WICOMICO: Growth plan gets rough hearing

WICOMICO: Growth plan gets rough hearing

Salisbury Daily Times
By Greg Latshaw • Staff Writer
April 28, 2009

SALISBURY — With the future of Wicomico farming at stake, a proposal to limit rural housing projects brought out supporters on both sides at Monday’s public hearing.
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Only three pages in length, the bill has been a powder keg among farmers and legislators. Supporters say it’s time to slow the development of farmland, and they want that accomplished by deleting the one-house-per-3 acres “cluster” provision in the zoning code. The bill would replace that standard with a new benchmark of one house per 10 or 15 acres, with the higher density intended for projects with smaller lot sizes.

“It would put the entire cost of preservation on the backs of farmers and landowners,” William Turner, president of E.S. Adkins Co., told a crowd of more than 150 people at the public hearing.

Many in the crowd were carrying signs or wearing stickers that stated if they were for or against the zoning change. Special interest groups on both sides were present. Environmental lobbyists spoke in favor of the bill, while others spoke against it on behalf of the Wicomico County Concerned Landowners, a group that has collected a petition of more than 170 landowners representing about 31,500 acres.

The County Council could vote on the zoning bill at its May 5 meeting, but first has a work session scheduled on it later this week, according to Council President John Cannon.

The prevailing view by farmers against the legislation, including former Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Lewis R. Riley, is that the legislation would harm farmers by undercutting their property value. That would make borrowing money from the bank to help with each year’s planting season more difficult, he said.

“It will serve to degrade the value of our land by limiting its use and sale, should the need arise,” said Riley, who spent 12 years on the County Council and also served in the General Assembly as a senator and delegate.

That view, however, was refuted by W. Fitzhugh Turner, a partner with the Queenstown appraisal firm Tidewater Properties. Turner said he’s researched the effects of similar zoning changes on other Eastern Shore counties. Market conditions, through supply and demand, are what dictate property values, he said.
“The proposed zoning change will not cause a drop in the farm and land values of Wicomico County,” he said.
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Charles Wright IV, who tills 475 acres of vegetables and grains and raises poultry in Mardela Springs, said the bill must be approved to stop what he believes is too much development encroaching on his land.

“100 percent of our income comes from the farm,” Wright said.

Dairy farmer Blan Harcum Jr. said that four decades ago there were 25 dairy farms, but now his family’s operation in Mardela Springs is the only one left in the county. He urged the council members to recognize more than a year’s worth of work that a group of farmers and business interests put into drafting recommendations that were later forwarded, in part, to the County Council.

“Rural areas commission worked really hard to find recommendations suitable for all people in the community,” Harcum said.

Bob Murphy, a county resident for 25 years, said the building boom he associates with lax zoning standards is straining the county’s infrastructure. He said he doesn’t represent an interest group, the farming community or Realtors, but that his voice is just as meaningful.

“The citizens of Wicomico County do make up the majority and are not labeled by any special interest group,” Murphy said.

Charles Wright IV, who tills 475 acres of vegetables and grains and raises poultry in Mardela Springs, said the bill must be approved to stop what he believes is too much development encroaching on his land.

“100 percent of our income comes from the farm,” Wright said.

Dairy farmer Blan Harcum Jr. said that four decades ago there were 25 dairy farms, but now his family’s operation in Mardela Springs is the only one left in the county. He urged the council members to recognize more than a year’s worth of work that a group of farmers and business interests put into drafting recommendations that were later forwarded, in part, to the County Council.

“Rural areas commission worked really hard to find recommendations suitable for all people in the community,” Harcum said.

Bob Murphy, a county resident for 25 years, said the building boom he associates with lax zoning standards is straining the county’s infrastructure. He said he doesn’t represent an interest group, the farming community or Realtors, but that his voice is just as meaningful.

“The citizens of Wicomico County do make up the majority and are not labeled by any special interest group,” Murphy said.