IMPLEMENTATION

INTRODUCTION

So this is it; the last chapter of Easton's Comprehensive Plan. Most Comprehensive Plan's would have ended with the last chapter. Then, depending on the level of interest in the community and the level of commitment amongst government officials and staff, the Plan would be implemented to varying degrees. A few would be followed very closely. Most would be followed when someone remembered to check the Plan or when it was convenient to do so. And, unfortunately, too many Plans would simply sit on the shelf and collect dust until someone realized that enough time had passed to update it again.

This chapter ponders the future of this Plan. It addresses its content relative to State law and, more importantly, it assigns responsibility. In short, it examines who has to do what in order to make the visions of this Plan a reality. If it is successful in this endeavor, we will come together again in five years, not to start over from scratch, but to refine and further hone the groundwork laid herein.

BACKGROUND

Way back on page 1 of this Comprehensive Plan, the recent history of increasing State and regional involvement in planning was discussed. One of the first widely accepted statements coming from one of a series of groups addressing growth in the Chesapeake Bay region in general and later in Maryland specifically, was a list of six visions. These are repeated in the Plan Background Chapter herein.

As growth policies progressed, these visions became codified into State Planning Enabling legislation (Article 66B of the Maryland Annotated Code). The original six visions are included plus a seventh which addresses streamlining of regulations to encourage development in identified growth areas. This Comprehensive Plan, as well as all others now being prepared in response to the Growth Act, is required to implement these visions. The following subsection will briefly describe how each of these Visions will be achieved as a result of this Plan and future actions designed to implement its recommendations.

The prevailing theme of the Growth Act is that development should stop occurring in a sprawling, haphazard pattern and should instead be directed to existing and planned cities, towns, villages, etc. Such a pattern will direct growth away from the places with little or no services to those places with the infrastructure (i.e. water and sewerage systems, adequate roadways, etc.) to handle additional development.

Easton meets this mandate in two basic ways. First on the macro-scale, Easton is a population center for Talbot County and indeed the entire Eastern Shore. It clearly has the infrastructure necessary to accommodate future growth. The effects of growth in Easton will obviously have less of an impact on resources, both natural and human, than similar growth more equally distributed throughout Talbot County. Second, on a micro-scale, this Comprehensive Plan directs development away from sensitive areas to more suitable and easily developable sites.

This Vision is met through the devotion of an entire Chapter of this Plan to the protection of sensitive areas. Furthermore, one of the recurring themes of the Plan is that natural features should determine design and that it is imperative to identify these features as early in the development process as possible. The diligent application of this principle will ensure that this Vision is achieved.

This Vision is basically a restatement of the first two. Thus it has already been addressed above. In addition, in as much as it starts with the phrase "In rural areas," this particular Vision would seem to be more directly applicable to a County. In this respect this Vision is also satisfied as both this Comprehensive Plan and that of Talbot County, identify Easton as the primary focal point for future County growth.

The successful achievement of this Vision is critically dependent on education. There has certainly been a great deal of publicity and education concerning the importance of the Chesapeake Bay during the past ten years. With organizations such as the Waterfowl Festival and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum located in or near Easton, the residents of our Town and County are exposed to a great deal of this education. To the extent that this Comprehensive Plan adds to that education by reinforcing the importance of protecting the Bay through appropriate and wise land use policies, this Vision is satisfied in Easton.

The most direct way in which this Vision is achieved in Easton is through the repeated theme of promoting a more compact urban form for future development as opposed to the suburban, sprawl type of development that, while not necessarily dominant, has been far too prevalent in Easton over the last 20 or so years. The more urban, compact form of development has many advantages enumerated throughout this Plan. One of them is clearly that it conserves resources.

In addition to this direct impact, the Plan also indirectly promotes this Vision through such recommendations as the construction of a collector road on the eastern edge of Town (which will minimize trips to and on Route 50 for residents on that side of Town) and the encouragement of an expanded recycling program.

It is difficult to assess how effective this Plan will be in achieving at least the latter part of this Vision. The first part, the encouragement of economic growth, is unquestionably achieved throughout this Plan, particularly in the Economic Development Chapter. However, the streamlining of regulatory mechanisms is somewhat harder to judge. This is in large part due to the fact that Easton's planning staff has found that by and large the Town's development review systems are already among the most streamlined in the State. Thus in relative terms, nothing need be done to satisfy this part of the Vision.

Town staff and officials are not satisfied, however, with success on a relative basis. Just because our review processes are faster than the rest of the State does not mean that further improvement cannot be realized. Thus this Comprehensive Plan includes, for example, a recommendation that the Planned Unit Development process be streamlined so that it is actually easier to develop a site under these guidelines than under conventional subdivision or site plan processes. Finally, this Vision is addressed through a recommendation in the latest Planning and Zoning Commission Annual Report which states:

The Town should examine all aspects of existing review procedures to determine where/how these might be made less open-ended in terms of a time frame for a final decision and streamlined in general.

Before leaving the discussion of this particular Vision, it should be pointed out that certain, major considerations of this Plan, are contradictory to further streamlining of the review process. In particular, the desire for better design controls means more detailed and lengthy staff and Commission review of development proposals. To the extent that these increased requirements can be incorporated and occur simultaneously with existing reviews they will do so, but that may well not always be possible and will therefore result in lengthier, rather than shortened, reviews.

The inclusion of this Vision in Article 66B is puzzling. There is little beyond recommendations that any Comprehensive Plan can do to encourage funding for any given purpose no matter how "noble" that purpose may be. This Plan includes recommendations, such as the establishment of Utility Districts to encourage economic development in a responsible manner. The actual funding of various recommendations, however, is up to the Town Council.

