By: Mike Kennedy mkennedy@railey.com 301-616-6106 August 21st, 2009 Category: Deep Creek Lake Real Estate, Garrett County News, Garrett County Real Estate, News, Wisp Real Estate

The recent update to the Garrett County Comprehensive Plan calls for proposed changes and revisions to various land use, zoning, and the Deep Creek Watershed Zoning Ordinances. The biggest changes that could affect real estate, property owners, and ultimately property values in the Deep Creek Lake and Wisp Ski Resort areas are as follows:

Scenic Vistas - the proposals include establishing several scenic protection areas around Deep Creek Lake. This may include future setback requirements that would push construction of new houses farther back from the edge of the slope atop certain mountains surrounding the lake that would essentially decrease views of the lake from that new house.

Architectural Standards - will try to establish building design standards for commercial developers in the lake area to ensure character compatibility for new commercial buildings.

New Land Classification Map - it includes the new Lake Residential 1 (LR1) and Lake Residential 2 (LR2) categories and also the new Agricultural Resource (AR) and Rural Resource (RR) zones. The preliminary draft of the new Deep Creek Lake Watershed Zoning Map can be found here.

Amendments the Garrett County Subdivision Ordinance that would require clustering in AR and RR zones with a minimum of 1.5 acre lot sizes and open space requirements.

The county will conduct public hearings on these proposed changes in the near future. Many current landowners in Garrett County and Deep Creek Lake watershed will be affected by these changes!! - please give us a call or shoot us an e-mail if you would like more information about how your property may be affected by these changes.

By: Mike Kennedy mkennedy@railey.com 301-616-6106 August 27th, 2008 Category: Garrett County News, News

The Garrett County Maryland Commissioners and the Planning Commission held a joint hearing on the draft comprehensive plan on August 21st at the Garrett College auditorium. The hearing was lightly attended and most of the comments centered on the planned housing project next to the Garrett County airport, the Oakland Maryland bypass and just general questions.

The public comment period is still open and written comments will be accepted through September 4th. Any person who owns real estate at Deep Creek Lake or in Garrett County is encouraged to become familiar with the plan. The draft can be reviewed on-line at:

 http://www.co.garrett.md.us/PlanningLand/PlanningZoning/Planning.aspx

By: Mike Kennedy mkennedy@railey.com 301-616-6106 August 18th, 2008 Category: Deep Creek Lake Events, Garrett County News, News

For those of you who own real estate or property at Deep Creek Lake or in Garrett County, Maryland - please note there is an important meeting this Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the Garrett Community College Auditorium concerning the draft of the new Garrett County Comprehensive Plan. The proposed draft of the plan can be found here. This meeting is to solicit public input before the county commissioners vote to adopt the wording in the proposed plan. The current plan is over 10 years old and a new plan is needed that takes into consideration changes in social and economic developments that have occurred since the last plan was adopted.

This meeting is one of the few opportunities that property owners at Deep Creek Lake and Garrett County have to voice their opinions on issues that may affect the long term value of their property or the quality of life found here.

We must point out and call into question why these meetings - that will certainly have an effect on second home owners at Deep Creek Lake - are always held on weekdays instead of weekends? Can’t a special exception be made in these instances to make it more conducive for the Deep Creek Lake property owners since most live out of the area and might only be able to attend such a meeting on the weekend? Especially since this segment of our property owners contribute an extremely large share of the county’s tax revenues and don’t use many of its services.