(June 22, 2017) A discussion on the potential annexation of a parcel of land at the corner of Route 346 and Route 50 consumed the entirety of a Berlin Planning Commission meeting last Wednesday, even that’s all it was — a conversation that required no action.
During that roughly hour-long discussion, no one supported the notion of annexation, and Planning Director Dave Engelhart said the item should not have made it to the agenda.
“It looks like it’s an ‘action item,’ like you have some issue to decide tonight,” he said. “Where it should be is in our staff comments, planning commission comments and discussion. I wanted to make you aware of this, coming down the road.”
Engelhart said there a legally advertised public hearing is required for the planning commission to make a recommendation to add the parcel to the growth area of the town’s comprehensive plan, which is the first step in the lengthy annexation process.
A planning commission recommendation would then be forwarded to the county and the Maryland Department of Planning for review, which can take up to 60 days. After that period is up, a public hearing would be required during a mayor and council meeting, which would have to be advertised twice, Engelhart said.
That decision would be forwarded to the county state planning offices, and a public hearing would be held at the county to decide whether to amend the comprehensive plan.
“It was meant to be informational and I should not have made it an agenda item, because that infers you have an action to take,” Engelhart said.
When the meeting agenda was released, Councilman Zack Tyndall took to social media to advertise an “ANNEXATION ALERT.” He said he would be there to state his opposition to annexation and urged others to join him. It worked, and many people came to what are usually sparsely attended meetings.
Engelhart said the parcel, owned by Ernie Gerardi under M&G Properties, wrapped around the Delmarva Power and Light substation on Old Ocean City Boulevard. It is in the county’s growth area, but not the town’s.
He said Gerardi sent a letter to the town, proposing adding it to the growth area “with an eye towards annexation.” It would be contiguous by the Route 50 roadbed, which was previously annexed into the town, Engelhart said. He forwarded the letter to state and county planning offices.
“Mr. Gerardi sees it as a gateway into town,” Engelhart said. “He’d like to see a small welcome center there … but he also has certain commercial uses in mind.” That includes a hotel or motel, and possibly a convenience store, Engelhart said.
Commission member Pete Cosby warned that, if the town did not regulate and monitor the county growth area, the county likely would do it for them.
“That’s correct,” Engelhart said.
“One of the factors that we’re all considering … and the public should be thinking about is, if you’re not inclined to want to annex and grow the town, the county is going to do it for us. And then we’re not going to have control over what is being done,” Cosby said. “There are nuances here that we have to consider.”
Another commission member, Newt Chandler, agreed.
“The county already has it in the growth area, so something is going to go into it,” he said.
Cosby said Berlin would have to get aggressive about preserving its greenbelts if it did not want to “turn into another Reisterstown … [or] Salisbury.”
“There’s not a whole lot we can do to stop it,” he said.
Public comments were exclusively against the development.
Jim Meckley said he lived in a small town in upstate New York that annexed several areas under the assumption it would lower taxes.
“I sold my house there two years ago to move to Berlin because Vestal was no longer small town U.S.A.,” he said. “It had gotten so big and so large and so out of hand, when I sold my house in Vestal alone there were 216 properties for sale. My taxes had more than doubled in 20 years. My water bills tripled.”
Meckley said he loves the downtown area in Berlin, but is concerned with overgrowth.
“This is small town U.S.A. If you want the big expanse, you go to Ocean City,” he said. “People come from Ocean City and Rehoboth and so forth to Berlin because of what it has … and I would hate to see you lose that.”
Mitchell David said the town already had “tons of infill lots” and the council was simply pushing costs down the line by adding new developments.
“That’s what really frightens me,” he said. “It’s expansion, expansion, expansion.”
Former Councilwoman Lisa Hall said the town built a new wastewater treatment plant under her watch that was designed to last for 50 years.
“The way we’re going now, with all the annexation, the apartments, etc., we’re going to run out of EDUs and we are going to have to increase the capacity of the wastewater plant. And that’s on our dime,” she said.
Tyndall said when he was campaigning, last year, he went door to door and overwhelming heard “an echo of what we’re hearing this evening.”
“People are tired of annexation or rapid growth cycle[s],” he said. “People want to take a breather – maybe not put a hold on growth completely, but at least take a deep breath and kind of enjoy what we have.”
He said Berlin was already close to having to expand its wastewater capability and the last town audit showed “$18 million in debt, just in the wastewater fund.”
“That’s a lot of debt,” he said. “We have some questions that need to be answered before we start looking at things like this.”
Cosby said he wanted the town to remain as it was.
“That doesn’t mean we’re dinosaurs – it means this town has something special going for it, and we’re going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg if we lose these green areas and lose our identity. And, I fear the county approving projects and killing our identity for us,” he said.
Engelhart compared the latest annexation proposal to the most recent one approved, for an Arby’s and Royal Farms store on Route 50, across from Stephen Decatur High School.
When several commission members worried the matter was essentially out of their hands anyway, he reminded them the first step in the entire process, adding something to the growth area, belonged to the planning commission.
“The way the statute is written, the planning commission is responsible for any amendments, changes, map changes, to the comprehensive plan that’s adopted,” he said. “The first step is your responsibility – not the mayor and council’s.”
Commission member Ron Cascio did not agree.
“We are only an advisory body, and the mayor and the council can do just what they please,” he said.
Cascio asked Engelhart to set up a meeting with the Worcester County Planning Commission and county staff.
“We’ve never had a discussion, we’ve never had a meeting with our colleagues at the planning commission at the county, and here it shows where we really need to communicate a lot better,” he said. “They need to know what we feel.”
