Last night a meeting was held at Wor Wic College. The organizational meeting was held in order to seek public input in order to update the current Comprehensive Plan for Wicomico County. At the end of the meeting, the audience was broken up into four workgroups. Each group was assigned the task to present public recommendations to the Planning & Zoning staff.
Here are some of the key highlighted results that were ranked by all the committees members votes:
1. Before any detrimental downzoning is enacted, compensation should be rewarded to the land owner to offset the devaluation of affected lands.
2. New comprehensive update should include provisions for fostering Domestic Oil and Natural Gas Development, including Solar, Wind, and other Renewable Energy technologies.
3. A new Sanitary Sewer and Water District should be created to provide services to many developments that are currently sub-standard. The creation should also help to alleviate housing pressure for solving long range population growth.
4. Salisbury's metro core is to congested and density should be reduced in the City limits. Moreover, the Metro Core boundaries should be expanded outside the current US 13 bypass boundaries. Also, alterations should be modified to current density allowances so as to allow homeowners the option to have larger residential lots as opposed to clustering concepts.
5. The lands set-a-side for Agricultural Land Preservation for current cluster developments should be contiguous and not allowed to be piecemealed outside of the subdivision boundaries.
Very interesting folks. It would be prudent to be monitoring the situation to see if any of the above are going to be implemented.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
17 comments:
On the west side, the metro core should be extended to Hebron -- it's just a few miles beyond the Salisbury City line, at the bypass and Route 50, and there is new development further west on Route 50, between Old Railroad Road and Riggin Road -- Adventure Farm and The Plantations subdivisions. The Waller Landing site on Route 50 has been annexed into the town and should be part of the metro core, along with the older part of Hebron.
Joe you think those ideas will happen? Not in our lifetime.Hardhead
#4 is seriously flawed...Density must go up in the core, and no developement outside the beltway should occcur...what fool wrote that?
Its a tax grab.
RE: 3:01 Posting
No man, I was there. It is no mistake. The guy explained the metro core as a ballon waiting to explode.
I tend to agree. Case-in-point, look at Beaglin Parkway and College Avenue. What an absolute disaster. And very dangerous for the school kids too. They've forced everything 'into a can like sardines'.
3:01 that is your opinion. The people who complain about growth are complaining because of the traffic in the metro core area. The infrastructure won't accomodate the amount that already exists. Any realtor worth their salt will tell you that their clients want to live outside the metro core area and not pay city taxes. Check it out.
RE: 424 Posting
You had better go back and read. You've interpreted it all wrong.
He said in the article;
"Salisbury's metro core is to congested and density should be reduced in the City limits."
Density - meaning to many people for the amount of area. So I perceive the density reduction being proposed - as decreasing the amount of dwellings allowed per square foot of land area. This would be a revision to the current plan.
That is exactly what was proposed.
If you think Beaglin Park Drive traffic is bad now, wait till the build-out at the Old Mall.
But then again, with the economy and all, maybe it will never happen. The whole development is tied up in litigation.
Re: 436/424 Posting
I'm sorry 4:24 you are right. I was looking at 3:01 posting and got you confused and thought you were 3:01.
You are absolutely right. People don't want to be jammed or hemmed in the City. It is obvious that the Metro Core boundaries were a mistake.
The John Cannon's think they have to do something about the "growth" issue even if what they do is wrong. Why, because that is what they heard during the campaign. The problem is that the GROWTH that the voters were speaking of is the GROWTH in the metro core area causing all the traffic, crime and congestion. The people who come to this area want to live outside the cramped area. Just ask those who greet and meet with them looking for their new homes.
Ask our favorite environmentalists, John Grout, Mike Pretle and King Burnett, Judith Stribbling where they live. Don't be surprised what they have to tell you if they will be honest.
The County needs to create a water and sewer authority. They can then control growth by providing water and sewer to specific areas within the county without empowering the city of Salisbury, etc. to spread out. With this you can also plan for the future by putting schools where they are needed instead of continually transporting the kids into Salisbury. As schools are built outside of Salisbury, people will want to build on smaller lots close to the schools. You will NEVER prevent people from being born, growing up, and wanting a house of their own, but you may be able to effectively control growth by providing water and sewer in certain areas where growth is more desirable. I believe this is a better solution than further trampling on an individuals property rights and causing the values to go down.
......and I cant believe that anyone would entertain the idea of paying people for decreasing the value of their land. That's like a small scale bail out due to bad economic policy.
If what is posted in the article is true, I can tell you that there are quite a few of your elected officials who have become detached from their constituency base.
Makes for a nice prelude to our next election. I've said on a number of occasions that once our officials are elected alot of them drift under the 'glass ball' and lose touch. I believe this may be happening once again in our County.
8:47: It is a complex issue "paying people for down-zoning their property"
If the governement is responsible for loss of value in land, such as building a road, and needing to buy land, and ruining a farm field, the governemnt must pay for that land.
There are several eminent domain laws that cover that issue. The 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution.
In the past downzoning was ignored by government though it "damaged" citizens property, there is a new thinking and that is that "downzoning" is essentially an action that should be covered under "eminent domain" laws. It would be interesting if Wicomico county did that,or it might be a voluntary program, and would not be covered by those laws, and it might work very well.
I think creative "new ways" of solving difficult issues is great thinking.
Granddad, are you willing to allow half of your retirement to be taken to "save" the rest of the county or would you expect to be reinbursed. I'm really surprised with your stand on this issue and now I know that I wouldn't vote to put you on the council.
Look folks, this was a workship where any body could suggest what they thought would work. Alot of what was suggested,just isn't going to happen. This process will allow the county council to say they got public input for what ever is passed. The farming community better stand up for their rights. In the blink of an eye, they will get screwed and the King Burnetts and John Grouts will thank them for all the beautiful vistas they will enjoy at their expense. All of these environmentalists all live way out in the county on their little pieces of heaven and now don't want anyone else to do the same.
Anon 7:17
No.....my position is that I would not support a govt. sponsored initiative that would decrease the value of a citizens property. There would then be no reason to pay people in order to subsidize their property value.
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