In an effort to know our sister communities and the challenges small Eastern Shore towns face, the Spy reached out to Centreville Town Council President Steve Kline to discuss how town councils grapple with growth, revenue, and making strategic plans for the future.
As Spy readers may recall from an earlier interview, Kline was recently elected President of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, a fitting role for his more than a dozen years of conservation policy work in Washington DC and one that gives him a broad perspective on the value and preservation of the Shore’s natural resources.
Here, Steve Kline talks about the small-town dynamics; viewing a community’s success solely through the lens of “growth/no growth;” and the need for town governments to inform their communities during early stages of any building development. As he says, “so often what we see is that by the time the public understands what’s happening, the houses are going in.”
This video is approximately fifteen minutes in length.
Hugh (Jock) Beebe says
Steve Kline’s summary of how Centreville neglected its long term financial planning and now finds itself with few options is incisively understood and well presented here. Hearing this clear description provides useful analogy with Talbot County and Town of Trappe.
Since resolution of the apparently growing unrest over Lakeside development appears to be moving toward what Kline describes as dichotomous decisions, listening to what is said so well in this Talbot Spy piece may help put things into a more nuanced perspective.