth while underrepresenting recent local gains.

The criticism focused on the consultant—xecutive summary and the community profile chapter, which several participants said relied heavily on county- and state-level comparisons and U.S. Census tables without offering local trend analysis on employment sectors, business openings and permits, or other metrics the commission considers crucial.

"A lot of the data concerning me has changed since when we did the census," said Speaker 4, a planning commission participant, noting residents and workforce shifts and urging the plan to reflect recent local changes. Speaker 2, identified in the meeting as the staff presenter, said he had reviewed the chapter and distributed written comments to the commission and the consultant.

Commissioners pointed to several specific…