Should Easton adopt its comprehensive plan only with enforceable limits on the town’s 1 percent annual growth rate and a halt to new greenfield residential annexations?

The Town Council postponed adoption on July 7 and sent staff back to strengthen the language. As of late August no new vote date has been posted. Separately, the county is running its own comprehensive plan update through an online engagement portal.

The case for hard limits: Councilman David Montgomery has said there is still too much vagueness about how the one percent limit would be achieved and enforced — a growth cap without an enforcement mechanism is a statement of intent, not a plan. Resident Tom Ledvina put the aesthetic case this way: Easton is not full yet, but you can see full from here, and some things are hard to clean up. Tom Alspach, a Talbot Preservation Alliance board member, has argued that Easton already has enough approved housing to meet projected demand and opposes a decade of new greenfield residential annexations.

The case against, as staff have framed it: enforcement mechanisms need further study and separate legislation, so a hard cap in the plan now would be a promise the town could not keep. There is also a supply argument: Talbot has a documented workforce housing shortage, and a growth cap in the county’s largest town constrains the one place where housing is actually being built. That side still needs a named advocate on the record.

Worth naming: Maryland DHCD’s FY27 State Revitalization awards sent $1.545 million to six Talbot projects, the largest a $500,000 Fello award for Easton Crossing (planned ~117 mixed-income units). A growth cap and a housing shortage are both real. At some point they are the same conversation.

The Opinion desk wants letters, with name and town: Montgomery, Alspach, and Ledvina on the limits side; Brian Lopez of Osprey Property Company (who spoke at the July 7 meeting — his position is not recorded here), Council President Don Abbatiello, and anyone in the building trades on the flexibility side.

Send letters to the Patriot. This page stays open until the Council votes.