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A draft comprehensive plan for Carroll County's future (also known as the "Pathways Plan") was unveiled in May, and the public response was overwhelmingly negative.

Despite extensive efforts to generate public interest in the planning process leading up to the release of the draft, public participation was marginal at best. Since the release, however, thousands of residents, elected officials, public agencies and organizations became informed and expressed their objections to — and occasional support for — the myriad proposals contained in the plan.

After careful consideration, I recently recommended to the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission that we remove the proposed employment land rezonings from the draft plan, including those in Taylorsville, Mount Airy, Woodbine, Dorsey Crossroads, Westminster, and Finksburg.

Alternatively, I proposed a new approach that will provide future opportunities for job growth in Carroll County – one of the overriding objectives of the Pathways Plan.

An overlay concept, requiring the concurrent provision of infrastructure and facilities before any zoning changes take place, is under consideration by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

I also recommended that the commission continue to focus on efforts to reduce — not eliminate — residential development outside planned growth areas. Failure to do so jeopardizes the county's successful land preservation program, threatens water quality, and will cost taxpayers more to provide public services and infrastructure over time.

Undertaking a comprehensive plan for a county of 175,000 people and 300,000 acres is inherently a series of trade-offs. Someone is negatively impacted by every proposed change. An employment opportunity for one person is an unwanted business for another. A view of the countryside for one person limits someone else's ability to sell land for development.

On pages 11 and 12 of the plan (see "Balancing the Issues," www.carrollpathways.org) we talk about the trade-offs that make any proposal difficult.

The employment land rezonings were not casually proposed. Opposition was anticipated, and we knew that individuals and communities would be impacted.

The proposed rezonings supported two of the plan's most important goals: building our employment base and limiting residential growth outside planned growth areas.

I believed, and continue to believe, that the rezoning proposals were in the long-term interest of the county as a whole. The rezoned areas would have provided a place for employers to locate, given some a chance to work closer to home, and eased the burden on residential taxpayers to fund the construction of schools, parks, senior centers, emergency services, etc.

Protecting and preserving agriculture by reducing the number of houses that can be built on farmland will impact rural landowners.

Selling farmland for development results in the fragmentation of our rural areas, threatens preserved agricultural land and open space, and undermines the future of farming in Carroll.

Some have suggested our existing plan be left alone — that no changes be made to existing rural development practices. Taking no action will result in natural areas being developed and open spaces being lost. Farmland will continue to be developed threatening its own existence.

Unfortunately, there are no easy choices in this process —only implications to the decisions we make. Stay tuned as a revised plan for Carroll County's future evolves and takes shape. We welcome your participation.

Steven C. Horn, Westminster

The writer is director of the Carroll County Department of Planning.