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Berlin mayor, council urge Planning Comm. action

BERLIN– A discussion on the efforts of the Planning Commission morphed into a virtual referendum of the town’s future during a Mayor and Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 8.
Berlin Planning Director Dave Engelhart’s departmental report on a proposed new Dollar General Store across from Atlantic General Hospital, moving to a bigger facility from the current location near Food Lion, triggered an examination of the commission.
The Board of Appeals approved Dollar General’s request to exempt the required 49 parking spaces for a building of its size, but Engelhart said the project had plenty of work left to do with the State Highway Administration as well as the Planning Commission.
Officials admitted fitting the 9,100 square foot building and 40-plus parking spots into the space would be a squeeze, not to mention the traffic problems it might pose on MD Route 346.
“I don’t know how they will get it all on there, but it will be creative I’m sure,” Engelhart said.
District 2 Councilmember Lisa Hall asked, “If they really want that piece of ground and they really want to be in Berlin, then why can’t they reduce the size of their building a little bit to accommodate the property instead of trying to put 10 pounds in a five-pound bag? It’s going to be really important that we be really smart about (that corridor) and not create traffic problems and more walking problems trying to put another store in and bettering the community. There’s got to be a way to do it right.”
Mayor Gee Williams said he wrote the Planning Commission a letter in June encouraging them to develop architectural standards.
“They didn’t do that because they didn’t have anything to do,” he said. “The next stage of growth in this town is already here – it’s happening. I’m just not sure how to get that across to the Planning Commission.”
Hall speculated that the commission might feel underqualified in this case.
“Then they need to come talk to us,” Williams said. “It’s their responsibility, and if they don’t feel that they can do the job then we’ll have to come up with another way. Because we’re not going to sit around here and do things half-assed simply because people are not sure what they’re doing. If they need training, if they need seminars – we do it for every other employee (and) we’ll certainly do it for anybody.”
The mayor wondered aloud whether the commission was “temporarily shell shocked” due to the complex Dollar General plan, or whether they needed additional guidance.
“If you think there is a lot going on now, just wait two years,” he said. “Unless we have an economic calamity of national proportions we are growing.
“We need to find out if this is a temporary bump in the road,” Williams continued. “If there are some issues that they are unclear about then we can consider it – think about, discuss it, debate, whatever – then give them the guidance. What I don’t know is if they’re not sure what’s expected or if what the situation is.”
Engelhart said some of the commission members felt they needed professional guidance or were calling for the town to contract an outside study.
“The world could end tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to plan for next week,” Williams said. “We boldly stepped into the 21st century and it is paying off beyond anything in our expectations. We make plans and we make ordinances and we make resolutions, and if they’re not working we go back and fix them. But doing nothing is the absolute worst possible thing the government could do. We see it every day in Washington and I’ll be damned if we’re even going to closely imitate that. We’ve got to make decisions – we’ve got to know where we want to go.
“We’re not going to be frozen in time,” Williams continued. “As wonderful a year as this has been, when it’s over it’s over and we keep building on it – building on the assets and trying to minimize the challenges and the things that are adverse.”
Williams said the rate and the amount of work that town employees performed now far exceeds their output from years’ past.
“The boards and commissions that work for this community have got to also keep up with that pace,” he said. “If it’s too much work – if they don’t have the time or they lack the confidence – then we need to have a discussion.
“We have to have a vision,” Williams continued. “We do the best we can to make it happen. If we run into unforeseen circumstances or problems then we deal with it. I don’t want to see us go back to the way it was decades ago to where it took six months to decide to change the smallest thing. We can’t do that. The world is at a different pace.”