The Carroll County Planning Commission completed its final public hearing on the accepted draft of the Freedom Area Comprehensive Plan Tuesday morning.

With the public comment period on the Freedom Plan now closed, the planning commission will begin reviewing all comments received and decide the next steps in July.

The Freedom Plan lays out a map for the future development of the South Carroll area and was last updated in 2001, though Maryland law requires it be updated every 10 years. The commission accepting the plan in April was the result of a two-year process to draft an updated plan.

"The plan gets accepted by the planning commission and that triggers the formal 60-day public outreach review. That process concluded today," said Phil Hager, director of land use planning and development for Carroll County government. "The planning commission and staff will no longer be taking comments on the accepted Freedom Plan."

That does not mean, Hager said, that there will be no further opportunities for public comment for the plan: After the planning commission votes to accept the plan, it will be sent to the Carroll County Board of Commissioners for further discussion, who may hold a public hearing.

But before that can happen, the planning commission first has to decide if its finished with the plan, according to Chairman Matt Helminiak, and that begins with reading all of the comments that were submitted during the 60-day comment period including those from state and county agencies. County planning staff are compiling those comments now.

"We will read them and then on our next meeting on the 11th of July we will begin going through all the comments and seeing if we want to make any changes to anything," Helminiak said. "We could be done on the 11th, but it might take more than one meeting to go through all of the comments."

Tuesday's hearing, held in Westminster, was a continuation of the first hearing held on Thursday, June 8, at Liberty High School. Helminiak said Tuesday's hearing brought out some new voices and comments that had not been heard on June 5 or received in comments, written or otherwise, that the commission has received over the past year.

"It's always good to get people we haven't heard from before and there were a few people who spoke who we had never talked to before," he said. "Like this morning, there was someone from the Carroll County Association of Realtors, and that was a different point of view than we get from other people.

Lisa May, governmental affairs director for the Carroll County Association of Realtors, said her organization supported growth in the Freedom District as the county's designated growth area, to insure there is adequate housing stock at multiple price points and to increase the tax base all while preserving Carroll's rural character. Their concern, she said, was that the Freedom Plan does not do enough to support this growth.

"Land for commercial development still falls short of the county's targets and the slight increase in additional residential housing will not meet current or future demand. Those shortfalls will impact the ability of seniors to remain in the community that they call home as they age," May said. "Not meeting these goals threatens the quality of life that residents enjoy now and in the future."

Sherlock Holmes Estates development homeowner Steven Queen offered a comment more critical of the Freedom Plan as accepted by the planning commission, though he too focused on quality of life. He specifically opposes a proposed future land-use designation that could allow for rezoning of the Gibson property, Parcel 5561 in the plan, from low density to medium density residential.

"When I moved to the Freedom Area 15 years ago it was precisely for the reasons stated as assets in the comprehensive plan: the rural atmosphere and wide open spaces, farmland, low density development, single-family homes," Queen said. "Lower density living is, to me, synonymous with quality of life."

Edward Primoff, who owns a parcel of land along Md. 97 at the southwestern portion of the Freedom District also commented about lower density zoning. He had previously written a letter to the planning commission ask his property be rezoned as medium-density residential and industrial.

Primoff thought about it the night after sending his letter and came out Tuesday morning to say he had changed his mind.

"It really bothered me that night, thinking industrial would not be appropriate for my property, neither would medium density. There's houses all around me," he said. "I think the only think appropriate for my property, which would protect the character of the neighborhood, would be low density or low, low density."

All these comments and more will be considered, and potentially acted upon, by the planning commission in July, according to Hager, noting they will take as long as they need before sending the plan to the board of commissioners.

"However it takes to get through all of the comments and for the planning commission to get comfortable with the accepted plan, plus any modifications that they choose to make," Hager said. "They may not make any, they may make a lot."

Once the planning commission is satisfied with the plan, it will be sent to the commissioners, who then have several options, according to Hager, one of which is to simply do nothing.

"They don't have to do anything at all if they just receive the plan and don't do anything with it after 90 days, the plan is deemed adopted," he said. "But, if they want to reject it, if they want to amend it, or if they want to adopt it, then they need to hold a hearing."

A public hearing and perhaps multiple discussions between the five commissioners and county staff prior to a vote on adoption of the plan, however, would comport with what Commissioner Doug Howard, R-District 5, told the Times in an interview in early June. Hager said people have already begun sending comments to the board of commissioners, marking the beginning of the next phase of public comment.

Once the plan is adopted by the commissioners if it is adopted Hager said, it would then begin to be implemented, the end result of a process that has been marked with controversy and vocal argument, but which is ultimately democratic.

The rest is here:

Planning commission holds last public hearing on Freedom Plan - Carroll County Times