FREDERICK, Md. – The Frederick County Commissioners
took action on Mar. 17 that would lead in the downzoning of
properties adjacent to the municipal boundaries of Emmitsburg.
“In
the broad scheme of things, I don’t want anything
sitting outside of the town’s borders that is zoned
and planned for development,” Commissioner Lennie
Thompson said during a commissioners workshop.
Parcel
by parcel, he began proposing that properties adjacent to
Emmitsburg be downzoned from their residential designations
to agricultural land use designations, which would lead
to a zoning change to agricultural as well.
Thompson
said that in doing so, it “removes the gun cocked
at Emmitsburg’s head to annex.”
He
believes that if the county designates land for any type
of development, a developer could tell a municipality that
if the municipality doesn’t annex the property under
terms favorable to the developer, the developer will develop
the land under that county low-density designation.
Emmitsburg
Mayor James Hoover said after the meeting that he doesn’t
buy this reasoning. “If it was possible to do, Silver
Fancy would have been developed long ago.” The owners
want to develop the property but it has been rejected for
annexation and it still remains undeveloped.
He
said the properties can’t develop outside of town
because there are no water and sewer resources to use. The
town will be limited in how fast it develops as well because
the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is requiring
future growth to be in balance with available water resources.
“Our
threat is Pennsylvania more so than unincorporated parts
of the county that surround us,” Hoover said. “This
is truly nothing more than a smoke screen by Lennie [Thompson].”
However,
this move runs counter to county policy which says that
if a municipality designates land for future growth, the
county does not give it conflicting zoning.
With
conflicting zoning between the county and municipality,
the county has the ability to delay any development through
annexation by five years by not granting a waiver of inconsistency.
This is part of what happened to Myers Farm annexation in
Thurmont last year.
“The
full intent of this proposal is to say bye-bye to development,”
Hoover said.
By the time, the commissioners had rezoned most of the properties
around the town, Commission President Jan Gardner discovered
a possible problem with what they had done.
“We
probably should have left a lot of this as LDR [low-density
residential] and then changed the zoning to ag,” Gardner
said.
She
said the commissioners would probably have to go back and
change many of their votes to reflect this. Hoover said
he wouldn’t have a problem with this change so much
because it still designates the planned land use for some
type of residential development.
The
commissioners plan to meet with municipal officials on Apr.
24 to discuss their concerns with the plan. Then the draft
plan will have a public hearing on May 13.
