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Here we are about to adopt Frederick city's 2010 Comprehensive Plan, and the debate that existed when the 2004 plan was adopted continues.

In preparing the 2004 plan, a city-appointed citizens committee was to make recommendations on a set of goals and objectives. Two concepts were developed. The committee considered the two plans, "Upgrading in Place" and "Expanding Horizons." A consultant was hired to guide the committee.

It was evident that the majority of the committee preferred upgrading in place rather than expanding horizons. It feared the needs of existing neighborhoods would be overwhelmed by new neighborhoods in an expanded Frederick.

The 2004 plan mostly reflected the politicians', staff and consultant's views of what Frederick should be in 20 years, not what the citizens committee preferred. Some on the committee felt they were wasting their time.

It is obvious that the attention of our elected officials during the drafting of the 2010 Comprehensive Plan is still focused on the expanded horizons plan, even though six years have passed and most of the neighborhood problems that existed in 2004 remain.

Furthermore, the county fears that the proposed expanded areas will become part of the city before infrastructure is in place, such as the interchanges on U.S. Route 15, thus creating impacts beyond the city or county's control.

Furthermore, the Golden Mile's complex problem of too much traffic choking any redevelopment in that area has only grown since 2004.

As has the Rosemont Avenue corridor traffic, which is now the city street carrying all vehicles making deliveries to Fort Detrick. And growth is planned for Detrick over which the city has no control, adding to the traffic impacts. There are no easy solutions to either situation. Fifty thousand vehicles per day use the Golden Mile corridor. "The corridor is characterized by a lack of connectivity between commercial uses," says the comp plan. It also notes residents have "a perception of crime and overcrowding in adjacent residential neighborhoods." Yet the plan offers no way to fix the problems.

It should be no surprise to planners and city officials that initially there was to be a service road running from Baughman's Lane to Waverly Drive parallel to Route 40. It would have separated the traffic related to shopping from the traffic using Route 40 as a major traffic corridor. City officials, even as the first shopping area was being built, eliminated the service road, thus eliminating any connection between the designated shopping areas.

Most recently, the state timed the lights on Route 40 to expedite traffic flow. Consequently, the backups on the cross streets increased, as did the traffic on the turn lanes waiting to exit the Golden Mile corridor.

At times, Baughmans Lane has traffic waiting to enter Patrick Street backed almost to Key Parkway. And a hazard has been created: a short third lane and auto jocks racing in the incoming lane toward it before that lane begins. Speaking of hazards, Hayward Road at Route 15 has been one for years, ignored by the comprehensive plans.

The proposed comprehensive plan skirts those problems and does not prioritize them, ignoring the fact that solving existing problems should be first on the list. If the city can't fix the neighborhood impacts that currently exist, opening new neighborhoods will only add to the list of problems without resolving critical issues.

Existing neighborhoods deserve top priority in any comprehensive plan with clearly defined ways to solve their problems. The city owes that to residents who live here today.

Paul Gordon is a local historian, and was mayor of Frederick city from January 1990 to January 1994. His column appears weekly. You can reach him at prg202@comcast.net. To submit a letter to the editor in response to this column, log onto www.gazette.net, and click on the Speak Out tab.