For more than two decades, the Talbot Preservation Alliance has been a steady voice on growth and land-use issues in Talbot County. As Easton works through its 2025 Comprehensive Plan, the group has offered detailed feedback on how the town should manage future growth ahead of a meeting of the Easton Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, December 9th.
In this interview, TPA board member Tom Alspach explains the key concerns raised in the Alliance’s recent letter to the Planning and Zoning Commission. The group supports much of the draft but questions proposed changes to growth rates, annexation policies, and long-term population targets.
Alspach argues that Easton should reaffirm its long-standing 1% growth rate, avoid new greenfield annexations for residential development over the next decade, and rethink the town’s “ultimate” build-out assumptions. He notes that Easton already has enough approved housing to meet projected demand.
This conversation highlights bigger questions about Easton’s identity and how fast it should grow. We sat down with Tom Alspach to walk through the Alliance’s perspective.
This video is approximately 8 minutes in length. To review the current Easton Comprehensive Plan, please go here.
The Easton Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. at the Easton Town Office 14. S Harrison Street,
Mary Smith says
I respect protecting Easton’s character. Easton cannot carry the entire county, and pushing all growth into town only creates the pressures we want to avoid. Annapolis is already overriding local zoning for solar, data centers, and housing because land use is now understood as economic and social justice issues, not only a conservation issue. Census, USDA, and TFN data all show that Talbot County is stagnating while wealth concentrates along the waterfront, and that kind of inequality is not politically sustainable – here or elsewhere in Maryland.
Allowing targeted areas for jobs and services around villages and key corridors would reduce pressure for large new housing projects in and around Easton. It would also help avoid solar and data centers. Limited commercial and light industrial uses near these villages and corridors would support state policy goals, increase tax revenue, and address the social justice concerns that are steadily reducing public support for conservation – especially among younger voters.
The new MDP guidance calls for balancing preservation with equity, access, and economic resilience. If local policy adapts, Easton preserves its character, residents regain economic life, more greenfields are retained, and Talbot aligns with shifting state expectations. If it does not, the state will eventually make those adjustments for us.