County staff and planning commission outline draft comprehensive plan; commissioners voice frustration over state preemption on solar siting

Planning staff and the planning commission presented the draft Caroline County comprehensive plan and its schedule at the Sept. 1 meeting, asking commissioners to review public comments before a final adoption decision later this year.

"The comprehensive plan, it's required to be updated every 10 years by state law," said Olivia Vedado, long-range planner, describing outreach, MDP comment deadlines and the Nov. 17 adoption timeline. She said key chapters include land use, housing and priority preservation areas and that the staff added definitions, acronyms, implementation strategies and performance measures. Vedado said Maryland Department of Planning comments are due Sept. 8 and that the county will summarize public comments from an Oct. 1 outreach meeting.

Commissioners and planning commissioners spent the bulk of the discussion on the tension between local growth-management goals and state-level mandates on solar siting. Planning commission members and a commissioner noted frustration that state legislation created a 5% priority-preservation-area allocation that can preempt local zoning choices. "If you only need a maximum of 30,000 acres, what are you going to control 100,000 for?" a planning commissioner asked, arguing the state's approach was a one-size-fits-all solution that did not account for counties with extensive prime farmland. Staff said some protections exist for established Priority Funding Areas (PFAs) and that the comprehensive rezoning after plan adoption will examine potential PFA expansions and tailored implementation measures including compensatory fees.

The presentation closed with next steps for review and the planning commission's public hearing timeline. Commissioners did not vote on the plan at the meeting; staff asked for comments by Sept. 29 for inclusion in an Nov. 17 adoption discussion.