My question is why would the Commissioners not release the sane technical comments presented by our professional planning staff, about PlanMaryland which articulate real concerns which we should be addressing. Instead, they have politically attacked MDP as conspiring to take over planning (perhaps with the help of the United Nations according to Rothschild). Then they release their Master Plan recommendations last week, which serves to make us the "poster child" for the reason we need PlanMaryland in the first place. Any Board of Commissioners that would agree to put out such political nonsense and call them "planning recommendations" doesn't have a clue about responsible planning and deserves to have any local authority taken away. If enacted, these recommendations will likely kill any chance of receiving state funding for projects and set our Master Plan on a course that is completely incompatible with our state and the rest of the civilized world. SmartGrowth and sustainability aren't the cause of our problems and we don't need to take them out of our plans, we need to start following them as guidelines, as well as the plans we already have. We need to stop giving into the political agenda of the realty interests, who have successfully managed to prevent us from implementing plans, which would have limited sprawl. We are now paying higher taxes and have substantial revenue problems because of this. Promoting more sprawl long term will only exacerbate our problems.

There's a saying, the more shrill and angry your opponents are, the weaker their position.

PlanMaryland is being resisted by most, if not all counties within the State. Plan Maryland would shift land-use and zoning authority away from locally elected and accountable officials (both Republican and Democrat) and instead places more power over YOUR LAND into the hands of a handful of unelected state bureaucrats that can never be "fired" by voters. This flies in the face of 200 years of local land-use precedence, and respect for Constitutional Property Rights.

PlanMaryland proposes a "State Transportation Plan; State Housing Plan; and State Development Plan". It breaches new firewalls (page 4-59) by discussing State involvement in the "Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Food, Water, and Energy." It suggest the State will "determine the highest and best use" for all land within the State. Is that what you want?

This Plan is unacceptable and represents the epitome of government overreach. Citizens that value their freedoms and right to peacefully own and enjoy their property should remain ever vigilant.

Commissioner Richard Rothschild
Unwavering Conservative Leadership

There's also a saying that, "Empty barrels make the most noise". Welcome to the public debate of your extremist ideologies, Twitch! While many counties may be asking for more time to consider PlanMaryland, none are rejecting its SmartGrowth and sustainability principles. More importantly, none would embrace your beliefs in United Nations planning conspiracies (Agenda 21) or support the planning recommendations you and the other Commissioners offered last week for our own master plan linked below: http://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/compplan/masterplan2011/bccrec.pdf
The fact is you are simply a realtor, who was elected Commissioner with the benefit of a gerrymandered district and less than 8,500 votes. You are certainly entitled to your extremist opinions of Agenda 21 conspiracies and other bogus Property Rights ideals. You can even freely call climate change or evolution "unsettled science". But your public office gives you no right to lecture to MDP officials, professional planners, plannning and zoning personnel or the general public about planning matters, as you are no more qualified to do this than a hospital orderly is to do brain surgery. Your brand of politics is dangerous and your sprawl promoting ideas will only serve to perpetuate our currrent problems of high property taxes and declining services. Your self-serving extremist diatribes and support for realty interests doesn't make you a patriot. I challenge you to provide real evidence of community service.