Rossing said the staff and consultants are in the process of doing a "line by line" review of the two-volume plan with a citizens advisory committee. She said for a variety of reasons the CAC didn't meet for 16 months, but the panel met May 22 and CAC meetings are scheduled June 5 and 19. A public hearing will be held later in the summer before the county Planning Commission, and a second public hearing will be held before the county commissioners, who have to vote to adopt the plan.

Rossing said information about the plan is on the county's website on the internet at www.qac.org and announcements of upcoming meetings and hearings are in legal notices in the back of local newspapers. Maps showing county land use are posted at stores.

"We've tried to do a lot of outreach," said Rossing.

The plan was compiled by LDR International of Columbia with help from these other firms - Freilich, Leitner & Carlisle; O'Brien & Gere Engineers Inc.; and the Parsons Transportation Group - and input from the county staff and the planning commission.

About 50 people attended the meeting Tuesday at the Percy Thomas Senior Center on Kent Island and about 30 people attended the meeting Wednesday at the Liberty Building in Centreville. A third meeting was held Thursday in Church Hill.

Rossing reviewed facts dealing with development, planning and legislation:

* Between 1947 and 1965, 9,000 small lots were created in Queen Anne's County with 80 percent of them on Kent Island.
* The first Chesapeake Bay Bridge opened in 1952.
* Queen Anne's County adopted its first comprehensive plan in 1965.
* The second Bay Bridge opened in 1973.
* The Kent Narrow Stevensville Grasonville (KNSG) sewage treatment plant on Kent Island went on-line in 1981.
* A revised Comprehensive Plan for Queen Anne's County was adopted in 1987.
* Queen Anne's County adopted the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area program, regulations and mapping consistent with state law.
* A revised Comprehensive Plan, which included generalized boundaries for growth sub-areas, for Queen Anne's County was adopted in 1993.
* The state adopted "smart growth" legislation in 1993 which required counties to identify "priority funding areas." State funding for infrastructure and economic development is limited to PFAs. 
* Five community plans - for Chester, Stevensville, Grasonville, Queenstown and Centreville - were adopted in 1997 and 1998.

Jane Dembner of LDR International said Queen Anne's County has averaged over 400 new homes a year over the past 10 years. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the county's population was 40,563 in April 2000. 

Concerns about excessive growth and an impression the county's draft plan was promoting development were raised by some citizens at the meetings. The 2000 draft plan "appears to have a lot of growth in it and not a lot of controls," said Chester resident Mike Koval. He said the county should stick with the 1993 comprehensive plan.
"The people on this island do not benefit by large scale growth," said Kent Island resident Jan Gervin.

Brad Rogers, representing 1,000 Friends of Maryland, said it seems like the 2000 plan would allow development to continue along U.S. Route 50 and north through the U.S. Route 301 corridor.

Jack Broderick, representing the Kent Island Civic Confederation, said between the late 1980s and mid 1990s zoning regulations got "too permissive" and the growth areas practically bump up against one another. He said he served on a citizens advisory committee in 1987 and the committee's intent was to direct one-third of the growth to Kent Island and two-thirds to the county mainland; and growth areas were to be kept separate with green areas in between.

"That was an important concept that reflected important concerns of the citizenry," said Broderick.

Chester resident Winn Krozack asked what the county considered to be manageable growth. County Planning Director Steve Ziegler said his personal opinion is that more than 600 new homes a year would be real hard to manage, but that number is not set in a county policy.

The county's six designated growth areas - Stevensville, Chester, Kent Narrows, Grasonville, Queenstown and Centreville - are colored in purple on a county land use map that was displayed at the meetings. "What a map did like this in Montgomery County was essentially create vast urban sprawl," said one man, a Queen Anne's resident who used to live in Montgomery County. 
 
©The Star Democrat 2001