Blog Arundel

Newsflash: Bay Clean-Up Efforts Have Failed

2008-12-28T13:27:00.005-05:00

Approaching the 25th anniversary of the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement, several local media outlets have decided to run pieces outlining its miserable failure.

The Washington Post has a series called Failing the Chesapeake.

Today's Capital features an article trying to determine whether EPA deliberately lied about it's lack of success cleaning up the Bay or whether it was just a well-intentioned cover-up of incompetence.

Peared Down

2008-05-19T13:33:00.003-04:00

For several decades now, Prince George's County has had the Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana) as its County tree. This has been a source of some embarrassment for the botanically inclined, as this cultivated pear tree is both extremely weak-wooded and a non-native invasive.

Now, County residents are taking steps to have the tree de-listed and replaced with serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis), a beautiful native with high wildlife value. Good luck to them.

Do you know what the Anne Arundel County tree is? You can find out here.

DNR Blunders, Guided By Politics Rather than Science

2008-04-24T22:09:00.005-04:00

Tuesday's Capital reported that the Department of Natural Resources is poised to remove a "botched" oyster reef in Sillery Bay, in the Magothy River. The truth of the matter is there is nothing "botched" about the recently installed reef at all, aside from the fact that at least three navigationally impaired souls ran their boats aground on it.

Now, at the behest of pitchfork wielding boaters and a misguided Delegate, DNR is going to spend some $40,000 additional dollars to rip the reef out (they spent $150,000 to install it) and get back to the business of building failed oyster reefs "at least 8 feet deep." Somehow, they even managed to get the Magothy River Association on board.

Perhaps those managing the resource and others ostensibly concerned about the success of the oyster fishery Bay-wide will eventually get a clue and look the successful aquaculture operations on the Choptank River, where, believe it or not, they are growing oysters at the surface. And to those who would say, oyster reefs shouldn't be a hazard to navigation, I would direct them to the words of Francis Louis Michel, a Swiss visitor to the Chesapeake in 1701, "The abundance of oysters is incredible. There are whole banks of them so that the ships must avoid them. They surpass those in England by far in size, indeed they are four times as large."

At this juncture, I think we need to ask, "Are we going to manage the fishery for beer addled boaters or for the success of the organism?"

Impact Fee Committee's Modest Proposal

2008-04-18T14:36:00.003-04:00

According to today's Capital, the Impact Fee Committee appointed by the County Council, has arrived at a proposal. Unfortunately, for the residents of the County, it both waters down the basis on which the impacts were estimated by Dr. Nicholas, it also only recommends taking them up to 80% of that basis......over 5 years.

Should the Council follow the recommendations of the Committee, the impact fee that would have been levied upon a three-bedroom will drop from Dr. Nicholas' recommendation of $18,669 to $12,800, about the place Dr. Nicholas recommended the fee be placed 7 years ago.

The only measure by which this recommendation could be considered a success is when one compares it to the recommendations of the Impact Fee Committee appointed in 2001.

Once the Council decided defer this decision downward, it was clear that the development community was going march the impact fee number downward. Now, we're left having to hope that the Council disregards the recommendations of the Committee that it appointed.

One curious fact about the article is that the Capital writer went out of her way to repeat Ed Middlebrooks canard: "At one point, a councilman accused County Executive John R. Leopold of rushing through a proposal with huge hikes to distance himself from the development community, which had made large campaign contributions."

As someone who is concerned deeply about quality of life issues in Anne Arundel County, I will gladly take a County Executive who makes a habit of raising millions in campaign funds from the development community, if these sorts of policies are the way he chooses to pay them back.

You Gotta Know When to Sue 'Em...

2008-03-31T15:21:00.002-04:00

Late last week, the Capital reported that the South River Federation had reached a settlement with the developers of Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole over their discharge of sediment-laden water into the River during construction. The lawsuit claimed that the development project had violated the Clean Water Act by allowing the pollution of Church Creek as a result of stormwater runoff.

