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Centreville Community Plan 2020 Update - Working Draft, April 7, 2020
I. I
NTRODUCTION
PURPOSE OF THE PLAN UPDATE
This is the 2020 Update of the Centreville Community Plan, the Town’s official
comprehensive plan and guide to growth and development. It has been written
by the Centreville Planning Commission as required by Maryland law and in service
to the people of Centreville, those here today and those that will be here in the
future.
This is an update of the current 2009 Plan; it is not a wholesale reappraisal. It keeps
the course we set a decade ago while recognizing that, from time to time, it is
essential to turn the boat into the wind to make progress. So, this 2020 Plan
Update, not only refines and details long held and prevailing ideas, it resolves to
make difficult policy decisions that will shape the Town through 2040.
The purpose of comprehensive planning in general is to bring about the careful
development of a community and the conservation of what residents find
exceptional. That has been the general purpose of Centreville’s Community Plan
since it was first adopted in 1966 and it remains so today1. But now, in 2020, we
also focus on five specific purposes and these are as follows:
1. Provide direction on how to expand the municipal water and sewer
system.
No other class of infrastructure is as essential to the sound and healthy
development of a town as its water and sewer systems. The Town’s
systems are nearing their capacity and must be improved and expanded
in order to achieve the long-standing goals of the Community Plan.
1 The Town adopted its first comprehensive plan (and zoning ordinance) in 1966, with amendments in 1974
and 1981. The first Plan Update was adopted in 1988, which then was amended in 1992 and 1998. The next
Update, which is the Plan in effect at the time of this writing, was adopted in 2009.
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Centreville Community Plan 2020 Update - Working Draft, April 7, 2020
2. Develop the local economy, the commercial tax base, and ensure the
strong and resilient fiscal health of our local government.
The Town’s reserve of land for commercial or light industrial development
is mostly developed. Some intensification may be feasible in the future
but additional space for employment will be needed to support the
Town’s future and position the Town to capitalize of broad regional trends
in development and transportation.
3. Organize the character and function of the Town’s existing and future
streets and the development that will front them.
People fully experience a place by moving through it and a community’s
streets and avenues shape its enduring character. The Town’s is poised to
grow so planning now for the intended character and function of major
streets will guide development in lasting ways.
4. Show how to interconnect existing and future neighborhoods with
outstanding open spaces that will impart a character of good health,
small town vitality, and scenic beauty.
The Town is planned to expand, mostly to the northwest, west, south and
southeast. It could grow as fragmented and separated places or in a way
that brings about interconnected parks, walkways, and the far-reaching
conservation of natural resources.
5. Guide the location, layout, and character of future neighborhoods.
Open lands in and around the Town could be developed as conventional
single-use residential subdivisions or in ways that distinguish them as
excellent neighborhoods unique to Centreville. Left to chance, land
development seldom organizes itself into coherent extensions of existing
or historic patterns.
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Centreville Community Plan 2020 Update - Working Draft, April 7, 2020
This Plan Update does not depart significantly from the current 2009 plan. Instead
it provides more detailed guidance, while addressing the needs of today and
aiming to create the best conditions for the Town’s future. Each of the above ideas
represents some refinement to the policy guidance and goals in the current plan.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Seeking community input, the Planning Commission conducted multiple open
work sessions in the Winter and Spring 2020 and a public workshop in the Summer.
The aim of the workshop was to collect advice and opinions on the Plan Update
and to synthesize them into a renewed guiding vision statement about the Town’s
future. Then through the Summer and Fall of 2020, we held more open work
sessions to reflect on what was learned and to draw nearer to the Plan’s
recommendations as described in this document. We held a public hearing on a
draft on ________________ and then on ___________ we voted unanimously to
approve this 2020 Plan Update and to transmit it to the Town Council with a
recommendation for adoption.
CENTREVILLE, DOING ITS PART
Maryland planning statutes require local governments that regulate land use
development (i.e. administer zoning codes) to adopt comprehensive plans and
implementing strategies to achieve eight general “visions”2. These are listed
below:
1. Development is concentrated in suitable areas.
2. Sensitive areas (such as wetlands, streams, floodplains) are protected.
3. In rural areas, growth is directed to existing population centers and
resource areas are protected.
4. Stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay and the land is a universal ethic.
5. Conservation of resources, including a reduction in resource consumption
is practiced.
2 The Maryland Economic Growth, Resource Protection and Planning Act of 1992, as amended in 2000.
Maryland planning statutes are set forth in the Land Use Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
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Centreville Community Plan 2020 Update - Working Draft, April 7, 2020
6. To assure the achievement of the above visions, economic growth is
encouraged and regulatory mechanisms are streamlined.
7. Adequate public facilities and infrastructure, under the control of the
county or town, are available or planned where growth is to occur.
8. Funding mechanics are addressed to achieve these visions.
The authority of Centreville, and every other local government in the State, to
regulate land use and to impose conditions on development, is derived from the
Maryland constitution and State law. These eight visions then essentially
summarize the minimum criteria by which any comprehensive plan in the State is
judged to be valid. It is these criteria that explain why no town, city, or county can
shut its doors to growth, or allow haphazard development, or disregard planning
for public infrastructure, or neglect economic growth.
The visions also form the context for coordination between the Town and Queen
Anne’s County in both planning and “implementing strategies”. For example, the
towns in Queen Anne’s County are among “the existing population centers” to
which the County is called to direct growth. And just as the County’s planning aims
to directs growth to Centreville, the State’s visions oblige it also to implement
complementary strategies such as sharing in the municipal burden of providing
essential facilities and services, which is recommended in this Plan Update.
VISION STATEMENT
While State law outlines the essential and shared focus for comprehensive
planning in Maryland, it is a local and publicly supported vision that gives life and
meaning to a plan. A local vision is future oriented. It explains why one town’s plan
is, at its heart, different than all others. A vision is a marker in time against which
each succeeding generation can compare their experience. The vision statement
below, that emerged from the public engagement process was written from the
perspective of 20 years in the future. It is as follows:
Text to be inserted
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Centreville Community Plan 2020 Update - Working Draft, April 7, 2020
ORGANIZATION OF THE PLAN
Following the next two chapters about population and existing conditions
respectively, this report is organized into five interrelated chapters each focusing
on a major functional or policy area: Municipal Growth, Natural Environment, Land
Use, Mobility, Community Facilities, and Water Resources. Each chapter contains
goals and recommendations. The last chapter focuses on implementation,
including a section concerning the regulation of land use and development.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we understand that the Plan described in this report will not be
realized in the short term or exactly as conceptualized. Our aim here is to
anticipate the needs of the future and encourage growth, development, and
conservation toward the greatest good possible. Departures from this Plan may,
from time to time, be suggested; future information and a wider knowledge may
point to better solutions or unforeseen opportunities. And in such cases, it is our
intention that such departures be studied and if found justified in light of the Plan’s
long term goals, they should be accepted by amending this Plan in the same
manner in which it was adopted.
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