The Planning Commission held a kickoff meeting to begin work on the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The Plan is a long-term project that is reviewed and updated, if necessary, every ten years. It is an essential document that outlines the current condition of the City’s various elements, such as topography, resources and benefits, and includes future goals and aspirations as well.
Arro Consulting has been brought into the fold to aid the Commission in the process of building the Plan. Craig Kologie, a senior planner at the firm, asked the Commission to consider where the City is now, where they want to go and how they plan on getting there. He asked them to consider what policies need to be formulated and strategies implemented to achieve these goals. He also pointed out that the Comprehensive Plan is a good tool for the Capital Improvement Program, allowing the City to determine priorities for funding which will aid in applying for grants.
Kologie recommended breaking the Plan development into four stages. Phase one is research and analysis, which includes surveying the residents and key community members, such as the city planner, department heads and other influential city members. One of the key questions the surveys will ask is: What key aspects do the residents like about their town? This will help guide the Commission as to what direction the Comprehensive Plan should take moving forward. Phase one is estimated to take around three months.
Phase two will delve into the 2010 Comprehensive Plan and collect background information for demographics, population, basic traffic information and other items of that nature. It will revisit the existing Plan’s goals and objectives to see what is still relevant and what will need to be modified.
Phase three is a six-to-eight-month process where goals and objectives are developed utilizing information from the phase one surveys and interviews. This phase will end in a draft that will be presented for public review and comment.
Phase four is the legal process and adoption of the Comprehensive Plan. "We want to create a living document that is working with the various cycles of projects within the City," said Kologie, "This will be a document that can live and breathe with the everchanging priorities and goals of the City." Overall the Plan is considered to be a multi-year project.
Kologie noted that traffic issues, differing opinions on development and growth and the future of the historic Main Street district seemed to be the most important issues for the Commission members.
City Council liaison, Councilman Chris Tillman, described how the City’s traffic concerns stem from backups extending from the square in the afternoons up to half a mile and even more some days. He described a recent accident that had traffic gridlocked for an hour and a half which prevented an ambulance from getting through. "It’s not conducive to the kind of environment that everybody says that they want to create," said Tillman. "This is why the bypass is hugely important to me from a quality-of-life standpoint."
Member Dan Myers shared three challenges he felt the City was facing, with the most substantial being the limited future opportunities for development. He mentioned the City possibly being landlocked by land in preservation, restricting any future expansion. He also felt that Taneytown has nothing to really draw people to it, stating "We don’t have a nice restaurant like Emmitsburg's Ott House that people really want to frequent." His last concern was the public’s participation, or lack thereof, in projects that directly impact their future.
Tillman said, "The biggest thing I hear: this is such a cute little town, but I wish there was more to do." He hoped the Comprehensive Plan would give the City a "sense of direction from the process" that would result in a more tourist friendly destination.
Other issues the Plan would need to address include meeting the State’s expectations for housing and addressing water and sewer requirements.
Kologie asked the Commission for their opinions on how to create engagement with the public to encourage their input. His suggestions included taking the Plan to the public rather than waiting for the public to come to the Commission by utilizing community events to encourage the public to participate in the survey, as well as public meetings. The Commission discussed mailing flyers and setting up information booths at some of the City’s popular events.
