County gets greener during retreat

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

"We've never had this section as a goal and objective," said Charles County commissioners' President F. Wayne Cooper (D) at the retreat on Tuesday. "[The board] wants to show what we have done, what we are doing and what we'll continue to do."

Among the targets the board will aim for are focusing development in Smart Growth areas, promoting the transfer of developer's rights program and bringing next year's Earth Day Summit to fruition.

"This is not new," said commissioners' Vice President Edith J. Patterson (D) at the retreat at College of Southern Maryland's La Plata campus. She is spearheading the green effort with Cooper.

"This is a very critical area we live in, where the impact on us is an impact on the entire state of Maryland," she said.

Cooper said governing bodies have taken a vested interest in the preservation and maintenance of the environment because of the fallout from the increase in fuel costs, but Charles County has been riding that bandwagon for some time.

During a 100-Year Plan meeting at a conference in Baltimore that he and Commissioner Samuel N. Graves Jr. (D) attended, Cooper said he learned many of the steps for environmental preservation have already been taken in Southern Maryland.

"We have been doing these things for years, I felt we were way ahead," Cooper said. "All counties are addressing this issue. These are things we should be doing anyway."

Patterson said she was looking forward to the summit — which will include a number of break-out exercises — because of the progress a united effort can create.

Among other goals and objectives the commissioners will be dedicating their efforts toward are working with the county's board of education to provide a quality education to students and adequate funding for the public school system.

"In terms of how we can look at this, I think it's appropriate right now to look at all ideas," said Commissioner Reuben B. Collins II (D), one of the commissioners heading up the education-related objective.

Prompted by a recollection from Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D) about a committee for cost savings organized several years ago, Collins said a number of ideas that came from those committee sessions were the result of "thinking outside the box."

"Over the course of the meetings we were reviewing and looking at alternative sources of funding and trying to expand … and more critically look at ways to enhance funding beyond the scope of what we'd been doing," Collins said.

The committee had looked into alternatives such as year-round school curricula and cutting off high school at the 11th grade, Collins said.

While no radical changes like that were pursued, Collins said in the context of where the county and its coffers are today, collective thinking that explores alternative solutions "would be wise on all fronts."

Making the list alongside the effort to guarantee the success of the county's school system is the commissioners' endeavor to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the local government.

Over the course of the next 12 months, the commissioners agreed to continue their work in bringing a multipurpose public facility to the county and expanding recreational opportunities for local youth.

Maintaining a high level of public safety is a goal Graves will continue to lead, and he said it's already a benchmark met.

"There have been some bumps in things, but overall the level of safety in the county is high," Graves said. "That's because of the high visibility [of the sheriff's office]."

Among the goals for comprehensive planning within the county is completing the Waldorf Urban Design Study which was introduced to the board in late July.

Currently in the hands of the county's planning commission, the design study outlines two new zones for property in Waldorf bordered by Acton Lane, Leonardtown Road, U.S. 301 and Popes Creek railroad tracks.

The commissioners will also be dedicating energy to the ongoing Rural Housing Improvement Initiative, which aims — among other things — to reduce the number of homes in the county without indoor plumbing.

Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D) said that despite there being only a year left before the election, it's time that should be used to deliver on infrastructure and economic promises made in 2006.

"While we're in the process of cutting the operating budget to address … the fiscal crisis we're in, we still need to make critical investments in infrastructure and keep our capital improvements program strong," Hodge said. "We'll be more competitive when we come out of the recession."

Hodge said the commissioners will need to continue their pursuit of a high-capacity rail transit connection, safer and more efficient road networks — including the completion of the cross-county connector — and a new library in Waldorf.

Within the work to improve commuting, the board decided to continue its efforts to include the county in plans for a ferry service along the Potomac.

"Charles County is extremely well-positioned to be a beneficiary of a viable ferry service," Hodge said. "We would have an extremely short ferry commute, and it would really deliver some immediate economic opportunities."

The commissioner said he would also be looking to create the strongest transfer of developer's rights program in the state, which would help both the county's infrastructure and economic development as well as promote the board's goal for environmental preservation.

TDR programs buy development rights from farmers and sell them to developers in exchange for higher density on projects in urban areas.

"Our policy is to focus future growth in the urban core of Waldorf and discourage sprawl in rural areas," Hodge said. "To make that equation work we need a strong TDR program which will provide funding for farmers to sustain agriculture in Charles County … and at the same time give developers the incentive they need to develop the urban core. Doing one without the other is not going to get us where we want to go."

msomers@somdnews.com