KIDL - News from Kent Island Defense League

News

QA's planners moving to new building

By: Konrad Surowiec, Staff Writer

March 1, 2002

CENTREVILLE - County planners will move to a new building near the Centreville Park Center on the south end of town..

Two departments in Queen Anne's County government will be moving to new locations, and two departments are making a move within the same building. Acting County Administrator Steve Walls said the Department of Planning and Zoning - currently located in the Liberty Building, North Liberty Street and Broadway - will move into a new building owned by Dr. James J. Lucas, a Centreville dentist. The Lucas building is located at Coursevall Drive and Comet Drive, near the Centreville Business Park and the Centreville Park Center - the shopping center on Maryland Route 213.

"We're trying to consolidate all county services one day in the future," said Walls. But until then, he said the county needs a temporary solution on using available office space.

Walls said renovations will be done to the inside of the Liberty Building after the planning and zoning department moves out. The Department of Housing and Community Services will move from its building at the Route 18 park to the first floor of the Liberty Building. Two other departments will move within the Liberty Building - the Finance Department from the first floor to the basement and the Human Resources Department from the second floor to the first floor.

Walls said the Lucas building is supposed to be ready by mid-March.

The county will lease the 11,081 square-foot building for seven years. The cost of the first year's rent is $160,668, based on $13,389 per month. Steve Ziegler, director of planning and zoning, said the cost of the first year's rent is equivalent to about $14.50 per square foot.

The planning and zoning department has three divisions: planning, zoning and management information systems. Planning and MIS are currently located in the basement of the Liberty Building and the zoning office is on the first floor. Ziegler said MIS will stay in the Liberty Building, and the planning and zoning divisions - which have about 25 staff positions - will move to the Lucas building. (see KIDL NOTE below)

Ziegler said the reasoning behind the move was to take the biggest department in the Liberty Building so the building could be renovated to provide more room for other departments. He said the new site was chosen with these goals in mind: to have the zoning and planning offices on the same floor; to remain in the incorporated town limits of Centreville; to have sufficient meeting space for the county Planning Commission and Board of Appeals; and to have enough parking for the public.

For the most part, planning and zoning department employees "are pleased to move into better office space than currently exists," said Ziegler. He said the new building will have a central counter for the public.

Note from KIDL: 11,081 sq. ft. for 25 employees? That's over 440 sq. ft./employee -- we think commercial/office usually looks for 100 sq. ft./employee. And so it goes . . . growing government to accomodate development and needing more development to pay for growing government.

Return Home