Walkersville comprehensive plan draft prioritizes agricultural preservation

Jul. 19—A draft comprehensive plan for Walkersville that was released to the public this week focuses on plans for slow growth and preserving the town's agricultural land.

The document outlines what the town will focus on in the coming years in transportation, housing, natural resource management and more. Much of the plan's content aims to balance growth in Walkersville with setting the town apart from its counterparts in Frederick County.

"The Town's vision is to maintain its small town character by limiting growth and maintaining the agricultural buffer that separates the Town from surrounding communities," the draft plan says.

The plan is updated every 10 years and the last version was adopted in 2011. The town's Planning Commission began developing an update to the comprehensive plan in 2020, but faced slowdowns due to the pandemic.

A public hearing for Walkersville residents to offer feedback on the draft plan is set for Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at Walkersville Town Hall, according to the town's Facebook page.

The Planning Commission may make changes based on public feedback before voting on it. The commission will then send the plan to the Walkersville burgess and commissioners, who will hold their own public hearing on the plan before voting to approve it.

A map that accompanies the draft plan outlines how the 7,000-plus acres within and adjacent to Walkersville's town limits are zoned, with about two-thirds of that space designated for agricultural use.

"Farming is an integral part of the Town's character," the draft comprehensive plan's land use section says. "The Town shall not interfere with the agricultural use of agriculturally zoned properties."

The draft plan also recommends that the town identify agricultural properties to hold in reserve for potential future development, and that the town purchase development rights easements for agricultural properties that it does not hold in reserve. These easements would allow the owner of an agricultural property to continue using the property, but would prevent future development on the property.

David Ennis, who chairs the town's Planning Commission, said the plan took a variety of opinions about agriculture and development into account.

"Some of us wanted slow growth and some of us wanted absolutely no growth at all," he told The Frederick News-Post. "It was a compromise."

The agriculture-centric parts of the draft comprehensive plan reflect long-held sentiments among Walkersville residents. In a community survey in 2020, several residents expressed opposition to more development in the town.

Almost 67% of the survey's approximately 750 respondents said Walkersville's "agricultural atmosphere" was "very important" or "important."

Some respondents wrote that "more development will drive the quality of living and home prices down" and that the town should remain a "small, agrarian, green space amidst the race to pave the world."

Anti-development sentiment also came into the spotlight in March, when food-service distributor FoodPro asked the Walkersville Planning Commission to rezone agricultural land to industrial in the comprehensive plan, which would allow the company to build a distribution center near the town.

Residents testified in opposition, and the commission voted in April against granting FoodPro's rezoning request.

FoodPro's CEO said at that meeting that the company would turn to the county planning process to move forward with the distribution center.

The draft plan's transportation section includes proposals for several new road connections to be built over the next few years, including a road that would connect Woodsboro Pike, or Md. 194, to Crum Road.

Another recommended new road would run adjacent to Md. 194, between Nicodemus Road and Crum Road.

Other recommendations in the plan include constructing a senior center on the Walker Farm property in the town and supporting green energy development in the area.

Ennis said that additional highlights of the plan include recommendations to create adequate public facilities ordinances for traffic and sewer systems in the town. APFOs analyze how proposed developments would affect infrastructure such as roads and sewer line capacity.

As the town's Planning Commission worked on the language of the draft plan, facets of it evolved, Ennis said.

At a June 27 Planning Commission meeting, Town Planner Susan Hauver said Planning Commission members suggested several changes to the language of the draft plan, including removing one proposed road connection and adding guidance about the development of accessory dwelling units.

Accessory dwelling units are independent dwelling units on the same lot as a standalone dwelling unit, such as a basement apartment with its own entrance in a single-family home.

These suggestions are reflected in the draft released to the public.