Open houses on the plan will be held over the next 60 days.
Frederick, Md (KM) The Livable Frederick plan has been released to the public. The draft plan was approved on Wednesday by the Frederick County Planning Commission, and was unveiled by County Executive Jan Gardner during her Thursday public information briefing.
“Livable Frederick was designed to advance the community vision, and then develop a plan around that vision to make that vision a reality,” says Gardner. “Livable Frederick uses a dynamic approach to answer the questions of how and where we want to grow.”
Gardner says the plan came about after months of gathering opinions from thousands of people, and from the county staff conducting surveys and visiting scores of organizations. County employees heard that citizens who participated want to live fulfilling lives with fulfilling jobs. Also, the residents wanted businesses of all sizes to thrive and they valued traditional industries as well, such as agriculture.
Eight work groups were set up to review this information. “Ultimately, the Livable Frederick plan was organized around four themes that came up in nearly every work group: our community, our health, our economy and our environment,” says Gardner. “Based on the goals and supporting initiatives of the work groups, these four themes created the action framework for sustainable, high quality life over the next 10 to 25 years.”
The plan also includes a development framework,which looks at how different growth scenarios would affect our future, where development will happen and how people will live and work and get around.
This is much different than the comprehensive planning done in the past, according to Principal Planner John Dimitriou. “This plan really focuses on more strategic issues that will help us shape our county into the future,” he said.; “So parcel-based land use mapping, zoning changes are not a part of this current process.”
He says the plan was developed using four scenarios when it came to determining the county’s future: business as usual; city-centered growth; suburban retrofit; and multi-modal corridors such as I-270. The plan came up with the best aspects of each scenario, Dimitriou said.
The county will hold a series of open houses on the plan to allow the public to learn more about it, ask questions and make comments. They will be held at:
* Brunswick High School, Wed., Jan. 24th at 6:30 PM.
* Oakdale High School, Thurs., Feb. 1st at 6:30 PM
* Urbana High School, Wed., Feb.14th at 7:00 PM
* Catoctin High School, Feb. 15th at 7:00 PM
* Frederick High School at a day and time to be announced.
After that, The Planning Commission hold a public hearing on Livable Frederick on Monday, March 5th at 7:00 PM.
It’s expected to go before the County Council which will also hold hearings.
The plan is available on line at www.LivableFrederick.org.
By Kevin McManus