Has it really been November since the last posting? My how time flies when you are up to your eyeballs! Well, only a few short pieces of news worth posting for now.

The VCB has scheduled meetings the first thursday of the month at 7pm at the county offices. It has been decided for now that the VCB will address each village in terms of immediate development issues or topics. Gary Crawford from Tilghman Island has sent the following updates.

More will be posted as it happens and is merited. Meanwhile, read on…

LINK REPORT: Planning & Zoning

January 30, 2007

Today, Rachel Papkin and I visited the Planning & Zoning Department. We met with George Kinney, Planning Officer and head of the department. He introduced us to all the staff and gave us an overview of everyone’s responsibilities. He described the office work-flow, from initial application to final approval by the Planning Commission.

We asked lots of questions, concentrating on those issues we thought would be of most interest to the VCB. P&Z is a big shop and there is much to learn.

The main job of P&Z is to ensure that what is done by landowners on Talbot County lands conforms with applicable laws and ordinances, both state and county. In this regard, they interact with Departments of Environmental Health and Public Works, as well as the MD Department of the Environment, and various other city, state and federal agencies.

P&Z also has an enforcement arm: Bob Graham and Brett Ewing.

The Site Plan Review Process

Applications coming in to the P&Z Department follow established review procedures. Some structures, including most residential and small accessory commercial development, do not require a site plan. Projects that do require a site plan undergo a careful review process.

The site plan review process begins with a preliminary screening, then the matter is put on the agenda for an upcoming meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and copies of the application are sent to all TAC members to study. The TAC then meets to discuss the application. If problems are found, the application goes back to the applicant for additions and corrections.

Once passed by the TAC, the application goes onto the agenda of the Planning Commission, for approval. Some applications are reviewed by the PC more than once. Ultimately, all site plans arrive at a special session of the Planning Commission called the “Compliance Review Meeting” (CRM), where final decisions are made.

(Recently a fast-tracking provision has been adopted, whereby site plans applications that are straightforward and complete upon submission may go directly to from TAC to the CRM for approval. This is to prevent complicated applications from delaying easy ones.)

Notes for VCB members

1) While we don’t need to know the details of the review process, we may want to be able to answer questions from village residents about the general sequence of events.

2) We should skim through EVERY one of the TAC Agendas sent to us by Martin. And the Planning Commission Agendas sent to us by Debbie Moore. In addition, we should check the website at last weekly to look for updates. The TAC agenda is our earliest warning.

3) Public notice is NOT given when an application is first received. An advertisement is placed in the Star-Democrat newspaper21 days prior to the PC hearing, and signs must go up on the property 15 days before the PC hearing.

4) TAC meetings are open to the public but the public is not invited to testify. The public may comment at meetings of the Planning Commission.

Village Planning

A new task for P&Z is to oversee the drafting of village plans, as called for in the 2005 Comp Plan — when directed and funded by the County Council to do so. Mr. Kinney has asked for $130K in the next FY to develop plans in four villages. We briefly discussed the Village planning process about which Mr. Kinney spoke to the VCB in January. I made two suggestions:

(1) That the VCB ought to discuss which villages they feel are most in need of protection from current or impending development, and pass these recommendations to Mr. Kinney.

(2) That, instead of other villages simply waiting their turn while the first 3-4 begin the process, it might be better to take advantage of the extra lead-time by beginning the “vision” discussions and exploring the possibilities

GIS System

Long-Range Planner Martin Sokolich showed us the new GIS System, which links aerial photos with property ownership records, zoning designations, and many other data records. For privacy reasons the GIS is not available on the web-site, but P&Z can do maps and look-ups for VCB members upon request. It is very impressive.