GC Commissioners Propose Adding Ridgeline Protection To Comp Plan

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Dec. 30, 2010


The new Board of Garrett County Commissioners is proposing that language to protect mountain ridgelines from development be included in the county's recently revised Comprehensive Plan.

"I'd like to refer this matter back to the Planning Commission so they can have a public hearing on including language that was previously omitted from the Comprehensive Plan," said commission chair Gregan Crawford during the board's public meeting last Tuesday.

The 216-page Comprehensive Plan, which serves as a policy guide for future growth in the county, was adopted by the previous board in October 2008.

In order to be consistent with that updated plan, the county's three principal land development ordinances – the Deep Creek Watershed Zoning, GC Subdivision, and GC Sensitive Areas – were revised earlier this year.

Updating the plan and ordinances was a four-year-long process by the Planning Commission and other county officials. Numerous hearings and meetings were held in which the public gave suggestions on various issues, including ridgeline protection.

Director John Nelson, GC Department of Planning and Land Development, said the commission's initial Comprehensive Plan draft included language about protecting ridges from wind turbines and other tall structures. He presented the commissioners with copies of that proposed language.

"The idea was that there would be sighting requirements for development in the Sensitive Areas Ordinance – so there would be certain height limitations from the very pentacle of the ridge – preferably, that the wind turbines would be situated down slope from the very crest of the ridge, and that there'd be a maximum height from that crest at the ridge as well," Nelson said.

Those concepts, however, were removed before the plan's final adoption, he noted.

"I think omission of this language runs contrary to the Heritage Plan and to the Comprehensive Plan," Crawford told Nelson.

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