Northampton County:
“Northampton County’s Board of Supervisors and Planning
Commission will hear what the public thinks about its proposed massive overhaul
of the zoning ordinance at a joint hearing scheduled for March 11 at 7 p.m. at
Northampton High School. Economic Development Director Charles McSwain received
marching orders from the Board of Supervisors shortly after being hired just
over a year ago to streamline zoning requirements as a way to promote business
development. ‘The Board (of Supervisors) wanted a new code that is more enabling,’
McSwain said last October.
One provision garnering significant public interest is a
modification that would effectively cut in half the area regulated under the
Chesapeake Bay/Atlantic Preservation district, which applies Chesapeake Bay Act
requirements to the entire county. McSwain, who also oversees the county’s
planning department, noted the shoreline would still be protected on the sea
side by 100-foot-wide ribbon of conservation zoning along the shore, except ‘where
there are existing, developed, water-dependent communities,’ such as Willis
Wharf and Oyster.
The proposal would no longer regulate properties east of
U.S. Route 13, unless they drain into the Chesapeake Bay. The proposal would
also delete the district as an zoning overlay district, and place it in a
separate section of the land use code with a different name: Chesapeake Bay
Preservation Area.”
~Writes Connie Morrison of Delmarva Now
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