Greenberg Gibbons Commercial Corp., the group developing the site, denied the allegations, but agreed to pay $120,000 to repair damage to the creek, monitor the site for future compliance, and legal fees.

Some Relief at the Water's Edge

2008-03-23T14:09:00.003-04:00

Looks like the General Assembly is poised to grant some much needed relief to our weary shorelines. Rather than continue to allow the rocking (and to a lesser extent, bulkheading) of our shorelines, the new law, requested by MDE, would require shoreline stabilization take the form of "living shorelines", unless "a property owner could prove erosion is so severe that only an armored shoreline will do."

That's great news for the Bay, even though hundreds of miles of of its periphery have already been hardened. Looks like a number of strong environmental bills are going to come out of the 2008 session. I will re-cap them here after the Assembly adjourns.

From L to R: Wooden Bulkhead, Stone Rip Rap, Headland Breakwater with Living Shoreline

Potomac Tests Bode Ill for Local Waterways

2008-03-18T11:01:00.002-04:00

Today's Post reports that man made pesticides, herbicides and fragrances are making their way into the Potomac River and wreaking havoc on the hormone systems of aquatic life.

The River is so polluted with hormone disrupting chemicals that some male fish have begun to produce eggs.

This report comes on the heels of last week's release that 56 human and veterinary pharmaceuticals were detected in Philadelphia's drinking water, unable to be filtered out through conventional processes.

How is it that we can tolerate this?

South River Federation Releases Scorecard

2008-03-18T10:55:00.002-04:00

Like the Magothy, Severn, and Patuxent, the South River had a rough 2007. The South River Federation's latest report gives the River a 34 out of 100.

The full report can be found here.

Council Appoints Advisory Committee

2008-03-03T20:09:00.004-05:00

This evening, the County Council appointed an impact fee advisory committee to help them sort out the issue. Thankfully, there are no representatives from the homebuilders association on the committee. The committee is being headed up by former County Executive, Robert Neall, and will include, among others:

Bob Burdon, Head of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce
Al Johnston, a former planner and member of the the Greater Severna Park Council
Ann Fligsten, a local attorney
Bob Gallagher, West/Rhode Riverkeeper

The full list of appointees can be found here.

Virginia, Maryland Contemplate Restricting Crab Harvest

2008-02-29T10:42:00.002-05:00

Both Maryland and Virginia are seriously contemplating major restrictions on crab harvesting in the Bay, and it's not a moment too soon. Let's just hope it's not too late.

Wayson's Corner Purchase Completed

2008-02-29T09:27:00.003-05:00

Earlier in the week, the Board of Public Works approved $5.75 million in Program Open Space funds to purchase 30 acres of forested property in Wayson's Corner. The land, which is nearby the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, and was zoned to be developed as a Target-centered commercial complex, will now be preserved.

Chief Johnson Steps Down

2008-02-29T09:23:00.002-05:00

Police Chief Joseph Johnson is leaving the Annapolis City Police Department after almost 14 years of service. While embattled at times, he has generally been well-respected. This probably won't make hiring the 20 or so officers the Department needs to get to full force any easier.

Council Votes to Approve Commercial Recycling

2008-02-25T16:11:00.000-05:00

At last week's County Council meeting, the Council unanimously approved a move to expand recycling pick up to small businesses in the County. The plan is to have the program launched by July.

Leopold Aide Embarrasses Boss

2008-02-21T13:29:00.004-05:00

As soon as I began the second paragraph of the Sun article, I knew exactly who was behind the Administration's request for expense reports from the State Delegation - Erik Robey. Turns out Robey, a former aide to Ron Dillon and long time Republican Party flak, put one of his underlings up to the task of making her way down to the Maryland Department of Legislative Services "to formally ask for all travel-related expenses, including lodging, meals and mileage, incurred during the 2007 annual and special sessions by the 15 delegates and five senators who represent Anne Arundel County."

Problem is, the request was NOT authorized by the County Executive. In fact, the Executive said "he was surprised and deeply concerned about the nature of the request."

