Frostburg Comprehensive Plan

City of Frostburg Comprehensive Plan Update - 2025

The City of Frostburg is in the process of updating the 2011 Comprehensive Plan. The Plan provides a framework for jurisdictions to protect and enhance their community character and natural and cultural heritage, preserve environmental resources, and foster economic development by planning for their long-term land use, transportation, housing, water resources, and other public infrastructure needs and identify the actions the City will need to take to meet these needs and achieve the planning goals that relate to them.

Community Engagement 

Public participation is an important part of the comprehensive planning process, as it helps to ensure that the plan accurately reflects the vision of the community. In 2025, a Community Engagement Plan was launched in order to communicate with and gain valuable insight from broad cross-section of City residents and other stakeholders to shape a collective vision for the upcoming Comprehensive Plan update. 

The Frostburg Public Engagement Report offers findings and initial analysis of the following efforts:

• Public Survey: The survey was available electronically via Survey Monkey. The survey received 452 responses, most electronically, though paper copies were also made available. The survey launched on February 28 and closed March 31, 2025.
• Stakeholder Questionnaire: The questionnaire was distributed via email. Stakeholders were given the option to complete the questionnaires out independently or to request a one-on-one meeting with WM to walk through the questionnaire on a video or phone call. Input was gathered between April 25 and May 9, 2025.
• FSU Survey Supplement: To engage with students, faculty, and other stakeholders of FSU, the public survey was replicated and distributed to a mailing list tailored to those who fit that description. The link was distributed on May 15 by University personnel and remained open until May 31, 2025.
• SWOT Exercise: On Thursday, July 17, 2025, the WM Team and City staff held an in-person meeting with city leaders serving on the Steering Committee to evaluate the status of the city as a while through the use of SWOT (“Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats”) analysis. 

The findings from each of these numerous engagement opportunities were synthesized to create a bulleted list of Key Findings and Considerations for the Comprehensive Plan found in the Conclusion and Next Steps section on page 25 of the report. 

Key Issues Cited in Public Feedback (thus far...) 

• Economic Activity - Supporting, improving, and promoting economic activity in Frostburg is the issue that emerged as being most important to residents.
• Housing Insecurity - Inadequate and limited housing options is a barrier for new and existing City residents. 
• Infrastructure Needs - There is a clear desire for general cleanup efforts citywide, as well as some specific repairs and improvements residents feel need to be made.