Furthermore, it has long been the contention of Easton's Planning Staff that this Vision is directed to the State. They are the entity that mandated the other six visions so they should also be the entity primarily responsible for funding their successful implementation. If this is not the case and this is a local government responsibility, it represents an unfunded mandate, the existence of which, let alone the magnitude, is not known by local officials.

Throughout this Comprehensive Plan there have been numerous references to Talbot County and the relationship between Easton's Planning effort and that of the County. This all points out the strong need for interjurisdictional coordination and cooperation.

Due to the requirements specified by the Growth Act, it is imperative that the Town and County work closely together to coordinate growth policies. For example, the general theme of discouraging a suburban style of development is defeated if policies which support this theme are not in place in the County's Comprehensive Plan. Development planned for the edge of Easton must be required to annex into Town and must occur at the appropriate density. Otherwise growth could be choked-off in a given direction, the relatively large-lot, sprawling, suburban form of development that is so land consumptive and wasteful of resources could occur beyond the Town's ability to do anything about it, and the spirit of this Plan as well as the Growth Act would be violated. Given all of this, a number of the goals, objectives, and implementation strategies enumerated later in this Chapter concern issues of interjurisdictional coordination.

In order for the recommendations/suggestions contained within this Plan to become a reality, a number of more detailed and specialized Plans need to be prepared and implementing ordinances and regulations need to be revised in accordance with the spirit of this Plan. Throughout this Plan, a number of Small-Area Plans are described. Also, the Transportation Element recommends a functional Plan be developed for Bicyclists/Pedestrians. Such Plans will help implement this Comprehensive Plan by providing more detailed analysis for geographic areas and specialized topics.

All of these Plans will collectively be implemented by the Town’s development regulations. Foremost among these is the Zoning Ordinance, which regulates the use of land by prescribing permitted uses by land use zones and assigning limits by zone for such things as setbacks, heights, lot coverages, etc. It is also the Ordinance which prescribes parking and landscaping standards.

The Subdivision Regulations describe how larger parcels of land can be divided into smaller parcels. Included within these Regulations are the Town standards for the classification of streets in an hierarchical or ordered system.

The Critical Areas Plan, Forest Conservation Ordinance, and Floodplain Ordinance regulate various aspects of environmentally sensitive areas within Easton. Finally, the Building Code , Property Maintenance Code, Town Code, and Housing Code regulate a number of Health/Safety/General Welfare-type issues. Collectively, all of these regulations and specialized plans must work in harmony to protect and enhance the quality of life in Easton.

In order to ensure that this Comprehensive Plan is consistently followed and implemented in the spirit in which it was prepared, a large number of groups and individuals must take on various responsibilities. First let's start with a discussion of responsibilities shared by all parties.

This Comprehensive Plan should be consulted whenever a decision is to be made relative to growth and land use. In so doing, the proposal should be examined in terms of whether or not it is consistent with this Plan and if not, whether or not there are extenuating or extraordinary circumstances that warrant the support of the proposal despite it's not being consistent with the Plan. It should also be remembered that it is simply not possible to anticipate every scenario that might occur over the next five years. There will undoubtedly be proposals for which this Plan offers no direction at all. A common mistake is to interpret this as meaning that the Comprehensive Plan does not support the action. This is not necessarily the case. It simply means that those preparing this Plan did not consider the proposal as something that was likely to come up during the plan period (i.e. 1996-2002). In such cases it is essential that those reviewing the proposal do so with the spirit, rather than the letter, of this Plan in mind. If necessary, the Visioning Committee and the Community at large should be "reconvened" for their input on the matter.

Some responsibilities lie primarily with one group or another. The preparation of budgets and the initiation or modification of Town programs in a manner consistent with the Plan is the responsibility of the Mayor and Town Council. Similarly, on many issues of interjurisdictional coordination, the decisions must be ratified, if not initiated, at the Mayor and Council level. Finally, while the Town staff and Planning and Zoning Commission have the responsibility for preparing development-related regulations, the Town Council is the only body authorized to adopt them.

Easton's Planning and Zoning Commission has the primary responsibility for reviewing various development proposals and assessing their level of compliance and consistency with the Plan. This group also is charged with annually preparing a report on the growth and development process and recommending methods by which it might be improved. This offers a continuing opportunity to reassess the progress towards satisfying the goals, objectives, and implementation strategies of the Plan.

The Town planning staff has the greatest day-to-day responsibility for implementing the Plan. It is incumbent upon them to inform potential developers early in the process as to how the Comprehensive Plan views their proposal. The planning staff also should consult the Plan during the review of development proposals and the preparation of staff reports, drafting of Ordinances and Regulations, etc.

Finally, the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that this Plan is faithfully and consistently implemented and that it does not simply sit upon the shelf of Town Hall lies with the general public. If you believe in the goals and policies of this Plan, remind Town officials and staff of them at every opportunity for public comment. Write letters of support for proposals which are consistent with the Plan, rather than showing up only when it is time to oppose something. Encourage Town policies and programs which are consistent with the Plan. Oppose those that are inconsistent (and point out why they are so). Above all else, help the Town Planning and Zoning Commission and their staff stay focused on the Plan by attending the annual Planning meetings and, most especially, by participating in the next update of this Plan beginning in 2001.

There are a couple of references in this Plan to the budgeting exercise conducted at the Town Planning Workshops. The complete results of this exercise are summarized in the Table below. This is done not to suggest that the next budget should mirror this exercise. Obviously there are factors of which the general public is unaware despite our best efforts to convey as much information as possible about what is included in the various budgetary categories. Rather, this information is include simply to indicate the public's feelings concerning relative spending priorities and changes thereto.

* Does not equal 100% due to rounding

IMPLEMENTATION GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

GOAL

To insure that future development and proposed development related programs are implemented consistent with the spirit of this Comprehensive Plan.

OBJECTIVES

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES