I believe a correction is in order. It is my understanding that only SOME of the State's 23 counties took issue with the plan at MACO. Did Patch have a reporter there to confirm what you have reported here about all 23 objecting? And regarding that quote attributed to Gov. O'Malley: did a Patch reporter personally witness that, or was it lifted from another source? If the latter, the source needs to be stated, in accordance with the most basic journalistic practices.

Interesting that Patch is reporting on stories that they have not had a reporter present at. I was at the Commissioners meeting yesterday when this discussion occured but the only reporter in the room was from the CC Times. Of Course there was the County's new medis guy Simpson until the big earthquake media event hit and he ran from the room. Maybe he went to call his story in to Patch on the Commissioners demands for a deadline extension on PlanMaryland. Oh Yeah, the Governor really cares about what the yahoos here want. Neil Ridgely

Thank you for your comments Bonnie and Neil. I assure you Patch is committed to practicing sound journalistic procedures. Fortunately in 2011, technology allows journalists (and anyone in the community) to watch many public meetings live via streaming and/or in video libraries posted shortly after the meetings. Although we do try to attend actual meetings, that is not always feasible. In this particular article though, it is clearly stated that the information presented has come from news releases and a previous article posted on Patch. But just in case it wasn't clear to all readers, Patch has adjusted the article to clarify that the O'Malley comments came from an article previously posted on Patch, written about the conference. There is even a link to the article. Although we do appreciate readers keeping us on our toes in terms of journalistic standard, I also encourage you to use these comment boxes to discuss the topic at hand -- in your opinion, what is good about PlanMaryland, why should Carroll Countians want this? Thanks again for your input.

I attended the meeting on PlanMaryland at the MACO conference and the report from the Patch is accurate. The Governor's comments were accurately quoted.The article stated that "some" leaders of the 23 counties....had issues with the Plan. Actually, all of the county leaders who spoke at the meeting had concerns and ask for an extension of time to vet the new updated document that had just been released. The article simply was referring to the people who actually spoke at the meeting. No one stood to speak in support of the plan, probably because they did not have time to digest and publicly vet all of the changes that have been made.
The law authorizing a State plan for Maryland was passed in 1974 and never implemented. Given the broad scope and potential impact to the 24 jurisdictions, I think it is very reasonable for local elected officials to ask for additional time to vet this plan among the local citizenry. I hope the interested parties carefully look at the new version of the plan and have a real conversation about the long term impact of the plan on Carroll County and its citizens.
I applaud of Carroll County Board of Commissioners for inviting the Maryland Department of Planning to visit Monday night to answer questions and hear concerns regarding PlanMaryland.

Delegate Susan Krebs

Well now we've heard from Bob Ehrlich's poster girl for State Planning, Susan Krebs.
It doesn't take an Evelyn Wood speed reader to digest the PlanMaryland Document. It's just a matter of these Republicans choking on the contents when they understand that it will halt the funding of their plans for haphazard growth off infrastructure. Even the County staff has managed to read the document and write up / submit comments on it. So far the Commissioner's political convocations over PlanMaryland have made the best case to date for the Governor to move on and use his executive authority to enact the Plan on October 1st, if not sooner.

I would argue that we have far more to fear from the planning recommendations that our own Commissioners gave for our Master Plan last week than from anything contained in PlanMaryland. In fact, I would say that their recommendations are a pure political agenda barely masquerading as planning, providing exactly the reason we need PlanMaryland in the first place. Look, it's never been our existing plans that are the problem, it's us not following them. Planners were saying 30 years ago that sprawl was bad and that it was financially unsustainable to continue building sprawling subdivisions in areas where there was no infrastructure. Carroll has high taxes, weak revenues and lame economic development as a result of not following the state's SmartGrowth guidelines. It isn't the state's fault nor is it the fault (according to Rothschild) of United Nations' Agenda 21 planning conspiracies. It's our own fault, but we definitely don't need a group of political hacks supported by realty interests and conspiracy nuts to change our Master Plan into something completely incompatible with our state and the rest of the civilized world. If we make "planning ignorance" the new law of the land, not only will this cut off any future state funding, but it will impair our long- term quality of life. We need to stop this ignorance before it does any more long term damage. We have experienced our Commissioner's "brand" of incompetence and it's only exceeded by their hubris!