Land Use & Policy

ESLC engages with local officials and staff in our towns and counties to learn about their needs and the barriers they face. Whether the needs include parks and connections to open spaces, and barriers are lack of capacity and conflict between comprehensive plans and local zoning. Through sustained engagement and partnerships, ESLC   

• Since 2019, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC), the Town of Chestertown, and Washington College have collaborated to plan and fundraise for the construction of the Chestertown Heritage Trail that would build off of Wilmer Park and run alongside the Chester River next to Washington College’s boathouse and environmental Center before connecting back with Quaker Neck Rd.  
  
  While this trail would add to the trail system in the town it would also offer a unique opportunity to connect residents and visitors with the river and provide an outdoor classroom space so everyone could learn more about the river that gave birth to the town and its history ecology.   

• In 2024, ESLC helped mediate the Town of St. Michaels’ acquisition of the Environmental Concern waterfront property on Boundary Street. As a respected neutral party, ESLC is often able to facilitate dialogue between interested parties to help ensure a mutually beneficial outcome. Though Talbot County has an extensive waterfront, the community currently has very little public water access. ESLC engaged with Environmental Concern, the Town of St. Michaels, and Talbot County to identify a path to create a public park with water access on-site. The property has since been purchased by the Town of St. Michaels and ESLC has continued to engage with the project, encouraging the town to embrace a rare opportunity to integrate restoration work with outdoor recreation. Details about this ongoing project and opportunities for public involvement can be found on the town’s website.  

• A major Cambridge re-development on the banks of the Choptank River is receiving a lot of attention of late as various Dorchester County officials and Cambridge Waterfront Development Incorporated (CWDI) seek consensus on the next steps for Cambridge Harbor—an ambitious project that will reimagine the waterfront space and old Cambridge hospital site just west of Sailwinds Park. 

ESLC has a unique perspective as a regional land trust seeing common threads between our towns and counties and the land use struggles they share. Often local efforts for sustainable land use policies are siloed in our local governments within and between neighboring towns and counties. Thanks to ESLC’s coverage of the Mid and Upper Shore, we can advocate and convene at a regional level, connecting ideas, policies, and people. 
 

• Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s technical assistance grant, ESLC has recently begun a research project with a North Carolina company called Urban 3 to survey land use across the Eastern Shore. Local governments on the Eastern Shore face increasing development pressure to meet the rising demands of public services like education, affordable housing, infrastructure maintenance, and adaptation to climate change. Many communities are struggling financially to provide basic services in the face of these demands within current property tax revenue levels and therefore are unable to prioritize walking and biking, housing that is affordable, sustainability, conservation, or the environment. But targeted research can help. The goal of ESLC’s project with Urban 3 is to survey and organize land use data so that it can be shared with local governments, empowering them to implement more environmentally sound and sustainable land use practices. Studies in Florida and Louisiana show that when local governments evaluate land use and utilize their limited land resources to prepare for the impacts of sea-level rise, communities, and neighborhoods become more equitable and have less communal impact on water and air quality. ESLC anticipates similar positive results for communities on the Eastern Shore. 

•  The Delmarva Restoration and Conservation Network (DRCN) is a Landscape-scale conservation collaborative rising to address these challenges on the peninsula. The DRCN formed in 2017, is a collaborative of local, state, and Federal government agencies and NGOs working with private and public landowners and local governments to identify the most important places to protect and restore, and to obtain support and funding for voluntary restoration and conservation. 

• Maryland Eastern Shore Trail Network is an effort to advocate the benefits of trails to local municipal and county governments and to encourage collaboration to create a regional system of interconnected trails across the Eastern Shore, and perhaps one day cross Delmarva. Any trail can bring multiple benefits to its communities and neighborhoods, but the more those trails are connected to a bigger trail system the benefits are compounded as the system as a whole becomes a force multiplier, adding value to what is already existing.  

Though most of our Land Use Policy work takes place at the local and regional levels, ESLC works with State Agencies, elected officials at the Maryland General Assembly, and various coalitions and partnerships. ESLC helps to lift local/regional needs as well as the barriers and struggles of the various jurisdictions at the state level.  

• Partners for Open Space is a statewide coalition advocating for and defending open space in Maryland. Guided by a single and powerful mission, Partners for Open Space works to protect Program Open Space and Maryland’s related conservation and preservation programs. The Maryland the Beautiful Act (CH546) of 2023 established ambitious land conservation goals: conserve 30% of the state by 2030 (30 by 30) and conserve 40% of the state by 2040 (40 by 40). Through the combined efforts of state agencies, local governments, the federal government, and nonprofit land trusts, the first goal to conserve 30% of Maryland land (1,856,889 of 6,189,629 land acres) was achieved in 2024, well in advance of the 2030 goal year. Maryland’s current legislated renewable energy goal is to generate 100% clean energy by 2035, which will require significant additional acreage devoted to solar development. The impacts of climate change on agricultural production around the globe, combined with projections for population growth, elevate the importance of safeguarding Maryland’s farmland. The Delmarva peninsula not only has an inordinate amount of prime farm soils. Its proximity to major metropolitan markets where millions of people live has made agriculture a main contributor to Maryland’s economy. How much productive farmland can be diverted to other uses without jeopardizing either the agricultural economy or our ability to a build a resilient food system? An abundance of utility-scale solar on farmland will have long-term implications and that requires a long-term strategy. Maryland must adopt a holistic and systemic approach to Data Center development. Environmental, social, and economic considerations are needed for a successful paradigm shift towards sustainability. This transformation requires political will, stakeholder engagement, policy reforms, and a shift in societal values toward valuing long-term sustainability over short-term gains. 

• In May 2023, Paul Pinsky, Director of the Maryland Energy Administration, Secretary Kevin Atticks of the Maryland Department of Agriculture, and Madison Bryce from Governor Wes Moore’s office sat down with several Eastern Shore farmers at a meeting organized by Eastern Shore Land Conservancy for a frank discussion about the loss of some of Maryland’s best farmland to large, utility-scale solar fields. The invited group of eight farmers represented more than 12,000 acres of grain, livestock, dairy, poultry, and vegetable operations across the upper and middle Eastern Shore. While most farmers at the meeting were supportive of accelerating solar development–several of those present already incorporate solar power into their operations–they unanimously expressed alarm about the long-term impacts of siting utility-scale solar on huge swaths of Maryland farmland.