Comprehensive Plan Update 1987

The County updated its Comprehensive Land Use Plan again in 1987, fourteen years after the opening of the second Bay Bridge and six years after the construction of the Kent Narrows/ Stevensville/ Grasonville (KNS&G) wastewater treatment plant.

The 1987 Comprehensive Plan’s primary goals and objectives were to preserve and protect the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, to maintain the County’s existing rural character and to preserve and protect large areas of the County for agricultural use. The Plan proposed to meet those objectives by reducing the number of dwelling units in the agricultural and rural areas, to improve the overall quality of housing stock, and to address the relative lack of affordable housing.

The growth management component of the 1987 Plan intended to limit urban sprawl and concentrate or direct new growth into areas designated as “growth nodes” where growth could be adequately serviced by public infrastructure and directed away from environmentally sensitive and rural areas. These “nodes” included Stevensville, Chester, Kent Narrows, Grasonville, and the incorporated towns of Queenstown and Centreville.

After the Plan was adopted, the County completed a comprehensive down-zoning process and adopted a new set of zoning and subdivision regulations. Inland agricultural areas were “down zoned” to one house per every eight acres with a condition that the homes be clustered on 15 percent of the site with 85 percent to remain as open space. Waterfront areas were “down zoned” to one house per every five acres with similar cluster and open space restrictions.

With the rezoning of the entire County, the new zoning classifications resulted in approximately:
10 percent of the County dedicated to residential uses
1 percent to commercial and industrial
89 percent to agricultural/rural uses.

The 1987 down-zoning reduced the maximum theoretical buildout in the County to 60,500 dwelling units or 161,000 people, only 44 percent of which could be located in the agriculture/rural areas.

In addition, the 3,300 acres of commercial/industrial acreage proposed in the 1965 Plan was reduced to approximately 780 acres under the 1987 Plan. When compared to the 1965 Comprehensive Plan, the 1987 Plan initiated an obvious and significant overall decrease in the long-term development potential of the County.
Read:Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Program