There seem to be at least two possibilities here: The first, which I think is relatively unlikely, because this seems like the work of a hard core partisan, which Robey is and Leopold is not, is that Leopold put Robey and the underling up to the whole thing and is now content to let them take the fall.

The second, and more likely, option is that Robey contrived this as a way to garner ammunition for the 2010 elections, using the authority of his boss' office to make the request.

If the latter is true, and Robey has smeared the Executive's name, and the Administration's capacity to get assistance from the local delegation for his personal ends, my guess is the Executive will find a very special place in the bureaucracy for him. Mail room attendant has a nice ring to it.

Magothy in Decline

2008-02-21T13:04:00.002-05:00

In what appears to be a pretty consistent trend, the health of the Magothy River declined last year, according to the just released State of the Magothy Report Card. Among the worst performing indicators was underwater grasses, which experienced a 165 acre drop from 2006.

A "Work Group"? Uh oh.

2008-02-20T19:23:00.002-05:00

Apparently overwhelmed by having to make a decision where the facts are lining up against their impulses, the County Council last night announced that, rather than hire another expert to study the impact fee issue, they will form a "work group."

What's wrong with a "work group", you might ask? Well, according to Cathy Vitale, Council Chair, the group will be comprised of approximately 10 people representing "a broad spectrum of interests." That "broad spectrum" will no doubt include individuals from the construction, development, and business communities. In other words, the Council is inviting the foxes to take up guard of the henhouse.

A sham "work group" was set up when the impact fees were last revised in 2000, and not surprisingly, the group's recommendation was well below where the County consultant had pegged a full cost recovery fee.

By taking this step, the Council is passing the buck, making what is essentially a science based decision (i.e., what is the real cost of new development?) into a political one (i.e., how much is the development community going to allow us to raise this fee?).

Frederick County Adopts Moratorium

2008-02-20T15:53:00.002-05:00

Fed up with new development outstripping its infrastructure, the Frederick County Commissioners have put a 2-year moratorium on some new construction in unincorporated portions of the County.

Something for Anne Arundel's developers to keep in mind when cry foul about finally having to pay their fair share.

Examiner Laments Poor Public Turnout on Impact Fees

2008-02-19T09:19:00.002-05:00

By all accounts the last Council hearing on impact fee increases was packed with shills for the development industry. Housebuilders, realtors, and business interests enumerated the reasons why it's a "bad idea" to make new growth pay its own way. Testimony was so one-sided, it began to concern the press.

There is a second hearing this evening, 7pm in the Council chambers. It's important for the public to turn out in force in support of the County Executive's proposed impact fee increase, so that the discussion isn't driven by those who have a financial stake in forcing existing taxpayers to shoulder the burden for new development.

Leopold Appeals to Legislature

2008-02-18T13:33:00.002-05:00

Sunday's Sun includes a list of the items that the County Executive is hoping to procure during the 2008 legislative session. Included are:

Allowing the County to re-coup the $100,000 the Health Department spent in testing well for fly ash contamination from the $1 million fine MDE levied on Constellation and the Reliable Mining operation.
Charging more money for restaurant health inspection permits.
Collecting additional funds from the State to help provide bonuses for science/math/engineering teachers.
Allowing detention facilities to administer polygraph tests to new hires.

Wishing Rock

2008-02-16T16:09:00.002-05:00

Everyone knows about Anne Arundel County's great rivers and Bay frontage, but there are many other sites of interest that many people, including quite a few who have lived here for decades, aren't aware of.

This is the first in an occasional series of pieces that I will write about these special places.

In Pasadena, in the ever shrinking swath of green space between Route 100 and Ritchie Highway, lies one of the few, true stone outcroppings in the County. At the top of a hill, behind a small industrial park, off Wishing Rock Road, lies the Magothy Quartzite Quarry, also known as "Wishing Rock."

