We would like to thank everyone who took the time to come out to the meeting yesterday at the fire station. We would also like to thank the volunteers at the station for allowing us to use their facility. Finally, we want to be sure to acknowledge those neighbors that took the time to speak up when things were getting sideways and help get the meeting back on a productive path. For those of you who were unable to make it to the meeting, please utilize this website and the Facebook pages, which were so graciously created by local realtors, to help neighbors stayed up to date on the latest news. Our goal is to be as open and transparent with you as we possibly can. We will provide information, links to information and notices of upcoming meetings on this site so that you can verify information for yourselves.

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As a point of clarification, the term "By Right" was used several times in the meeting yesterday. "By Right" means what is currently allowed for in the Dorchester County Zoning Ordinance - a link to the website is provided to the right. The property is currently Zoned "Absence of Controls" - a link is provided here for Article 9 of the Dorchester County Zoning Ordinance which defines the allowed uses for this Zoning District. Section 9.1.10 states the Maximum Density allowed for each type of housing. For apartments, the maximum is 13.8 units per acre - this is how the 11,902 allowable units was calculated. Similar calculations were done for the Town Homes - 7.8 units per acre (6,072 units) or Duplexes 5.8 units per acre (4,556 units) or Single Family Detached Houses  - 2.9 units per acre (2,393 units). Another option would be to build a combination of housing types with the total number of units to be built dependent upon how much acreage was used for each housing type. In any event, the maximum number of units that could be built would be 11,902. Commercial uses are also allowed in the district - Section 9.1.3.2 - subject to conformance with any conditions in Section 10.4 and approval of a special exception pursuant to the criteria in Section 10.5 and provisions of Section 15.4. Apartments would also require a special use permit. The plan we showed yesterday, and provided on this website, calls for a maximum of 5,500 total units comprised of a mix of housing types, commercial and a school site.

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As was stated yesterday, the site plan that was shown is not set in stone and we are looking for input from you to try to make this the best possible community for the area. We know we won't be able to make everyone happy, but we promise to do our best. 

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Over the next few weeks, we will be holding meetings with several Dorchester County officials starting with the school system to discuss the best use of the property for the district - Elementary vs Middle School. We will be meeting with Dorchester County Public Works to discuss the extension of water mains to the area. We will meet with the County Council Members to gather their input as well. We will revise the plan based on those meetings and then meet with Planning Staff to discuss the changes that were requested. Once we have a plan that has had input from all of these agencies, we will schedule another community meeting to discuss the revised plan. Once scheduled, we will announce it here, through email and US Mail. We apologize to those who did not receive a letter in the mail for yesterday's meeting but if you will provide your address through the form provided to the right, we will make sure you are notified in the future.

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At our next community meeting, we plan to have answers for the following items that were brought up in yesterday's meeting:

• Traffic impacts/required improvements/timing of improvements

• Police/Fire Services

• Taxes

• Buffers along adjacent properties

• Water line extensions to serve the area, impact on existing wells

• New Sanitary Sewer Plant

• Fees for tapping on to water/sewer services

• Storm water retention ponds - downstream flooding

• Lot sizes/home prices/market support/product mix

• School type - Elementary or Middle school

• Commercial uses - grocery, restaurants, hotels, office - best fits for the community

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Thank you again for coming out to the meeting. We look forward to working with you to create the best possible community for the area!

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