The Commission shall consist of six members, one of whom shall be a member of the Myersville Town Council, who shall serve in an ex-officio capacity. The ex-officio member shall not be eligible to vote unless a vote is necessary to break a tie in the vote of the planning commission. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, including but not limited to Chapter 30 of this Code, each member shall, during their tenure on the Commission, maintain their primary residence within the corporate limits of the Town of Myersville. Any member who fails to maintain such residency within the Town shall, upon moving such residence outside of the Town, automatically forfeit and render vacant his or her membership on the Commission, and the Mayor and Council may then fill such vacancy pursuant to Subsection E below.

The members shall be appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Town Council.

Members shall receive such compensation for their service as may be established from time to time be resolution of the Mayor and Council.

In order to stagger the terms of the Planning Commission members, in the year 2010, two members shall be appointed for a term of five years, two members shall be appointed for a term of three years, and the ex-officio Town Council member shall be appointed for a term of four years or, as to each, until his or her successor takes office. In order to add a fifth voting member of the Myersville Planning Commission, in the year 2020, one member shall be appointed to serve a term of five years. Thereafter, the term of each member shall be five years or until his or her successor takes office.

Vacancies occurring for reasons other than through the expiration of a member's term shall be filled for the unexpired term by appointment of the Mayor and confirmation of the Council.

After a public hearing, members may be removed by the Council for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office in accordance with the Land Use Article, § 2-102(d), of the Annotated Code of Maryland. The Council shall file with the Town Clerk a written statement of reasons for such removal.

The territorial jurisdiction of the Planning Commission over the subdivision of land shall only include land located within the limits of the Town.

If the Council adopts the transportation element of the Plan and files a certified copy of the Plan in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Frederick County, then the following provisions shall be applicable:

Before exercising the powers referred to in Title 5 of the Land Use Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, the Planning Commission shall prepare regulations governing the subdivision of land within its jurisdiction in accordance with the provisions of §§ 5-102 and 5-103 of the Land Use Article, Annotated Code of Maryland. Before any such regulation shall be submitted to the Council for adoption, a public hearing shall be held thereon. All such regulations or, if in the opinion of the Commission it is best, a brief synopsis of such regulations, sufficient to inform a person of ordinary intelligence of the nature and content of such regulations, together with the time and place of such public hearing, shall be published once or more, if the Commission deems best, in a weekly or daily newspaper of general circulation in Frederick County. When such regulations are adopted by the Council, a copy thereof shall be certified by the Commission to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in which the jurisdiction is located for record.

The Planning Commission shall have those powers, duties and obligations which are set forth in Title 5 of the Land Use Article, Annotated Code of Maryland.

Whoever, being the owner or agent of the owner of any land located within a subdivision, transfers or sells or agrees to sell or negotiate any land by reference to or exhibition of or by other use of a plat of a subdivision, before the plat has been approved by the Planning Commission and recorded or filed in the office of the appropriate County Clerk, shall forfeit and pay a civil penalty of not less than $200 and not more than $1,000, in the discretion of the court, for each lot or parcel so transferred or sold or agreed or negotiated to be sold. The description of a lot or parcel by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transfer shall not exempt the transaction from the penalties or from the remedies herein provided. The Town may enjoin the transfer or sale or agreement by action for injunction brought in any court of equity jurisdiction or may recover the penalty by civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction.

The provisions of the foregoing paragraphs of this section do not apply to the contract for sale or negotiation for sale of property zoned industrial, commercial, or both industrial and commercial, if a plat is approved and recorded in accordance with this section prior to the transfer of land. Any plat of a subdivision recorded without Planning Commission approval has only the legal effect of an unrecorded plat.

From and after the time when a Planning Commission shall have control over subdivisions as provided in this chapter, the jurisdiction of the Planning Commission over plats shall be exclusive within the territory under its jurisdiction and all statutory control over plats or subdivisions of land granted by other statutes shall, insofar as in harmony with the provisions of this article, be deemed transferred to the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission shall have the authority to make or cause to be made surveys for the exact location of the lines of a street or streets and any other part of the transportation element of the plan, if the transportation element is adopted, and to make a plat of the area or district thus surveyed in accordance with the provisions of Title 6 of the Land Use Article, Annotated Code of Maryland. In the event that such surveys are made, then the procedures, duties, and obligations set forth in Title 6 of the Land Use Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, shall govern the actions of the Commission and the Town Council.

The provisions of Title 6 of the Land Use Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, shall be applicable to the Town of Myersville and shall govern the control of development in the bed of mapped streets and the construction of municipal utilities or improvements in streets and development not on mapped streets.[1]