Commissioners insert partisan opinions, philosophies into newest master plan draft

While the 2014 Carroll County Master Plan will have the signatures of the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission members on it when it's adopted, much of the language, guidelines and recommendations will be from the Carroll County Board of Commissioners if the plan is left unchanged.

The purpose of the master plan, which has not been updated since 2000, is to lay out a strategy for making improvements to public infrastructure and allowing for private development of land. In the past, commissioner boards have not meddled in the minutia of the plan, leaving it up to the planning commission to develop.

Unlike previous boards, the current five-member Board of Commissioners has its fingerprints all over the county's comprehensive plan, which is now under 60-day public review.

The commissioners who have had the most influence over what has gone into the plan are Richard Rothschild and Robin Bartlett Frazier.

How they did it

In 2011, the Board of Commissioners voted against a master plan draft and remanded it back to the planning commission. When a master plan is remanded, the planning commission must start the process of developing the 160-plus-page document all over again.

But before the planning commission got to work, Frazier, R-District 1, and Rothschild, R-District 4, came together in 2011 to mark up the 2010 draft of the master plan. Their handiwork included replacing words, striking out sentences and adding new passages on topics ranging from public transportation to sustainability.

Rothschild and Frazier included their opinions on mass transit coming to Carroll, the role of government, property rights, the local housing market, agriculture and other areas. They also touted achievements of the board such as lowering taxes or setting aside money for specific projects.

In a letter to the planning commission in October 2011, the Board of Commissioners wrote: "Although the working document was prepared by two of our commissioners, and it represents their comments, we as a board never formally reviewed or adopted it. The working document represents incomplete work-product."

All five commissioners signed off on the letter.

That marked-up copy of the plan became the starting point for the planning commission in developing the 2014 master plan, according to Lynda Eisenberg, chief of the Bureau of Comprehensive Planning.

Hoping to have more success in getting the master plan approved, the planning commission met with the entire Board of Commissioners to learn what issues the commissioners had with the 2010 plan and how they could be resolved.

At that point, all five commissioners offered their opinions on the plan and suggested changes.

Rothchild, Frazier opinions make it into the master plan

Using Rothschild's and Frazier's marked-up version as a starting point, the planning commission began the multiyear process of developing a new master plan.

Throughout the master plan, the planning commission replaced words and sentences in the 2010 master plan draft with ones that the two commissioners supported. "Sustainability" was replaced with "environmental stewardship," "stakeholders" replaced with "property owners" and "minimize" replaced with "mitigate."

Carroll County's vision was changed from "County amenities, infrastructure, and facilities provide a high quality of life that helps ensure Carroll continues to be a great place to live, work, and play" to "Carroll County values, and citizens' unalienable rights of life, liberty, and property, are respected, protected, and sustained."

The planning commission also inserted what Rothschild and Frazier thought should be the goals of the master plan, such as the sentence "… provide participants with a balanced perspective on planning goals while promoting the need to respect private property rights; and accurately advise participants of the tradeoffs between various forms of development based on real-world effects."

As they worked to accommodate what is normally the vocal minority on the Board of Commissioners, planning commissioners expressed concern about putting their own names on a document that has a lot of input from the Board of Commissioners.

Planners push back on Rothschild/Frazier suggestions

While the planning commission ended up using a number of words, sentences and passages that were written by Rothschild and Frazier, it did not include a majority of the suggestions, such as in a section about endangered species.

Rothschild and Frazier asked that the following be included, "Other endangered species include relatively clean American industries that are increasingly being driven overseas to places like China or Indonesia where they reopen with little or no pollution controls, resulting in a net increase in worldwide pollution in addition to a loss of American jobs."

The planning commission also pushed back on changes to the area of the county's goal of permanently preserving 100,000 acres of farmland in Carroll.

The county has invested tens of millions of dollars in its agricultural land preservation program, which gives farmers the opportunity to sell the building rights on their farms to the county to ensure the land won't be developed.

The goal in the 2010 draft of the master plan read, "The permanent preservation of at least 100,000 acres of agricultural land will be accomplished primarily through agricultural land preservation easement programs." Frazier and Rothschild wanted "permanent" to be changed to "long term."

The planning commission did not make the word switch, which would have opened the door for the county to completely change the length of time it preserves farmland in Carroll.

The planning commission also did not include a suggestion from the commissioners that read, "Changing economic conditions and 'tighter' cash flow may require the county to devise additional creative and affordable preservation tools to ensure the target can be met."

Another example of the disagreement between the commissioners and the planning commission is on mass transit. Rothschild and Frazier wanted "Carroll County citizens oppose construction of subway stations and/or government sponsored or subsidized intercounty bus service" included in the plan.

Instead, the planning commission included, "Subway stations and/or government sponsored or subsidized intercounty bus services are not considered priorities."

Planners, Rothschild battle over political opinions in master plan

Planning commission members have said over the years that the master plan is a document that is supposed to be completely developed by the planning commission.

The issue of county commissioner involvement came to a head Aug. 19 when the planning commission was scheduled to accept the plan, which would initiate the plan's public review process.

Rothschild, who serves as an ex-officio member on the planning commission, asked at the last minute to include the "Board of County Commissioners' Guidelines for Implementation Plan." The politically charged guidelines laud liberties and property rights with a series of statements starting with "We believe."

Rothschild and Commissioner Doug Howard, R-District 5, developed the guidelines. Frazier also added input into the guidelines, Rothschild said.

In a separate interview with the Times, Howard said he wanted to include the guidelines so that the county's perspective could be read in the master plan. The state requires counties to include its 12 visions, which illustrates Maryland's policy toward land use, he said.

