One of the more important outcomes that came with Talbot County’s efforts to update its 2005 Comprehensive Plan was the need for much more public input in the process. While the end result with the Comp Plan did eventually achieve general consensus, it was only after there had been significant community pushback to some suggested changes and concern about public’s limited involvement in the document’s revisions. As a result, everyone from County Council members to local citizens all agreed that there should be far greater opportunities for input.
And one group that has taken this recommendation very seriously has been the County’s Planning and Zoning staff. And as they begin to tackle another big job over the next few months to update the county’s zoning ordinances, they have moved aggressively to develop new ways to reach out to the community to seek their active engagement.
The Talbot Spy spoke a few weeks ago with Mary Kay Verdery, one of Talbot County’s planning officers, about these new initiatives, as well as the county’s recent, and very success, efforts to prepare for the development of solar panel farms, staff concerns on certain aspects of the Port Street Master Plan, and moving forward with “working waterfront” planning.
Mary Kay also talks about the County’s new initiative, called NextStep 190, referring to the update of chapter 190 the Talbot County code.
This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information about Next Step 190, please go here
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.