Wicomico Council Addresses Growth Map Concerns

SALISBURY – Wicomico County officials have devised a plan that will address tier map designation issues that were brought to the county’s attention in recent weeks.

In an open work session of the Wicomico County Council this week, Sharptown Mayor and Commission President Doug Gosnell met with councilmembers and Keith Hall of the Department of Planning, Zoning and Community Development to address and fix opposing tier map distinctions before the county’s comprehensive plan is adopted.

According to Gosnell, Sharptown officials submitted changes to the jurisdiction’s water and sewer plan in 2013, which reflected their future plans to serve water and sewer to a section of land adjacent to town. This tier II growth designation would make the land, as he described, “untouchable” to those who wanted to build on separate septic systems.

But as a result of administrative changes during that time, Hall said the plans didn’t get finalized. Instead of the area being labeled tier II by the jurisdiction, the county had it labeled as a tier III growth area in the preliminary growth maps, meaning that growth on separate septic systems are allowed.

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