All of Anne Arundel County lies in what is known as the western coastal plain, basically, the last bit of land sloping down from the piedmont (literally, the "feet of the mountains") into the Bay. Almost all of the soils here are made up of sand and gravel, washed down from the mountains, and clay. Sandstone, a sedimentary rock formed by concretized sand and pebbles, and heavy in iron, occurs in the soil, particularly in the vicinity of the Magothy River. But, these hulking masses of quartzite above the ground are unique.

Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the site is believed to have been a quarry site for Native Americans (around 5000 BC), looking to fashion spear or cutting blades, as stone sufficient to hold an edge was very scarce locally. In more recent times, a previous owner of the site actually quarried some of the sand and gravel from the site, but that appears to have desisted.

As well as having been disturbed by mining, the site has apparently been a popular hang out for teens as many of the stones have been tagged with spray paint and beer cans litter some of the site. The stones have even gathered something of a cult following.

Nonetheless, the monoliths, situated in a dense sylvan setting can also be a place for reflection and quiet thought. The site is located on private property, and is not currently accessible to the public.

There are actually several stones at the site.

Many of the stones are now covered with graffiti

State of the Magothy Presentation

2008-02-16T11:23:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year when each of the river organizations is releasing its State of the River report. The Magothy is no exception. The announcement is below:

2008 State of the Magothy River Meeting

Do you, family, or friends enjoy spending time on the Magothy River? Would you like to find out how you can help to protect and restore this precious resource? Would you like to hear about all of the great things happening on your river?

The Magothy River Association will hold its sixth annual “State of the Magothy River” presentation on Wednesday, February 20, 2008, starting at 7:00 PM. The meeting will feature the annual Magothy River Index (with a new format this year) and a Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail overview.

Scheduled speakers:
1) 2007 Magothy River Index. Prepared by Dr. Peter Bergstrom, NOAA and MRA. (Produced each year since 2003)
2) Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail overview - Sarah Bransom, National Park Service
3) MRA Creek Watchers – Carl Treff, MRA Volunteer Coordinator
4) Update on the Magothy River Oyster Plan – Dick Carey, MRA Dive Coordinator/Dive Safety Officer

DISPLAYS:
1. Friends of Dobbins Island
2. Bayland Consultants, Mill & Dividing Creek Study
3. Severna Park Watershed Action Group display on North Cypress Branch
4. Department of Natural Resources-Natural Resources Police – Vessel Management Plan & Boating Safety
5. National Aquarium in Baltimore
6. Magothy River Land Trust – Conservation Easements in the Magothy Watershed
7. MRA Team Diver Poster: “Scientific Divers of the Magothy River for Boating and Diver Safety."
8. MRA – Oyster Reefs in the Magothy River
9. Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail

Doors and displays open at 6:30. Program to start at 7:00. Following the presentations, there will be refreshments and time to visit the displays and chat with watershed residents and the experts. Are you interested in clean water, healthy fish, living oyster reefs and limiting suburban effects on the Magothy? Come and see how you can help!

Date: Wednesday February 20, 2008
Place: Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, West Campus
Cade (Fine Arts) 219 (use Parking Lot F, closest to Ritchie)
directions at: http://www.aacc.cc.md.us/locationsandmaps/maps.cfm
Doors open 6:30 P.M., program 7:00-9:00 PM
Refreshments will be served
For Information call: Paul Spadaro, President of Magothy River Association, 410-647-8772, email: spadaro@cablespeed.com, or visit our web page: www.magothyriver.org
In case of inclement weather, if the college is closed, the program is postponed. College closings are announced on WNAV radio (1430 AM) and on the college web site, http://www.aacc.edu

Severn River Report Released

2008-02-14T12:09:00.002-05:00

Today's Post reports on the recent release of the Severn Riverkeeper's state of the River report. Bad news, particularly for the yellow perch.

Edgewater K-Mart Bombed?

2008-02-12T11:04:00.000-05:00

According to the County Police Report dated February 11th, two white males and a white female placed a small device on one of the shelves in the back of the K-Mart in Edgewater, which shortly thereafter exploded.

The store was evacuated and minor damage to merchandise occurred. The suspects were not located.

