Leslie Barnes-Keating

The Livable Frederick initiative outlines a strategic comprehensive plan and community vision for Frederick County, spanning the next 25 years. This resident-driven plan aims to ensure a high quality of life by focusing on four main themes: community, health, economy, and environment. Key priorities include providing diverse living options, fostering community wellness, promoting sustainable economic growth through high-growth industries and local agriculture, and preserving the county's natural resources and environmental quality to create a better, livable place for all future generations.

This State of the County address for 2019 highlights Frederick County's progress and future goals. Key areas of focus include fostering economic growth through job creation in bioscience and technology, investing in high-quality public education, expanding senior services and affordable housing options, and enhancing infrastructure such as libraries, fire stations, and roads. The plan emphasizes public safety, environmental stewardship through agricultural preservation and solar energy initiatives, and maintaining robust parks and recreational facilities, all guided by the 'Livable Frederick' master plan, while upholding fiscal responsibility and good governance.

The meeting focused on presenting the results of the housing study and strategic plan for Frederick County. Key discussion points included the methodology used to define the housing gap, which focuses on cost-burdened households earning $75,000 annually or below. Projections indicate a need for approximately 32,000 new housing units by 2035, necessitating doubling the current annual production rate. The strategic plan outlines five overarching goals, including developing a strategy to create more affordable housing opportunities by utilizing county-owned land and incentivizing developers to build incremental housing like duplexes and ADUs. Other goals involve maximizing financial resources, preserving existing affordable housing through tenant protections, encouraging affordable housing through policy adjustments like density bonuses, and increasing community capacity to achieve these objectives.

This Local Health Improvement Plan serves as a roadmap and framework for consensus-based recommendations aimed at enhancing the health and well-being of the Frederick County community. The plan identifies six key priority areas: mental health, affordable dental care, wellness and prevention, access to care, health inequities, and early childhood growth and development. It seeks to improve health outcomes through collaborative partnerships, with the understanding that a healthier community fosters a stronger economy.

This document details the "Seniors First" initiative, a strategic effort by Frederick County to address the needs of its growing senior population. The plan segments seniors into healthy/well, isolated/at-risk, and frail categories, and aims to consolidate county services, promote public-private partnerships for housing and transportation, and enhance recreational programming through Parks and Recreation. It also emphasizes the importance of performance measurement, volunteer engagement, and technology to improve communication and service delivery, particularly for Meals on Wheels. The objective is to enable seniors to age in place with dignity and achieve the highest possible quality of life.