If a landholder in Royal Oak, Newcomb, Bellevue, Unionville, Tunis Mills, or Copperville did not receive “sketch approval” to subdivide their land by March 22 of this year, they will not be able to subdivide for development for a period of nine-months. The Talbot County Council passed a nine-month moratorium on development in those communities to allow time to establish proper zoning requirements to allocate sewer services.
Talbot County Engineer Ray Clark told the Spy that the nine-month moratorium is an effort by the County to decide where to specifically target growth.
“[The Council] is going to have to look at re-writing the zoning,” said Clark. “At the same time coordinate their policies for a sewer plan — as to how sewer services are allocated in those areas.”
Clark said that capacity was not keeping pace with the potential for growth.
“For Royal Oak, there is currently zoning for four lots per acre…we could have 2,400 houses being built there right now,” Clark said. “Right now we’ve only allocated [sewer for] 300 lots in Royal Oak – so we really can’t meet their zoning requirements. Their really needs to be a small village plan, or a small area plan, that directs the growth in a certain area.”
Councilman Thomas Duncan, who authored the moratorium resolution, told the Spy on Wednesday that the moratorium would allow time for a study on water and sewer policy and to also prioritize sewer services to certain areas.
Duncan said that federal money was allocated through federal loan to the County in the mid-1990s to deal with” failing septic systems” and “lots of record.” The County wanted to put in larger systems then to accommodate new development, but the federal government was strict that the money only go to failing systems.
“So we put smaller pipes in and we took care of some of the failing systems at that time; we didn’t get them all obviously,” Duncan said.
Since the 1990s, the treatment plant has been upgraded, but the modest increase in capacity still has to be allocated smartly, according to Duncan.
“There are still a lot of folks out their who are not hooked up,” Duncan said. “We need to get a study done for a [water and sewer plan]. We have terrible systems in Neavitt, Bozman, and Claiborne, and rather than big developments, I’d like to take care of [those areas] and help clean the Bay up.”
“We’ve appointed a village committee who is studying all the little villages that have municipal governments, and they’re going to come up with a village plan on how these villages want to be developed,” Duncan said. “[The they will] submit these plans to the Council for evaluation and consideration.”
“When this moratorium is over, hopefully we’ll have [all the ] village plans and a water and sewer amendment,” Duncan said. “We need to do what is best, not only for our county, but for our environment. I’m really worried about the west side of Easton, it’s the most fragile area you can imagine. You can throw a baseball from one bank of water to another. It’s incumbent upon us to protect [our environment] for future generations…If we can’t protect it, we’re going to destroy it.”
Duncan also said this was not an attempt to stop development.
“[We need to establish] smart growth policies,” Duncan said. “It’s not to stop anyone from building, but to make sure it’s done within a smart growth policy.”
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