First Comprehensive Plan 1965

The information has been copied from the 2006 Tricentennial Publication.
The shores of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are proving to be an important factor in attracting people to live and play in this County…” This quote is from the County’s first Comprehensive Land Use Plan in 1965 and its supporting analysis of the County at that time indicated there was evidence of the population “clustering” at many locations along the County’s extensive shorelines.

Among the County’s most prominent physical features are the tidewater bays and estuaries that indent the land and divide the western portion of the County into a series of peninsulas and islands. The County has 258 miles of shorelines formed by numerous rivers, creeks and coves including the Chester River, Corsica River, Wye River and the Eastern Bay.

Queen Anne’s County was first settled almost 400 years ago when Captain John Smith sailed up the Chesapeake in 1608 and landed on Kent Island, but it was almost another 100 years before the County was officially “founded” in 1706 and named for the reigning British monarch, Queen Anne.

Kent Island has continued to serve as a gateway onto Maryland’s Eastern Shore, at first bringing passengers by steamboat and ferry service to Love Point, where they would make rail connections to the Bay-side and Ocean-side resorts, and continuing with the construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge so Western Shore vacationers can reach the beach.

Development pressure was increasing in the County in the 1960’s as a result of the opening of the first Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952. By 1964, land speculators had already subdivided approximately 9,000 small lots in Queen Anne’s County, of which 80 percent of those lots were on Kent Island. The remaining 20 percent were along the Chester River waterfront.

All of these lots were created prior to the existence of any type of standards for soil performance to determine suitability for on-site septic systems. Public sewer did not exist nor were assurances or provisions for it considered at that time. And, environmental protection standards in the County’s first Comprehensive Plan and ordinances adopted 40 years ago were minimal. More QAC History