Lucy Garliauskas
Oxford Planning Commission, Chair
The Oxford Planning Commission has scheduled a Comprehensive Plan Public Hearing on November 12, 2025, from3:00pm to 5:00 pm at the Oxford Community Center. This notice along with a link to the document has been published in the Star Democrat as required by State law and has been posted by the Town in the meeting updates, etc. The Planning Commission’s website includes a link to the Comprehensive Plan webpage that includes al of the activities we worked on to produce this draft.
The Commission has spent the past year preparing the draft plan. The Planning Commission held public input sessions over the summer and posted surveys online to learn what our community wants and the issues we need to look at and pursue over the long term. Now that the entire draft document has been compiled, we are asking our fellow citizens to take this opportunity to hear your reactions to goals and policies that Oxford should work on over the next 20 years. At the hearing, we will review the key themes in the plan and take public comments on the entire proposed plan.
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Overview of the Plan
This Plan is a guide defined by policies and related goals to advance those priorities. It is not a detailed action plan. This is in essence a statement of intent for continuous implementation. The Comprehensive Plan and its elements are essential to securing State funding, grants and technical support. This is a blueprint for our town’s collective action.
Since the publication of the 2010 Comprehensive Long Range Plan, the Town has implemented a number of goals identified in that document including: the development of the historic commercial district and restoration of the Mews, further defining a plan to support Oxford as a working waterfront, and defining and adopting a tiered map for water and sewage defining those properties that may be annexed into Town water and sewage, and opting to limit land use development.
Here is some background on why we do this and what is required by the state of Maryland:
The Planning Commission is charged by the State of Maryland with adopting
and updating the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and ensuring that the Town’s
Zoning Ordinance is consistent with this plan. The plan is required to consider
20 years into the future and must be updated every 10 years.
It is important to understand that this plan is different from the other plans
because it is required by the State of Maryland. It is a policy document that is
developed by the Town’s Planning Commission and adopted by the Town
Commissioners. A Comprehensive Plan does not provide detailed
recommendations. Instead, it identifies the Community's long-term vision for
itself, sets goals and objectives, and recommends actions to achieve these
goals and objectives by the end of a 20-year period.
The plan is required by the State to address the following elements:
-Goals & Objectives
-Mineral Resources
-Implementation
-Land Use Development
-Regulations
-Development Capacity Analysis
-Housing
-Areas of Critical State Concern
-Municipal Growth
-Transportation
-Water Resources
-Community Facilities
-Sensitive Areas
There are specific items under each category that are required by state
legislation surrounding comprehensive plans.
Oxford’s Planning Commission has decided to adopt a thematic plan, that is
the plan will be organized by themes, not elements. This means each theme
contains parts or all of each of the required elements. The themes the Planning Commission has chosen for Oxford’s 2045 Plan are: “A Changing Community, “ A Resilient Community” and
“A Vital Community”.
The Planning Commission believes this approach makes the document clearer, less bureaucratic and easy to read.
Here is the link to the Oxford Comprehensive Plan:
