Plan better for growth
by Kai Hagen
December 22, 2005
If you read my columns, you know more than a few have been about growth.
In part, that’s because so much of what goes on in City Hall and Winchester Hall is about planning for growth. The Urbana Region Plan update process overlapped with the New Market Region Plan update process. And before that’s complete, the Walkersville Region Plan update process has begun.
Then there’s the City of Frederick’s Comprehensive Plan, and the city’s recently adopted Land Management Code and 2005 Official Zoning Map.
And there’s been no shortage of similar issues in and around most of the other municipalities in the county, from Brunswick to Mount Airy, from Buckeystown to Emmitsburg.
Big decisions about big changes ahead are perpetually on the table, and in the news.
In part, it’s also because of the various consequences of poorly planned growth we’ve already experienced, and the way they affect people’s daily life. These issues are often more on the mind and in the conversations of many county residents than the big plans for the future. Sitting in worse traffic, more frequently, in more places, for instance, tends to have that affect on folks.
Generally, when I write about these topics, I focus on the choices we can make about how we are going to accommodate growth.
After all, our location at the edge (or what used to be the edge) of the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas means our future will include the addition of many thousands of new residents. In fact, planning and zoning decisions that have already been made, and can’t be substantially altered, plan for the addition of tens of thousands of people. They may not be here, yet, but they’re coming.
And yet ...
Being smarter about that growth is not necessarily the best we can hope for. How and where we grow are not the only choices we have.
There are things we can do to slow down or limit growth, also, provided there’s adequate and sustained support for it in the broader community.
We don’t have to break new ground here.
For instance, there were 75,000 people in Calvert County (situated along the Chesapeake Bay, an hour or less southeast of Washington, D.C.) five years ago. All the earlier projections indicated that by 2030 or so, based on the predominant trends, the county’s population would double to 150,000. (Calvert County is one-third the size of Frederick County, and its population increased from 20,682 in 1970 to 74,563 in 2000.)
But rather than simply planning where to put everyone, some of the folks in Calvert County began a process of examining what that would really mean, and doing what they could to get that information to residents.
They took a good look at what the projected growth would cost, the new roads, improved roads, traffic congestion, new schools, new public facilities and services of all sorts. They considered the loss of farmland and woodland. They studied the likely impact on their water resources. They examined a broad range of direct and indirect costs and benefits.
And, in the end, a lot of people weren’t so pleased about the picture that was painted of the county’s not-too-distant future.
So, they made a number of planning and policy changes. The 1997 Comprehensive Plan recommended a four-step implementation strategy: reduce total build-out; reduce the rate of residential growth; preserve the county’s prime farms, forests, historic resources and sensitive areas; and direct growth to appropriate locations.
Today, the same population projections have Calvert County adding 40,000 to 45,000 fewer new residents during the same forecast period.
Now, depending on the nature of some of the changes that led to that result, it could represent a major slowing down, at least, or a permanently reduced population (as ‘‘permanent” as possible, that is) and a quite different county in the long run.
If nothing else, moving slower has given Calvert County a better chance to learn from any mistakes they make along the way, to make adjustments, and a much better chance to preserve more of what the residents love about the place.
If they can do it, what about Frederick County?
WHY I'M VOTING FOR KAI!
Teri Bisceglia
Frederick
I have the pleasure of knowing Kai through our family's participation in the Frederick's recreational soccer program. I witnessed Kai's passion for our community as he mentored and coached our children to strengthen their skills, exceed their expectations, and work together as a team to achieve success. The athletes, parents, and opponents were treated with respect, and good sportsmanship was always the standard. I know Kai will bring this...
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