One other agenda item, review and discussion of commercial architectural design standards and guidelines, was tabled until the next meeting.
During that roughly hour-long discussion, no one supported the notion of annexation, and Planning Director Dave Engelhart said the item should not have made it to the agenda.
“It looks like it’s an ‘action item,’ like you have some issue to decide tonight,” he said. “Where it should be is in our staff comments, planning commission comments and discussion. I wanted to make you aware of this, coming down the road.”
Engelhart said there a legally advertised public hearing is required for the planning commission to make a recommendation to add the parcel to the growth area of the town’s comprehensive plan, which is the first step in the lengthy annexation process.
A planning commission recommendation would then be forwarded to the county and the Maryland Department of Planning for review, which can take up to 60 days. After that period is up, a public hearing would be required during a mayor and council meeting, which would have to be advertised twice, Engelhart said.
That decision would be forwarded to the county state planning offices, and a public hearing would be held at the county to decide whether to amend the comprehensive plan.
“It was meant to be informational and I should not have made it an agenda item, because that infers you have an action to take,” Engelhart said.
When the meeting agenda was released, Councilman Zack Tyndall took to social media to advertise an “ANNEXATION ALERT.” He said he would be there to state his opposition to annexation and urged others to join him. It worked, and many people came to what are usually sparsely attended meetings.
Engelhart said the parcel, owned by Ernie Gerardi under M&G Properties, wrapped around the Delmarva Power and Light substation on Old Ocean City Boulevard. It is in the county’s growth area, but not the town’s.
He said Gerardi sent a letter to the town, proposing adding it to the growth area “with an eye towards annexation.” It would be contiguous by the Route 50 roadbed, which was previously annexed into the town, Engelhart said. He forwarded the letter to state and county planning offices.
“Mr. Gerardi sees it as a gateway into town,” Engelhart said. “He’d like to see a small welcome center there … but he also has certain commercial uses in mind.” That includes a hotel or motel, and possibly a convenience store, Engelhart said.
Commission member Pete Cosby warned that, if the town did not regulate and monitor the county growth area, the county likely would do it for them.
“That’s correct,” Engelhart said.
“One of the factors that we’re all considering … and the public should be thinking about is, if you’re not inclined to want to annex and grow the town, the county is going to do it for us. And then we’re not going to have control over what is being done,” Cosby said. “There are nuances here that we have to consider.”
Another commission member, Newt Chandler, agreed.
“The county already has it in the growth area, so something is going to go into it,” he said.
Cosby said Berlin would have to get aggressive about preserving its greenbelts if it did not want to “turn into another Reisterstown … [or] Salisbury.”
“There’s not a whole lot we can do to stop it,” he said.
Public comments were exclusively against the development.
Jim Meckley said he lived in a small town in upstate New York that annexed several areas under the assumption it would lower taxes.
“I sold my house there two years ago to move to Berlin because Vestal was no longer small town U.S.A.,” he said. “It had gotten so big and so large and so out of hand, when I sold my house in Vestal alone there were 216 properties for sale. My taxes had more than doubled in 20 years. My water bills tripled.”
Meckley said he loves the downtown area in Berlin, but is concerned with overgrowth.
“This is small town U.S.A. If you want the big expanse, you go to Ocean City,” he said. “People come from Ocean City and Rehoboth and so forth to Berlin because of what it has … and I would hate to see you lose that.”
Mitchell David said the town already had “tons of infill lots” and the council was simply pushing costs down the line by adding new developments.
“That’s what really frightens me,” he said. “It’s expansion, expansion, expansion.”
Former Councilwoman Lisa Hall said the town built a new wastewater treatment plant under her watch that was designed to last for 50 years.
“The way we’re going now, with all the annexation, the apartments, etc., we’re going to run out of EDUs and we are going to have to increase the capacity of the wastewater plant. And that’s on our dime,” she said.
Tyndall said when he was campaigning, last year, he went door to door and overwhelming heard “an echo of what we’re hearing this evening.”
“People are tired of annexation or rapid growth cycle[s],” he said. “People want to take a breather – maybe not put a hold on growth completely, but at least take a deep breath and kind of enjoy what we have.”
He said Berlin was already close to having to expand its wastewater capability and the last town audit showed “$18 million in debt, just in the wastewater fund.”
“That’s a lot of debt,” he said. “We have some questions that need to be answered before we start looking at things like this.”
Cosby said he wanted the town to remain as it was.
“That doesn’t mean we’re dinosaurs – it means this town has something special going for it, and we’re going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg if we lose these green areas and lose our identity. And, I fear the county approving projects and killing our identity for us,” he said.
Engelhart compared the latest annexation proposal to the most recent one approved, for an Arby’s and Royal Farms store on Route 50, across from Stephen Decatur High School.
When several commission members worried the matter was essentially out of their hands anyway, he reminded them the first step in the entire process, adding something to the growth area, belonged to the planning commission.
“The way the statute is written, the planning commission is responsible for any amendments, changes, map changes, to the comprehensive plan that’s adopted,” he said. “The first step is your responsibility – not the mayor and council’s.”
Commission member Ron Cascio did not agree.
“We are only an advisory body, and the mayor and the council can do just what they please,” he said.
Cascio asked Engelhart to set up a meeting with the Worcester County Planning Commission and county staff.
“We’ve never had a discussion, we’ve never had a meeting with our colleagues at the planning commission at the county, and here it shows where we really need to communicate a lot better,” he said. “They need to know what we feel.”
One other agenda item, review and discussion of commercial architectural design standards and guidelines, was tabled until the next meeting.