Rural officials meet, try to stop Plan Maryland
A group of state, county and local politicians from Maryland’s rural areas plan to meet Thursday in Annapolis to strategize about how to stop Gov. Martin O’Malley from implementing Plan Maryland, a statewide development policy that is expected to become policy later this fall.
State Sen. E.J. Pipkin, who represents Caroline, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s counties, is organizing the meeting.
“The governor calls Plan Maryland smart growth. But what it amounts to is no growth in the rural portions of the state,” he said in a statement.
Pipkin introduced legislation earlier this month during the special session on redistricting that would require General Assembly approval of Plan Maryland, but did not get a hearing scheduled. Pipkin plans to reintroduce the bill in January during the full legislative session.
Local officials from many of the state’s rural counties have derided the plan as a way for the state to take away their local zoning authority, which state officials say is false.
State planners have worked on Plan Maryland, which state officials say will save $1.5 billion per year in infrastructure costs, for the past three years and have rolled it out in a series of meetings with local officials across the state. Plan Maryland aims to identify growth areas where development can be fast-tracked. Local governments who fail to adhere to the guidelines would lose crucial funding for schools and roads.
Comments
I am a small business owner in Cecil County Maryland, This Plan will cost my county 665 million dollars! It will raise my taxes 2,000.00 dollars a year! This plan is billed as a vehical for growth in our state, as it is packaged in such a way as to make it appear to do so. In reality it forces local gov't to adhear to a one size fits all approach to problem solving, with no regard for the negative impact it will have on small business in rural Maryland. Local real estate markets will be devistated and the small business that depend on those markets for there growth are suppose to put up and shut up, for the greater good! This approach to problem solving is not taking into consideration the greater good, but rather a political move intended to reach out to and satisfy a small group of people pushing their environmental agenda. This must not stand! Of the people, By the people, For the people does not apply here! Rural countys can not afford to implement the state mandates, thus stopping free market progress. Stopping free markets kills jobs and puts the Gov't into a possision of picking winners and loosers. We see what happens when the Gov't does this, we are living it! High unemployment and less jobs. The resulting destruction is a I finite amount of money controled by power players, rather then an ever growing pie driving the private sector to cteate jobs.
Posted by: Claiborne L. Stubbs | November 7, 2011 10:43 AM