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**PLEASE ATTEND:

County IW2 Public Meeting, 9/19, 6-8pm**

 

County IW2 Advisory Group Aims at

"Comprehensive Rezoning"

 

On Thursday, 9/19 from 6-8pm, county staff from the Livable Frederick and Economic Opportunity offices will host a public outreach meeting about a land use plan that we believe is of critical importance to residents of the Sugarloaf area.

 

The plan is called "Investing in Workers & Workplaces" (IW2).

The county website says: “This plan…will increase land designated for targeted economic opportunity uses through the review of select growth areas and current land use designations…. A comprehensive rezoning will follow Plan adoption to implement the Plan’s recommendations.”

 

According to the county, the upcoming outreach meetings are intended to provide members of the public with information about the purpose of the plan as well as an opportunity to provide comments to staff."

 

IW2 began last May with meetings of an advisory group populated primarily by folks in the business of property development. The IW2 advisory group's meetings were not well-advertised or televised. We believe that the I-270 Sugarloaf Plan boundary may be in danger. In response to public pressure, the county has scheduled three public outreach meetings in September and early October. Sugarloaf Alliance recommends that we all turn out for the first meeting on Thursday, 9/19.

 

The format for the meeting is not yet clear, but our understanding is that it will be held as an informational meeting (not a "hearing" where the public offers testimony). It will be an opportunity to ask questions.

 

Here are some questions we'd like to have answered.

 

o   The 2019 Livable Frederick Master Plan (LFMP), calls for the Green Infrastructure Plan to be launched and completed prior to IW2. Why change that? Why is the county now choosing to designate commercial zoning changes before choosing where to preserve green infrastructure?

 

o   Doesn't it make more sense to fully develop existing commercial/industrial zoned properties before undeveloped land is proposed and enabled by rezoning actions and incentives?

 

o   What industries are proposed for these newly rezoned properties (as if we didn't know*)?

 

o  What's the rush? The timetable for IW2 looks like it will be done in half the time it took to create previous plans.

 

o   Shouldn't economic choices be based on comprehensive, unbiased cost/benefit analysis?  Where are those analyses?

 

*Read Sugarloaf Alliance's full position and a list of questions here.

Is it a coincidence that the 2021 data center map projects 9,400 acres and the IW2 group has suggested 10,000?

 

Your presence will help! The first of the county's IW2 outreach meeting will be held:

 

Thursday, 9/19, 6:00pm

 Himes Avenue, Frederick, MD 21703

!Hope to see you there!

 

 

Sugarloaf Alliance in the New York Times!

 

Sunday's NYT included an article called "Noisy, Hungry Data Centers Are Catching Communities by Surprise." Early on, the article mentions Sugarloaf Alliance's Public Information Access (PIA) lawsuit, which resulted in the release of over 800 pages of documents revealing the county's secret negotiations with Amazon Web Services and the county's map of envisioned data center locations.

 

FYI, that lawsuit is STILL in process. We are thrilled that Sugarloaf Alliance now is represented by the Public Justice Center, who shares our belief that the public should have reasonable access to the public's business as conducted by public servants.

 

We do still have some significant debt from the lawsuit. Many thanks to those of you who've made tax deductible contributions to SA - we have paid most of the debt, but we still have roughly 10K to pay off. In the meantime, we are filing more PIAs to learn about the IW2 backroom discussions.

 

Our role is important, but not cheap when governments want to keep secrets. Thanks for contributing what you can! Click here for donation info.

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