While this could have been nothing more than a dangerous prank, it could also be something more nefarious. What if it was a practice run for something more deadly?

Middlebrooks Wises Up...Sort of

2008-02-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

A curious thing happened on the way to the Council, it appears Ed Middlebrooks finally got a clue. During the discussions, late last year, about a dedicated fund for stormwater repairs, certain "anti-tax" Republicans like Ed Middlebrooks asked, "why not a dedicated fund for schools, or other infrastructure?" The question seems to have sparked a rare good idea from the Councilman.

Early last week, he sponsored a resolution, which passed the Council, asking the County Legislative Delegation to give the County the capacity to raise the transfer tax on the sale of homes to collect additional funds for school maintenance and other infrastructure backlogs.

It turns out, however, that the County Executive and most of the County Delegation oppose the increase and are unlikely to push the State enabling legislation.

The Executive's chief objection is that it would be better to achieve these ends by raising the impact fees. The problem is, impact fees can't be used for routine maintenance, but must instead be used to pay for expansion of existing facilities.

The proper solution involves compromise on each side, the Council owes it to the citizens of the County to hike the impact fees to 100% of cost, regardless of the whinery of the development community, and the Executive needs to recognize that the $1.5 billion backlog of school maintenance can't be dealt with through impact fees, and needs a steady funding stream of its own.

The most beautiful aspect of the proposals is that increases in both are unlikely to have much impact on the pocketbooks of existing residents and put the County on a much more sound fiscal footing for decades to come.

County Buckles on Church Case

2008-02-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

Pieces in the Sun and Capital re-count how, apparently, Riverdale Baptist Church, put Anne Arundel County over a barrel regarding the development of their mega-church in Lothian. The deal, struck between the County attorney and the Church, would require:

• The County Council must remove zoning rules such as those that block the building of a private school with fewer than 125 parking spaces on a scenic or historic road.

• Approval of building and grading permits for a two-story classroom that doesn't exceed 40,000 square feet; an entrance road from Wrighton Road; and two private fields.

• Approval by the county Health Department of septic and storm-water management facilities for the church and the school buildings.

• Permission to subdivide the tract to create three residential lots.

Sounds to me like the County is giving up the farm on this one.

Last Year's Crab Harvest Miserable

2008-02-04T13:32:00.000-05:00

According to DNR officials, last year's crab harvest is the second lowest in 30 years, about 22 million pounds.

Can anyone say "moratorium?"

Innocent Victims of the War on (Some) Drugs

2008-02-04T12:29:00.000-05:00

Sunday's Capital exposed a heartbreaking injustice going on at Animal Control Centers across the state. As a result of state controlled substance laws and a federal rule regulating control of ketamine, a narcotic used in euthanizing animals, Animal Control Centers, like the one in Anne Arundel County, are having to use a haphazard cocktail of less powerful drugs to put animals down.

The weaker drugs "can leave animals convulsing and seemingly conscious as they die." As one might expect, this has had significant negative consequences for employee morale and has even led animal control to stop "allowing owners to watch sick or old pets be put to sleep because the animals could jolt and appear conscious as they slipped into death." All this is to say nothing of the needless pain being inflicted on these poor animals, allegedly under the guise of keeping a "date rape drug" out of the hands of hoodlums.

The situation has also proven dangerous to the Animal Control Officers. Rather than subduing rabid or aggressive animals with drugs, they have had to resort to physical means, such as a control stick, to pacify the animals. This puts both the officers and animals at increased risk of injury.

I would like to implore the State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to grant County animal shelters, even those without full-time veterinary staff (like Anne Arundel's) to have access to the narcotics that they need to do their job properly. In the meantime, if there is a way for private practice vets to step up and fill the gap temporarily, it would be a much needed community service.

