 City Planner Harry Susini anticipated the National Capitol Planning Commission would use clustered development to prevent tightly massed population in Laurel by the year 2000.In the late 1960s, the county was at the peak of racial tensions.The situation peaked in Laurel in July 1967 when four men and a juvenile, affiliated with the KKK, attempted to burn St. Mark's United Methodist Church and then a private residence in the predominantly African-American neighborhood of the Grove, prompting protests and police blockades.