Yes; there was an article in the Hagerstown paper abuot it several years ago. The major gist of it was, Frederick County (known prior to the mid-90’s and aughts as ‘Fredneck’), was all pasture and farms. Then, urban sprawl hit, and seeminly huge swaths were gobbled up by developers for new subdivisions. (I lived here during this time.) Within a few short years, they country lifestyle disappeared into suburbs and shopping malls. Fast forward fifteen years later, and it’s Washington, not Frederick county, under discussion. Family farms around Hagerstown are being sold off because those career politicians smelled more money in tax revenue than a tight-knit commmunity, so inter-generational families in the Halfway area are getting priced out of their own family land and are being forced to sell.
Very sad.
As Viking2002 noted above, WashCounty residents either lived there for generations, or went there in the 80s-90s to get away from urbane living. Since then, it's become a target for land-use/slash/social revolution, while the old country churches and graveyards are having to combine into two- and three-church parishes up to 10 miles apart, with one pastor to cover all services on Sundays, and musical chairs around the far-flung parish sites for church council events.
As an example of the land-use wheeling and dealing, locals have fought to try to stop additional truck stops on highways around Hagerstown, because they are prime locations for prostitution and trafficking. But of course, the proposals get approved:
Site work begins on long-appealed truck-stop project near Hagerstown Regional Airport