Perspective on Chesapeake Science Point

2008-01-31T21:17:00.000-05:00

Last week's post on Chesapeake Science Point (CSP), a County charter school, drew this thoughtful response from a reader close to the issue:

It has indeed been a tough month at the Chesapeake Science School. The administration and teachers are spread too thin while they deal with students whose behavior more closely resembles characters from the Lord of the Flies than what you would expect from students who attain high test scores. The school has lost their principal and one of the most important teachers they had. Anne Arundel County certainly has put this school under a larger microscope than that used on any other school but I do not believe it is a fair portrayal to cast AACPS as the wicked step-mother and CSP as the Cinderella. The reason that these students score so highly is not out of any particular innate intelligence but is a result of the extreme dedication and willingness to work far beyond reasonable expectations of some of the teachers and administration. Free tutoring has been offered on weekends, after school, into the evenings, and even during overnight "sleep overs" held in the school. Teachers are encouraged to give more than they can possibly ever get back - and many of the folks working at CSP have done so willingly. Not all teachers have been willing to work to this point, preferring to do their job well and leave it at that. Another problem that has contributed to some teacher burnout as well as to the current increase in unacceptable student behavior has been the lack of a serious disciplinary policy at the administrative level. Thus, the irony of Mr. Kandil being removed for "punishing" a student with push ups. This lack of a serious disciplinary program can also be viewed as a plus as it has allowed many students to stay in school after committing acts that would surely have spelled expulsion at most other schools. Many of the students are generally disrespectful to the same teachers who work so hard for them. While it is wonderful to see that parents showed up to support the school - and the teachers love each and every one of them, missing were the large number of parents who believe that every failure and behavioral issue is the fault of the teachers and the school. If you are a parent and do not want to instill morals, manners and work habits into your student - CSP is the best chance your child has, because of teacher dedication. Of course, the concerned parents are giving their children the best of both worlds. Now, teachers are working longer, and recently, harder hours than they are at other county schools. CSP has known for years now that they needed to hire a certified special education teacher yet they stopped looking this year after hiring a provisional teacher who had literally no training in special ed but did have a bachelor's degree in psychology. Is this an issue that can be compromised on? No - it is a federally mandated situation that AACPS is ultimately responsible for. Has the lack of a well-trained special education teacher put more stress on the teachers in the classroom who have had to modify lesson plans on their own while trying their best to meet the needs of the special education population? Yes, of course. The teachers were all told that everything was under control regarding their responsibility to convince the auditors that they are a school that can run just fine by themselves, thank you. To find out that something as obvious as the need for a certified, knowledgeable special education teacher was not being actively pursued is negatively impacting members of the faculty who feel misled. As to the question of facilities one must be aware that some of the classrooms at CSP are far too small to accomodate the 22 students that are crammed into them already. The school is currently physically pushed as far as it can possibly go. The desire to add a grade each year means that the need for a new facility has been on the board for quite a while. This is not a new issue. Is Anne Arundel County Public School system one rife with many rude and inefficient staff members? Yes, Are they out of bounds in giving this school one month to get their ducks in a row on issues that have long been clear to both parties? No way. When you consider that the school is now being run by administrators and teachers who have no idea if they have a job next year, that student behavior has taken a clear and dramatic downturn which must be dealt with by these teachers, that some parents who have anxiety are taking it out on their favorite targets - the teachers - and that these are all unnecessary results of poor planning on the parts of the CSP board and principal one can begin to understand why the county is actually doing the right thing here. CSP has great potential. It also has many serious problems that must be addressed to help this school reach that potential. That AACPS has already poured more than a fair share of money, time, and energy into helping this school get it together is being ignored when everyone cries foul. This story goes far beneath what looks to be a pretty surface, and I have not seen anyone with a shovel yet. It is time for those of us with an alternative seat at this circus to speak our truths.

Homestead Application Repeal Considered

2008-01-31T10:57:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I pointed readers to the new application that the State requires to extend the Homestead property tax credit this year. Now, faced with a public backlash regarding the application requirement, some in the General Assembly are seeking its repeal. Just to be on the safe side, if you own property in Maryland, you should probably submit the paperwork to avoid a steep tax hike.

