Where and how will Southern Maryland grow over the next 24 years? That’s the question to be addressed when community planners, elected officials, civic leaders and diverse stakeholders from Southern Maryland (Calvert, St. Mary’s and Charles Counties) meet at St. Mary’s College of Maryland today. Today’s event is a Reality Check Plus exercise, the final of several exercises across the state, including on the Eastern Shore, and in Baltimore. The exercise will involve an anticipated 150 to 160 participants working in groups of 8 to ten on different tables. Each group will be tasked with looking at maps with regard to Southern Maryland, and without regard to county boundaries, and situate legos to represent where new development should go, according to Gene Lauer. Lauer is a former county administrator in Charles, who retired in 1995 and has since directed environmental resources in Prince Georges, and currently works for a small company in Waldorf.
Speaking to The Bay Net, Lauer said the participants will have to decide “what principles should guide how the legos are placed, and what are the most important of those.”
The legos represent the number of jobs and development projected for the Southern Maryland region in 2030. Marc Apter, one of the coordinators of the Southern Maryland exercise said, “The most important part of the project is bringing together disparate elements and groups.” In similar exercises he has participated in, Apter said the developers, environmental advocates and politicians showed obvious strains but worked together and came to understand the others’ viewpoints.
Among the considerations for the participants are operating costs, taxes, schools, roads, and the way to balance growth with environmental and other needs. Critical areas, and municipalities are taken into consideration. The participants are carefully selected for their activism and experience, and all discussions are self-generated during the exercise. The projections for growth were updated by the end of last year by the Department of Planning. The Tri-County area is the fastest growing in the state by far in terms of population, households, and job growth, said Jason Saratori, of Reality Check Plus. Today each table will be given 300 legos – half of which will represent jobs and half households. “When State Planning comes up with projections it’s not in a vacuum,” stressed Frank Jaklitsch, another leader of the exercise. “They also do it in collaboration with the county.” Southern Maryland can expect to see a 56% growth in jobs and a 80% growth in households between 2000 and 2030, Jaklitsch told the Bay Net. Among the factors influencing the massive growth is the spreading of Metropolitan areas. “Charles and Calvert see people coming from Prince Georges,” said Jaklitsch, “and the face of St. Mary’s is changing drastically. People are coming for the better school system, and the cost of living is another driving factor.” While local residents have seen the cost of housing rocket over recent years, those from neighboring areas are still enticed by the prospect of getting more house for their dollar in Southern Maryland.
“Charles has the same land area as PG,” explained Jaklitsch, “but PG has 6 to 7 times the population. As Prince Georges and Montgomery get built up you find a natural overflow.”
Today’s exercise is purely advisory, and particularly important because it is part of the first state-wide growth visioning exercise. Realit