"I know some people have some concerns about it, but I thought it was appropriate to do," Howard said.

Planning commission member Richard Soisson argued against including the guidelines in the master plan during the Aug. 19 meeting. Soisson said including them would make getting the master plan passed even more contentious than it has been in the past.

"I think you got this wrong. The planning commission writes the master plan, not the Board of Commissioners," Soisson said Aug. 19. "And what you're doing here is trying to get your philosophies or political opinions or whatever you want to call it into the master plan. I don't think it's a good idea to put this in the master plan."

Soisson, pounding the desk in frustration, said that the planning commission had "bent over backwards" to include passages about property rights into the master plan, yet Rothschild wanted more.

Rothschild said the county commissioners have problems with much of the master plan, most notably the inclusion of state-required sections. To combat what the state requires in the plan, Rothschild said the commissioners want to put in "countermanding philosophies."

"Why would we silence a pro-property rights stance and not put it in for the public to consider as part and parcel of approving this plan?" Rothschild said.

In a separate interview with the Times, Soisson said he felt the guidelines were inappropriate because they were too "one-sided."

"It's more of a political philosophy as opposed to what we feel is important for a well-rounded master plan," Soisson said.

After a long discussion, Rothschild told the planning commission point-blank that if it didn't include the guidelines, it'd be difficult to get a majority of the Board of Commissioners to approve the master plan.

If the county commissioners rejected the plan, the multiyear process would have to start all over again.

Finally, the planning commission decided to include the guidelines. Soisson said he voted to include the guidelines so that the public could weigh in on them during the review process.

In a separate interview with the Times, Commissioner Haven Shoemaker, R-District 2, also expressed concern about individual commissioners interfering with the planning commission's job of making the master plan.

"The planning commission [according to state code] is supposed to be an independent, apolitical body free from political pressure," Shoemaker said. "Adding [the guidelines] forces their hand to cross into politics."

Shoemaker said he plans to vote against the master plan, but for other reasons. Commissioners Dave Roush, R-District 3, and Frazier did not return calls for comment by 5 p.m. Friday.

Howard said he would support the stance of the community as to whether or not the plan should include the guidelines. If the community wants the guidelines out of the plan, Howard said he'd work with the board to find a way to get the guidelines included alongside the plan but not in it.

In a Sept. 9 master plan meeting with Taneytown residents, planning commission Chairman Alec Yeo asked for public input on the guidelines.

"If you guys, the public, come out in opposition of it, then we can say, 'Hey commissioners, we tried, but the citizens of the county are opposed to this,' then it can be taken out and sent to their desks for final approval or denial," Yeo said.

Centering the master plan

In a separate interview with the Times, Rothschild said the sections of the plan that the state requires be included made the master plan "extremely political." Rothschild said he felt the guidelines, along with the suggestions he and Frazier developed, steered the plan "back to the center."

"Nobody is going to be completely happy with it," Rothschild said. "I'm not completely happy with it, but I'm not completely unhappy with it either."

Rothschild said he had hoped the planning commission would have included more of his suggestions into the plan.

State official: without precedent

Peter Conrad, director of local planning assistance for the Maryland Department of Planning, said he's never seen a Board of Commissioners have this much involvement in development of a master plan before.

"Have I seen anything comparable to that in the state? No," Conrad said. "It would certainly be an unusual circumstance for that degree of specific input."

Conrad said jurisdictions can interpret how much the legislative bodies — in Carroll's case, the Board of Commissioners — should be involved in the process of creating the master plan. The code explaining how involved a legislative body can be in creating a comprehensive plan is "somewhat silent on procedure."

"It's not an uncommon thing that there be some communication with the legislative body because it is ultimately coming to them for approval and adoption," Conrad said. "It's not forbidden by any means and it's not entirely uncommon."

The state is in the process of reviewing the plan and will issue comment and opinions on it during the first week in October. The county, Conrad said, does not have to make any changes to the plans that are suggested by the state.

Julia Gouge, who served on the Board of Commissioners the last time the master plan was developed in 2000, said her board did not involve itself in the development of the plan. The planning commission, she said, is tasked with creating the master plan, not the Board of Commissioners.

Gouge, a Republican, said she is very concerned about including the guidelines and having the commissioners directly involved with developing the master plan. The commissioners are not supposed to be "heavily involved" in the process.

"It's totally political," Gouge said. "This is wrong. They have put their opinions in there very strongly."

Reach staff writer Christian Alexandersen at 410-857-7873 or christian.alexandersen@carrollcountytimes.com.

Shoemaker to vote no on master plan

Commissioner Haven Shoemaker said he will vote against adopting the 2014 Carroll County Master Plan because the decision should be made by the next Board of Commissioners that takes office in December.

The current Carroll County Board of Commissioners has had four years to get a master plan adopted, but hasn't done so. And now, with at least three out of five commissioners expected to be leaving office — including him — Shoemaker said the board is hurrying to get the master plan adopted.

Shoemaker, who is currently running to represent Carroll in the Maryland House of Delegates, will leave the board in December.

"As we are on the verge of being shown the door, we're going to rush what's left of the master plan and have it come before us in November, in the 11th hour of our term, and have a vote for adoption. I don't think that's right," Shoemaker said. "If we couldn't get it done in a timely fashion, then we ought to leave that decision to the next board, which is going to be charged with implementing the plan."

Commissioners Robin Bartlett Frazier and Dave Roush lost in the primary election. Commissioners Richard Rothschild and Doug Howard face write-in candidates.