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Two items on the agenda for Tuesday’s Town Board meeting could have big impacts on future growth in Oriental. There’s the public hearing on reducing density and condos, (see below) The Town Board also has before it the job of appointing two new members to the Planning Board.

These Planning Board appointments would fill the seats vacated by Planning Board chairman Don Mau who quit in late August, and Katy Pugh, who was appointed in June, and who stepped down last week.

The direction of the planning board hangs in the balance. Two of the three current membrers have occupational ties to real estate.

Four people are in the running.

Kathy Kellam has once again put her hat in the ring. A high school science teacher, Kellam last year organized a petition drive to reduce the height limit in town. The previous town board’s unresponsiveness on that score became a key issue in last fall’s campaign and helped three reform candidates get elected. Kellam herself ran for a seat on the Town Commission — and came in 6th, just missing the 5th seat on the board. Kellam has been an advocate for fine tuning the GMO so that Oriental doesn’t go the route of other overbuilt coastal communities. Her letter to the board notes that she has regularly attended planning board and town board meetings over the past 2 years and has “a working knowledge of our GMO.” She says that she would keep an “open mind” and “strive to be guided by the sentiments and best interests of the community as a whole.” This marks the second time this year that Kellam has sought a seat on the Planning Board. In June, the Town Board — four of whose members had signed Kellam’s petition a year earlier — passed her over in appointing Katy Pugh and Paul Olsen to the board.

Also in the running are, in alphabetical order, three other candidates:

Roger Cordes moved to Oriental a year ago and runs the front office of his wife Elizabeth’s dental office on Hodges Street. His letter to the town says that he started his working life on a land surveying crew and from ‘seeing paper designs take shape on the ground… developed a sincere appreciate for the potential impact (both positive and negative) that development can have.” From surveying, he became an engineering technician versed in CAD, computer-aided design. His letter says that “the planning board must ensure that actions taken today remain compatible with the needs of the Town’s citizens, both now and in the near future.” In addition to infrastructure, he writes that other concerns include,“rigorous development standards and guideines (including the formation of an appearance commission)”

Dave Cox is a retired Navy officer who moved to Oriental a year ago and has been a regular attendee of Planning Board and Town Board meetings. He says in his letter that he is “strongly committed to further enhancing Oriental’s fair, sensible and forward looking growth management procedures”. Dave Cox’s resume includes a quarter century in the Navy, some of it commanding a ship and other years as the senior politico-military strategic planning officer for Europe and NATO. Cox writes that he has managed many projects including a USAID project introducing real estate zoning concepts in Russia and two projects in Ukraine laying the foundation for a real estate market.

William Marlowe, in his letter, writes that he is a recent “full time” resident of Oriental and has retired from a consulting firm in Pennsylvania “which performed ecngineering services for five municipalities. Included in these services was review of submitted development plans for compliance with ordinances…” He writes that he contributed to revisions of zoning ordinances in two towns that were ‘experiencing enormous growth’.

Posted Monday October 2, 2006 by Melinda Penkava

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