St. Mary’s County Officials Review Draft 2050 Comprehensive Growth Strategy

Mary’s County commissioners received another briefing on the draft “St. Mary’s 2050: Charting Our Tomorrow” comprehensive plan during their Aug. 18 business meeting. The proposal would replace the county’s 2010 Comprehensive Plan and establish the framework for land use, growth, preservation, housing, transportation, economic development, and natural-resource decisions through 2050. The immediate issue is procedural: the plan remains under review, and the county has not set a final public hearing date.

The plan is still in the review sequence

The draft has been under development since fall 2024, when the Department of Land Use and Growth Management began a public-engagement process. That process has included open houses, work sessions, and online surveys.

The county released its first public draft in February 2026 and opened a 45-day comment period. Open houses followed in Lexington Park, Leonardtown, Charlotte Hall, and Great Mills. The St. Mary’s County Planning Commission then held public hearings in late June and early July.

Commissioners are now conducting additional review before the plan moves to a final public hearing. SoMdNews.com reports that the board scheduled comprehensive-plan work sessions. The BayNet separately reports that the county faces a 90-day deadline connected to the 2050 growth plan, although the available report does not provide further detail on how that deadline affects the adoption schedule.

The result is a plan that is not yet final. Proposed designations and policy language remain subject to further board review and public action.

The land-use map is the operative document for parcel-level review

The most consequential structural change is a proposed reduction in the county’s land-use classification system from 23 categories to nine. The draft also includes an updated Land Use Map showing where the county anticipates future growth, redevelopment, and preservation.

For property owners and applicants, the map is therefore the document requiring direct examination. The practical review sequence is:

• Locate the parcel on the proposed Land Use Map.
• Identify the proposed designation under the simplified classification system.
• Check whether the parcel is included among applicant-driven requests for a land-use change.
• Monitor the commissioners’ work sessions and the eventual final public hearing.
• Submit comments or requests through the county’s established review process before the plan is adopted.

The source material states that property owners may request changes to their land’s designation as part of the review process. That option does not establish that a request will be approved. It does establish that parcel-level designations are part of the current planning process rather than a fixed outcome.

The Planning Commission’s late-June and early-July hearings addressed both the draft plan and a group of applicant-driven requests involving specific parcels. Those requests should be evaluated separately from the broader policy framework because a countywide classification change and an individual designation request operate at different levels of the plan.

What to monitor next

Commissioner Eric Colvin previously called for the board to hold its own work session after expressing concern about some recent Planning Commission votes on land-use changes. The Aug. 18 briefing continued that review roughly two years after the planning process began.

The next material checkpoint is the commissioners’ schedule for work sessions and the final public hearing. Until those events occur, the 2050 plan should be treated as a draft policy instrument, not an adopted land-use standard.

For landowners, developers, and residents tracking development capacity, the relevant records are the proposed plan text, the updated Land Use Map, parcel-specific designation requests, and the county’s formal hearing notices. Those materials will determine whether the proposed simplification changes a parcel’s planning designation, preserves its current treatment, or places it within an anticipated growth, redevelopment, or preservation area.