The St. Mary’s County Commissioners Tuesday voted to move ahead with a proposal to create more restrictive zoning around the Navy’s Webster Field in St. Inigoes.
After a presentation by staff of the Department of Land Use and .Growth Management (LUGM), the commissioners directed them to prepare zoning text amendments and maps to bring back for approval. The next step after that would be to forward the idea to the planning commission for a hearing and recommendation to the county commissioners, who also would have a public hearing before making the final decision.
The proposal is similar to the Air Installation Compatible Use Zone (AICUZ) around the Patuxent River Naval Air Station that has been in the county zoning ordinance for years. There is one major difference. With the Pax River AICUZ, the “clear zone” which restricts any building, lies within the base. For the proposed Webster Field AICUZ, there would be a clear zone outside the gate.
Deputy LUGM Director Phillip Shire told the commissioners that putting land in a clear zone could constitute a “taking” under the legal definition. He said, “It would be best to have those lands publically owned.” How much that would cost is unknown.
In addition to a clear zone intruding into private lands outside the base, there would be two other zones which would impose land use restrictions similar to the zones around Pax River. Because the zones are intended to protect the base from noise complaints and to protect citizens from the potential for aircraft accidents, residential development is usually restricted.
Shire said forestry and farming are compatible uses in the clear zone and could continue, but any other development would be restricted.
Shire said the new restrictive zoning categories would involve 43 individual property owners. He insisted that ample notification would be given to them and ample opportunity for their comments. “There will be proactive implementation,” he said.
Creating an AICUZ around Webster Field is recommended in the St. Mary’s County Comprehensive Plan. The field is especially active in testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s), a point noted by Commissioners Todd Morgan (R: 4th). He said helicopters and gliders are also tested there; they use the “relatively short” runways.
The decision by the commissioners was unanimous for the LUGM staff to bring back the proposed text amendment to the zoning ordinance that would accompany the maps that were shown Tuesday to the commissioners. Once that’s done they will forward the proposal to the planning commission.
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