Proposals for new employment campuses at Taylorsville and Mount Airy have drawn increased scrutiny — and the wrath of some residents — toward Carroll County’s comprehensive master plan review, known as the Pathways Plan.

More than 900 packed a public hearing at Century High School on June 15 many complaining that the Taylorsville plan, in particular, has emerged without adequate explanation and justification.

At least one local official, too, has voiced concern over the Pathways Plan draft, which is making way through public meetings toward a late summer rendezvous with the county Planning Commission.

“There’s no explanation in this document why (the county) rezoned 1,700 acres in Taylorsville,” said Del. Susan Krebs (R-9B), of Eldersburg.

The plan includes many different aspects — Pathways is designed to update the county’s blueprint for land-use, zoning, transportation, county facilities, parks, conservation and other facets.

Yet the biggest issue at recent meetings is residents’ claim of a lack of explanation about the proposed rezoning of residential land, especially in Taylorsville as well as land rezoned south of I-70 in Mount Airy for a new classification — office park and employment zone.

The classification provides space for employment campuses, office, light manufacturing and assembly and limited commercial uses.

Overall, Pathways proposes 3,500 acres of new employment zoning in the county. Taylorsville is the biggest at 1,700 acres; the next is a 600-acre parcel in Mount Airy south of I-70.

The remaining 1,200 acres are divided up in pockets in Finksburg, Woodbine, Westminster, outside of Winfield along routes 26 and 85, and a small parcel off Main Street in Mount Airy.

The current lands are a combination of agricultural, conservation, residential and business uses.

Krebs suggested at a June 18 meeting of the Freedom Area Citizens’ Council that the county hasn’t done enough to let residents know about the potential zoning changes. She said most people looking at maps created by the county would not know that some land is rezoned.

“Unless you stare at the maps in here and get a magnifying glass, you don’t know that many of the re-districtings are happening,” she said.

“These little blue marks mean a lot, and there’s nothing in this document explaining these things have turned blue and they’re major, major rezoning changes,” she said.

2007 study set wheels in motion

While residents say the employment campus proposals have come from left field, planners say they stem  from a 2007 study, the “Carroll County Economic Development Land and Employment Needs Study.”

The study was performed by Parsons Brinckerhoff-PlaceMaking Team, a New York-based company the county contracted to look at Carroll’s employment zoning needs. Also involved in the study was the Jacob France Institute from the University of Baltimore’s Economic Research Associates.

The study determined that several factors would play in creating the strongest areas for business development in the county. Those factors included:

• Sites designated for growth in municipal plans.

• Land within two miles of a major highway.

• Vacant parcels larger than 25 acres.

• Proximity to high-income areas.

• And “underdeveloped parcels” — those where assessed land values are higher
than the value of the land’s improvements.

The study also recommended excluding agricultural easements. From those factors, the study plotted sites that would qualify — and that turned into the Pathways list.

The Mount Airy tract south of I-70 was a special case. The study stated that a study would be needed there because the 600-acre parcel has issues including lack of direct access, water and sewer service and the site’s designation as an aquifer protection area for the Patapsco River.

But Vivian Laxton, the county government’s public information administrator, said the county also based the recommendations on input from residents.

She said during a 2006 project called “Map It Out” — part of the Pathways outreach process — people suggested grouping development in Taylorsville and in southern Mount Airy.

Krebs said she’s concerned how public water and sewer would be provided to some of the rural areas proposed for various types of business use. She noted that those issues aren’t addressed in the master plan.

That’s true, planners said, but they note the 2007 study suggested water and sewer construction — estimated at about $177 million, excluding the cost of new reservoirs — would be needed for all of the employment clusters.

The study addresses some aspects of water and sewer needs, but notes the Route 26 corridor water and sewer estimates are “based on a quick analysis rather than detailed studies.”

Brenda Dinne, bureau chief of comprehensive planning for the county, said consultants are working on a study estimating the water and wastewater needs that the Pathways Plan would present.

That study should be in the hands of the Planning Commission shortly after
July 10, she said. That timing, though, will leave only a few days before the commission’s Pathways public hearing on July 14.

But Dinne said a separate hearing will be needed for the proposed rezoning if the planning commission passes it along. That hearing won’t take place until after Pathways is adopted this summer, she said, and could take until December.

Communication issues

Dinne said the county is working to answer residents concerns. She said people are brought in from various departments to help at the information meetings and answer questions — though every staff member might not know all the answers.

“We’re doing our best to answer from the people available,” she said. Laxton said some of residents’ angst might be from misunderstanding the difference between land-use and zoning.

She notes that if a home is on land that is proposed to be rezoned for employment, nothing will change until the homeowner sells and the buyer decides to take advantage of the rezoned classification.

Or, she said, the current homeowner could also turn his or her property into an office park/employment use.

Essentially, she said, the county wants that land to ultimately be used for
employment — but until it is, residential uses would still be allowable.

