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St. Mary’s planners keep Piney Point as a town center, citing sewer hookup moratorium
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Summary
After hearing public feedback and technical constraints, planners reached consensus to leave Piney Point’s town-center designation in the draft St. Mary’s County 2050 plan, noting a moratorium on new public sewer hookups limits future development regardless of map label.
Leanne, the project presenter for the St. Mary’s County 2050 comprehensive plan, told the commission that public comments asked that Piney Point be downgraded from a town center to a village center but that staff recommended reviewing the language. After discussion focused on infrastructure constraints, the commission expressed a consensus to keep the area’s town-center designation; Leanne recorded the outcome, “We will strike it.”
Why it mattered: commissioners and staff said the overriding limitation in Piney Point is access to public sewer hookups. A commissioner summarized the constraint bluntly: “The biggest challenge with the Piney Point area is the sewer,” and noted a local moratorium on new taps effectively prevents significant new development regardless of whether the land is labeled town or village center. Presenters also noted the Piney Point area has a large industrial parcel (former Stewart Petroleum, now NuStar) that lies outside the mapped town center.
How the discussion unfolded: Leanne reviewed survey and comment data, including that only 11 online respondents came from the Piney Point/Tall Timbers ZIP area, prompting some members to question whether a small number of local commenters should drive a map change. Brandy, the zoning specialist, outlined technical differences between town and village centers (for example, changes in permitted commercial floor-area and use categories such as TMX versus VMX), but commissioners emphasized that the lack of sewer hookups limits practical change in development potential.
Decision and next steps: In a straw poll and subsequent exchange the group agreed to leave Piney Point as a town center and to remove the proposed change from the draft map. The presenter noted the consensus would be carried forward in the draft plan revisions and that the project website will host the full report and materials.
The meeting recessed briefly at the end of this discussion to address technical issues before continuing with other plan elements.
