Calvert County Government officials announced Friday, Oct. 25 that the location and time of a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 29 has been changed.
The session is to be conducted by the Calvert County Commissioners and the Calvert County Planning Commission. The hearing was originally to be held at Courthouse Square at the corner of Main Street and Duke Street. The hearing was to have started at 7 p.m. The Calvert County Administrator’s office confirmed the hearing will now be held at Calvert Pines Senior Center on West Dares Beach Road starting at 7:30 p.m.
The issues to be discussed and possibly voted on that evening are a proposed ordinance exemption for liquid natural gas import or export facilities along with updated references to the Maryland Annotated Code’s Land Use Article and a Zoning Ordinance amendment establishing new standards for target ranges.
Both issues have proven controversial and the Office of the County Administrator confirmed the change of venue is due to anticipation of a larger than expected crowd.
The proposed ordinance exemption has been proposed as a way to expedite the planned expansion of the Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant in Lusby. The plant’s owners plan to add an export facility. According to a Department of Community Planning and Building staff report, the Calvert County Zoning Ordinance “currently provides an exemption for qualified commercial power generating facilities due to the rigorous federal standards that must be met for these facilities. The text amendment proposes to expand the exemption to include liquid natural gas import or export facilities for the same reason.”
The hearing is likely to give those individuals and organizations opposed to Dominion’s export plans a chance to express their concerns to county officials. On Tuesday, Oct. 22 a meeting organized by the project’s opponents was held in Lusby. Dominion, in turn, has mailed out literature to county residents touting the economic advantages of the planned expansion. A Dominion official is also scheduled to address the county commissioners during their weekly meeting Oct. 29 and provide an update on the project.
The staff report on the proposed ordinance exemption for liquid natural gas import or export facilities stated that the county government’s Department of Economic Development and the Economic Development Commission agreed with the proposed changes. The Calvert County Health Department’s Division of Environmental Health had no comment regarding the proposed exemption.
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