Nevertheless, Krebs said that given the scope of change the county is proposing, she thinks it’s time for officials to re-evaluate and find better ways for people to understand what’s going on.

“They need to take a step back, (give people) an opportunity to ask questions and get some answers,” she said, “because you have a lot of angry people out there.”

Residents seem to agree. Robert Leatherwood, of Eldersburg, said at the FACC meeting that residents are asking officials to take charge.

“There’s no harm in failure, unless you continue to do it over and over and expect the citizens to change,”  Leatherwood said. “Maybe what these people are asking for is leadership — leadership from Westminster and the county.”

If you go
The Carroll County Planning Commission's public hearing on Pathways will be July 14 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Winters Mill High School, 560 Gorsuch Road, Westminster. Comments are limited to two minutes each.

Public comment to be reviewed by Planning Commission must be received not later than July 10 at 5 p.m. at Carroll County Planning, c/o Pathways Plan Comments, 225 N. Center St., Room 205, Westminster, MD 21157.

A hearing on any proposed rezoning will occur after Pathways is adopted.

Pathways Assistance

Click here to view the Carroll County Economic Development Land and Employment Needs Study. (This is a large file. Right-click to save as a file to desktop.)

Click here to view the executive summary for the Carroll County Economic Development Land and Employment Needs Study.

Click here to view the Frequently Ask Questions about the Carroll County Economic Development Land and Employment Needs Study.

Click here to view the full list of Carroll County studies for the Pathways plan.

Click here to view the Map It Out exercise where residents placed Lego blocks on area they wish to have development. Links to the maps are at the bottom of the linked page.

For more information on Pathways, visit www.carrollpathways.org

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user comments (1)

user midnitefairymoon says...

Taxpaying Families being pushed out of homes due to Rezoning It flows so easy through one's body to protect the ones that we love and the things that we care for. Ideas flow, the passions ignite into action, anger at those that want to hurt that who and what we consider sacred. We will protect them with all that we are, with our whole being, at all risk, draining everything from us - just to make certain they are well and all is going to be. At this moment, my family recieved word (as did everyone on the street), that the county government was taking the land at what price they were giving to replace it with an industrial park, landfill, and something to do with toxic chemicals. We live in an extremely rural area and families have lived on the same land working it for generations. Long driveways that even in winter you walk down to deliever door to door homemade cookies. A deal between neighbors is still done over ice water, sweat, and simple words, it's just your name - your integrity. That area is magical. Every season comes out blossoming, delighting all senses. Waking at dawn with the dew attached to the blades of grass, the trees whispering in the breeze, the rooster announcing the sunrise, the animals finding shelter in the crops, creeks, and ponds, listening to the woodpecker every year come back as does the geese and pheasants, into the twilight watching the bats flit and the fox come out as the owl beings hooting and the crickets sing you to sleep. From the ice covered ponds, the burnt magnificense of autumn leaves, and the blossoms of spring and summer, it is a place lost in time, a place that "development" hasn't touched, yet. As a child, and even now in my more flightfancy moments, I would wonder the property, believing in all the magic that it held, in all the healing power it contained, in all the fantasies that little girls think of - fairies, princesses, wonderlands, it was all there, it is all there. I took pictures just last month and had them developed, people compared it to a Thomas Kinkade painting. All of my happiest memories are from there. These are families. These are hardworking, taxpaying people. Some are senior citizens, some volunteers, some health care workers, some farmers. Not to mention, this soil is world known and has been for some time. Down the street, one of the farmers is the only man in the United States that makes wormseed oil (the best), he even gets orders from the Orient - because of the soil. Is this supposed to happen to people? To GOOD people? Since when can the government come in and steal your home, your land? And for what an industrial park, a landfill, something with toxic chemicals (beware of that - the runoff could end up in the underground spring that all the wells are on - not just on that street)!!! I have written letters to the Governor, Senators, Reps, Elected Officials, Comptroller, Editor of Local Paper, closest City TV Stations, EPA, it seems like everyone and feels like no one. This was in the works for over three years behind closed doors before they just contacted everyone for a meeting to disuade the residents, considering them country bumpkins they can push around with big words, little information, and bullying techniques with government backing. Once they take from one person, what makes them stop there? The rezoning would cost taxpayers to run water, sewer, cable even out that way. To dig up the road and repave. No one has thought this threw. To tell families they are out in this economic time, to build in a rural area where an industrial park would go belly up, to destroy not just the legacy or memories/future of the land but the surrounding area with toxins - weren't people talking "green"? My grandmother, my heart outside of myself, told me it will kill her to lose this {her house, property - what was her father's, what she built, what she made, all she has done}. She is 82 of all the things that she should be doing, dealing with all this is not what she (or her neighbors) deserve. I can not lose her over something like this, it would surely kill me. How would one live without their heart. I know that with faith and perservance someone will listen and help, at least I hope. Thank you for your time and any and all future help.

Posted 2:39 AM, 06.29.09

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