A Report of Half Measures
Filed under: Development, Maryland, Salisbury Politics, Wicomico Politics
Thursday’s Daily Times reported of the Wicomico Visioneering Committee’s draft report on controlling growth in Wicomico County. While we won’t see the final report until at least February, the article paints the draft report as well thought out. The report evidently supports the idea of new revenue sources for the county such as excise taxes, impact fees, transfer taxes, etc. It even suggests the repeal of the revenue cap.
There are a few problems however. Everything seems lucid, whether you agree or not, until the next to last paragraph:
The subcommittee recommended the formation of a small government entity, with as little as one staff member, to distribute data about growth that would be useful to county and municipal governments alike and to set up meetings on the topic for officials from towns, the city of Salisbury and the county. There are state statutes that recognize that kind of intergovernmental council, Burnett said.
Now you have it. We need another bureaucracy. Salisbury and the county share the same Planning Department. In fact, that is one of the problems (to be discussed later). Why in the world would you need a new agency to make the Salisbury / Wicomico Planning Department share information with itself?
Where is the mention of an APFO? Well I wouldn’t expect one. Developers are willing to tolerate many things, but they think an APFO is akin to suicide. King Burnett, chairman of the committee is name partner in a law firm (with Salisbury City Attorney Paul Wilber, no less) that has a substantial real estate practice (according to its own web site). Thomas Becker is a name partner in the Becker Morgan architectural firm. Tom Ruark is a developer. That’s half the committee right there. Spicer Bell is President of the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore. He serves at the pleasure of a board of directors that includes bankers, contractors and real estate people (and I’m willing to bet that most of those “Civic Leaders†invest in few local real estate deals). Joe Ollinger sits on the board of the Community Foundation. That leaves Alan Girard of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Where is the mention of schools? Roads? Public Safety? Again, we’ll have to wait until the final report comes out.
Let’s face it, the problem lies with the Salisbury and Wicomico County governments. We are starting to face the consequences of years of mismanagement. There’s not a developer in the world who doesn’t love Salisbury. Gary Comegys has bragged how he reaches into the pockets of developers (for the supposed benefit of the taxpayer). These guys can’t even extort money properly. Go to Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia or most suburban counties on the Western Shore and they’ll show you how to hold up a developer. You get money for schools, roads, parks, open space, ad infinitum or you just don’t build. Salisbury thinks that making a developer pay an impact fee for water and sewer is a novel idea.
Now in many ways the county government is worse. At least with Salisbury Council you know what they are going to do before hand. While it is a safe assumption that the Wicomico County Council is going to let a developer have whatever he or she wants, they hem, haw and whine in the process. Every once in a while they will take a stand on an issue, but they can be backed down just as easily. Why worry about sprawl when they are going to give a developer whatever zoning they want. They have zero right to complain about Salisbury’s annexation policy when they aid it at every turn.
As to the joint Planning Department, this is one area where the taxpayer should be more than willing to pony up more money. First, the county needs its own planning department. The current department is obviously under the thumb of Mayor Tilghman (if you weren’t already convinced of this, Jack Lennox’s performance at Monday’s council meeting should be proof enough). The county and its citizens could really benefit from hiring a first class planning staff. If not, we might as well accept the notion that Wicomico County will soon cease to exist as a separate entity. It will just become the funding mechanism for the schools because Salisbury, Fruitland, Delmar and Pittsville will have 90% of the usable land area with 20 years.
Sphere: Related Content
//END Quantcast Code
It fascinates and disgusts me that King Burnett, Esq. and the others did nothing when they might have helped protect the public as the Salisbury Council screwed us with the Hearne annexation & rezoning and the more recent mall rezoning, then spout off about how bad things are. At least two of them (Burnett & Girard) want to see all development crammed as densely as possible into Salisbury. Why Ruark and Becker could be deemed unbiased is beyond me. As you point out, given his affiliation with Paul Wilber, Mr. Burnett is doubly disqualified.
None of them would dare to recognize that most folks want to see development slowed and brought under reasonable and appropriate control so that things like the mall and Hearne rezonings at absurd density and lacking appropriate infrastructure don’t happen.
It’s easy see the real cause of these actions — elected and appointed officials do what developers want and pay no heed to the public. Organizations lijke this “visioning committee” serve to perpetuate the power elite by putting a patina of correctness on things. They have a new mantra — “smart growth” — with which to divert attention from a multitude of development sins.
And your comment on the “planning director” (FYI - it’s “Lenox”) is on the mark. He and the “Planning Commission” are a major part of the problem as they bow and scrape to the power elite. Splitting into separate boards for the City and County is a good move, but that alone won’t solve the problem. We need to have real professionals who will act appropriately when that means saying “no” to the politicians and their corporate and developer pals.
Isn’t Becker involved in the ridiculous plan to turn the Downtown Plaza into a street?
Did King Burnett and his buddies tell the City & County that you don’t raise revenue by giving a $20 million tax break (”TIF”) to the owner of the old mall?
1. In addition to all the “smart growth”, (I use the term facetiously0 add to the equation the theft of private property via abuse of eminent domain. If the private property owner doesn’t like the deal, no problem! It can be appealed to the Property Review Board. Who would have guessed Paul Wilber would be the chairman of that?? Sounds like a good Jeopardy game show answer. “What is conflict of interest?” This taking of property, by the way, is kept hush, hush at the public hearings with P&Z, and City / County Councils.
2. At any given time, on any given project who is the P&Z staff people working for? The County or the City? Which rule book are they playing from? City and County have different codes pertaining to zoning. When all these annexations take place, dropping a satelite property of the City into a neighborhood of the County, who represents the City and who represents the County?? The question keeps popping up. “What is conflict of interest?”
Is it “visioning” or “visioneering” and who gives a damn?
Jack Lenox is the lapdog of developers–plain and simple. Who is there for the citizens–nobody. He is the developer’s power broker.
You don’t believe Lenox is under the thumb of the Mayor–I just watched the rebroadcast. Just as things are closing off, you’ll see Barrie go over to Mike and whisper; next thing Mike recognizes Lenox who then steps up to state his ridiculous (it’s really 9 units per acre if you count the whole land area) statement. Yes, Lenox should be shown the door, but why should he go? Mayor has him as another of her puppets–I would like to see one man anywhere in these administrations, County or City, that has the _ _ _ _ _ to be a man and say what he thinks. They’re all a bunch of whining whimps.