Berlin consultants outline comp-plan timeline, population projections and housing choices

Will White, project manager and senior planner for Mead & Hunt, told a Berlin work session that the town’s comprehensive plan must be reviewed or updated every 10 years and that the Maryland Department of Planning can comment on compliance but does not approve or deny adoption. “The comp plan has to be updated every 10 years or at least reviewed,” White said.

White said the project team—Mead & Hunt with a local partner—has completed baseline conditions and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis and is preparing public outreach materials, including a StoryMap with an embedded survey for residents. He gave Berlin’s 2024 population as 5,349 and said a trend-based projection to 2050 would be roughly 5,518 if the current rates hold.

On land use, White showed maps that identify growth areas and existing zoning patterns. He warned that an area not included in the town’s growth area cannot rely on town-provided water service or state funding to extend utilities; that, he said, is a practical limit on annexation-driven development unless the comp plan and growth-area map are amended first. “If it’s not consistent with the comp plan, it cannot happen,” White told attendees.

Residents pressed the team on short-term population impacts from near-term developments such as Ocean East. White said the team can contact developers to confirm unit counts and occupancy to adjust short-term projections, and stressed that projections are based on decennial Census and ACS estimates, which have known margins of error.

Housing was central to discussion. White said the comp plan will identify candidate sites for new housing—largely infill and underutilized parcels—and distinguish between market-rate (“attainable”) housing and subsidized (“Capital-A affordable”) housing. He said zoning changes follow the comp plan: the plan sets goals and growth areas at a policy level, and the town would revise its zoning ordinance to conform after plan adoption.

The consultants asked the council and stakeholders to review the draft StoryMap and survey during a near-term QA window so the public-facing site can be posted soon. White emphasized participation from residents and local organizations as the primary mechanism for shaping preferred goals and priorities.

The meeting closed with the team asking for written feedback by an internal deadline so the consultants can incorporate comments before public release of materials and next-round engagement events.