Topic 1: Land Use, Development and Community Character

Scenario 1-1:

You have company coming to town for the weekend and would like to take them on a short tour to introduce them to the community. Your time is short, and you need to pick the three places in the community to visit that will give them the best impression of the character of the town. What would those three places be, and what about those places makes them the most representative of the town’s unique character? Do you feel that recent development activity in and around Shepherdstown is reinforcing the community’s unique character? Identify what you feel has been developed in the most compatible manner and what has been incompatible? What about each example makes it compatible or incompatible?

Places identified that best represent the character of the town include:
- German Street / Downtown
- Old Tobacco Warehouse
- O’Hurley’s General Store
- C&O Canal
- Potomac River
- Town Run
- The Wall
- Rumsey Monument
- Library
- Alleys
- Churches
Thoughts on recent development activity included: :
- Need better quality housing to attract young families
- No more strip malls
- Need more pedestrian connectivity
- New town hall fits well
- New performing arts center is not compatible
- New development not following traditional architectural patterns
- New development causing light pollution

Scenario 1-2:

A developer is proposing a mixed commercial and residential project in the community on a vacant tract of land that is in a prominent and highly visible location. You are interested in the project and have decided to speak at the public hearing on the zoning change that they need to make the project move forward. What are the conditions that you would encourage the Town Council to impose as part of the development approval process to help ensure that the new development will be compatible with Shepherdstown’s unique character? Are there examples of similar projects, either in nearby communities or elsewhere, which you feel could be a model for this type of development in Shepherdstown?

Comments received on this topic focused primarily on:
- Maintaining high quality of architectural design

Development needs to fulfill a defined community need
Need to reflect the small town character of Shepherdstown
Concerned about gentrification
Needs to be attractive to young families
New development should be “green”

Scenario 1-3:

A developer mentions to you that they have acquired a vacant 10 acre tract of land that they would like to develop for residential use. They then ask your advice on what type of housing would best serve the needs of the community and sell/lease quickly in the local housing market once it is built. What would you tell them to build? Overall, what gaps do you see in the local housing market? Is there a high demand for certain types of housing that is not being filled by the current housing stock? Who is being left out of the local market? Where are they looking to buy/lease instead of Shepherdstown?

Most of the discussion of this scenario centered on the links between housing, commercial activity and employment.
It was also noted that there is some desire for assistance of some sort from the town to help homeowners improve existing dwellings in town.
Interestingly, parking was also a main point of this discussion, with the need to ensure adequate parking for new residents, particularly in con-junction with higher density housing.

Scenario 1-4:

You have been assigned to a committee that is working on a plan to develop a long range annexation plan for Shepherdstown. Using the provided map, develop a phased approach to the growth of the Town, identifying those areas that you feel should become part of the corporation in the short-term (within 5 years), medium term (5-10 years) and long term (20 years) using different colors for each type of area. What are the most important criteria that you used in the process of determining which areas should be considered for annexation and the timeframe in which they should be annexed? What criteria did you use to decide which areas should not be considered for annexation? How do you think that annexation of the areas that you depicted on the map would impact the town, and will this be positive or negative?

Areas identified for potential annexation were focused pri-marily on areas in very close proximity to the current corpo-rate limits, particularly the older residential neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the town.
Vacant land that was identified was typically chosen to bal-ance the desire to protect land from development as well as provide for growth.
Of particular note, the Clarion Hotel property, Maddex Farm, Morgan’s Grove Park and local schools were discussed fre-quently as candidates for future annexation.
Most annexation areas that were shown/discussed focused on land lying to the south, east and west of town, but not to the north.
There was a diversity of opinion on whether the town should even consider annexing new property, which is reflective of what was seen in the survey.
Concerns expressed about annexation focused primarily on costs, the ability to provide equitable services, and the po-tential challenges related to brining in new people to partici-pate in town government.
Of particular concern was the need to ensure that zoning and development regulations could accommodate both what exists toay in Shepherdstown as well as newly annexed areas.

Scenario 1-5:

You own a house in a part of town in which garage apartments and other types of accessory dwelling units are not allowed by the zoning ordinance. Your neighbor approaches you and states that their family wants to bring an aging parent to live with them, but they do not have room in their house to accommodate an additional family member. So, they are considering approaching the Town Council to request a change in the zoning ordinance that would allow them to construct an accessory dwelling on their property. This change would make this possible on all residential lots in this zoning district. What would be your concerns if the ordinance was changed to allow this? What types of conditions could be imposed on such structures through the ordinance to ensure that they created as little impact as possible on neighboring residences? Would you be in favor of such a change if adequate conditions were in place?

Concerns expressed during the discussion included:
- Maintaining historic compatibility
- Providing adequate parking
- Population density
- Constraints on town services and infrastructure
- Noise from tenants
- Short term renters not taking care of property
- Lack of local building inspections
Potential conditions to mitigate these concerns included:
- Limiting the number of tenants allowed in an accessory dwelling
- Putting good enforcement mechanisms in place
- Requiring a special permit
- Limits on square footage of accessory dwellings
- Designed for historic compatibility