George Wenschhof
First time elected Frederick
County executive Jan Gardner (D) after spending her first year in office
undoing many of the legislative actions undertaken by the previous board of
county commissioners led by Blaine Young (R), has now turned her attention to
an update of the county’s Comprehensive Plan.
How to manage growth in
Frederick County, Maryland has been the main issue dominating local politics
for more than two decades.
I sat down with Mr. Racheff
recently for what turned out to be a lengthy interview to go over how he viewed
the upcoming process. Racheff is a local
businessman who, as a result of being a strong Gardner
Concerned over this long
term pendulum swing on how best to manage growth in Frederick
County , I wrote a column 2 years ago,
prior to the 2014 election entitled “When
will the pendulum swing stop in Frederick County?” In that column I wrote about how the down
zoning of properties by the Gardner Frederick County
I asked Jim if this process
would be a repeat of what has taken place previously. He said “I understand the
process will be politically charged, of course.
I believe the way to address this is to be open and genuine”.
He added “I want the
committee to set a new tone and direction at how we look at developing a
sustainable community. I don’t care what
Jan and Blaine did. I just want to do something right. This is not about
fighting old battles.”
Racheff told me the
comprehensive plan update is require by state law every ten years and this
process does not change zoning. It is an
overlay of the county and it is the planning commission and ultimately the
county council who will determine zoning.
At the end of two years the
committee will present their update to county executive Gardner who can make
any changes she wishes prior to presenting to the planning commission for their
input. Finally, the comprehensive plan update will be presented to the county
council for approval.
New to the update process is
new guidance from the American Planning Association on how to deal with the
unintended negative side effects of past planning.
As a result of this, Racheff
said their goal will be to develop a community vision process by talking to
residents to find out what they would like to see. They will also be using new analytic tools to
help understand demographics, transportation and other variables. In other words there will be data to support
the recommendations of the committee.
They also intend to use
social media to receive input and feedback as they proceed over the next two
years. They already have a Facebook page and
website www.livablefrederick.org.
Racheff also would like to
see the committee bring in some outside professionals to help with
presentations and with outreach to the community.
He said the name “livable”
should reflect community interests on how issues such as public health, changes
in work environment, transportation and employment impact the quality of life.
Jim also told me “the focus
should be on the desire to have a prosperous community, not a big or small
one”. Furthermore, he would like to
“provide more predictability so both sides (on growth) can be satisfied”.
The first meeting of the
committee will be open to the public and held on January 22 at the Browning Building
in Pinecliff Park
Racheff concluded with
“Let’s move forward, not back and forth.
It’s time to end the pendulum swing.
My goal is whatever comes out of this comprehensive plan update process
is something we all believe is a good outcome”.
Stay tuned.
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