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Comprehensive Plan Redraft Found Lacking – Your Participation Needed (May 12th, 2007)
A few SONs members have reviewed the current re-draft of the Comprehensive Plan. What we have found is that it is sorely lacking in the creative content that will withstand the expected withering assault of greedy developers. Ed Hopkins reviewed the draft Comprehensive Plan and found it lacking in several areas. Now is the time to make our opinions known, if only to say that the revised Plan should take explicit account of how many people/residences can be supported by the limited groundwater resource we have available, while at the same time preserving enough water to continue the agricultural and tourism economic development that will ensure our rural character and yield decent jobs. Water is a major issue all over the United States, but is seldom mentioned because to do so immediately leads to the consideration of the sustainable capacity of the environment for development. And yet the capacity of our resources, like groundwater, needs to be a defining part of the growth plan, or everyone will certainly suffer. This past week, Phil McCaleb, from Craddockville, announced his candidacy for Board of Supervisors in District 9. Hopefully he will shine a bright light on these issues.

Our recent ad took up the theme that developers are hoping to sidetrack the short-staffed planning department in the county by proposing development that should be considered only after the new Comprehensive Plan is in force. Also this last week, Tony Picardi delivered a presentation on what global warming means to the Eastern Shore in terms of inundations from rising sea levels and increasingly severe and more frequent tropical storm events. Although Picardi did not comment on what this means to the Comprehensive Plan for lack of time, it was clear that the near compete inundation of the necks and relative safety of the high ground spine argues for location of future growth along the route 13 corridor. Balancing this need with the need for aquifer recharge means that growth is limited and that this version of the Comprehensive Plan needs to include new and more complex tradeoffs than were ever considered before.

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