Water Worries

2008-01-31T10:11:00.000-05:00

The southeast US was ground zero for diminished drinking water supplies in 2007. That was in due in large measure to a near record drought, but it was also exacerbated by unsustainable water use practices. There were numerous reports, for instance, of homeowners in Atlanta watering their lawns during the height of the dry spell.

Adding to the problem has been the explosive, unchecked growth of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Rather than acknowledge the inability of the environs to accommodate explosive growth, local officials have generally been willing to turn a blind eye to the coming disaster. One often wonders if things in Anne Arundel County are really so different.

In the southeast, having finally seen the handwriting on the wall, the Georgia legislature has finally approved a water management plan for the state. However, before the ink on the legislation was even dry, local parents and business interests starting pushing for an exemption from water restrictions for pools. Clearly, the seriousness of a drinking water shortage is lost on some people.

If we don't start managing our water resources more intelligently, and stop doing foolish things like storing our drinking water in open air reservoirs in arid climates, crystal clear pools and green golf courses are going to be the least of our worries.

Felling Oak Hill

2008-01-30T13:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's Sun had an interesting piece on the expansion of the Oak Hill Juvenile Detention Center in Laurel. The facility, nominally a branch of the Washington, DC public school system exists in a precarious position, both physically and philosophically.

Its history goes back to 1929, when the federal government granted the 888 acre tract, which is located between Fort Meade and the National Security Agency (NSA), to Washington, DC. The juvenile detention facility, which houses up to 188 incarcerated middle and high school youth, was built in 1967.

The current expansion flies in the face of Senator Cardin's persistent efforts to shut the facility down, and his arguments that the center should be moved back to the District because, the location is too remote and prevents close interaction between the youths and their families.

District officials have argued that because the center houses youth whose stay is often months at a time, the rural facility gives them the opportunity to spend time outdoors. The City's other juvenile detention center, in northeast DC, has no outdoor recreation space. In the past, the City has also expressed that it would be willing to part with much of the land beyond what is immediately being used, about 40-60 acres.

With BRAC and large-scale development planned for the area, expect this issue to heat up even more over the coming years.

Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

2008-01-29T19:29:00.000-05:00

It was a little over 2 years ago that it was reported that a St. Margaret's couple had filled in a 1/4 acre of Bay under the guise of reclaiming land lost by Hurricane Isabel.

Today, we get the good news from the Capital that all that fill will be coming out, thanks to a court order. In addition, the couple and their engineering firm, The Permit Coordinators, were fined $50,000 for the violations. The material removal is slated to be completed by the end of March, lest additional fines begin to mount. The aerial image below makes the infraction, and the once non-permitted lighthouse B&B (in red), pretty clear.

14234 Sharp's Point Road
Who knows, perhaps in 2 more years we'll be celebrating the removal of 40 truckloads of garbage from Judge Gatewood's property.

Judge Charged with Illegal Dumping

2008-01-26T13:11:00.000-05:00

Doug Gansler, Maryland's Attorney General, has joined Anne Arundel County in filing charges against Baltimore City District Judge Askew Gatewood, claiming that the Judge unlawfully dumped material into a wetland, undertook construction without a sediment control plan, and caused water pollution.

The charges stem from accusations that between Oct. 1, 2006, and Jan. 20, 2007 some 40 truckloads of construction debris, including, masonry rubble, asphalt, broken bathroom fixtures, electrical wiring, chunks of concrete and fine dust, were dumped along the Judge's 470 feet of shoreline.

To be fair, the Judge hasn't been convicted yet, but I'm quite skeptical that both the County and State would be so aggressive on this if they didn't think they had a strong case. If, however, he is convicted, the saddest thing about this whole incident is that a man who owns a $1.2+ million home (shown below), located essentially right on the Bay is so cheap, and so brazen, that he would take $10,000 worth of construction trash and dump it into the Patapsco River rather than dispose of the trash properly, and pay someone to repair the shoreline responsibly.

8401 Bay Road, Pasadena, MD

County Steps Up on Commercial Recycling

2008-01-26T12:27:00.000-05:00

According to a Capital report, the County Executive has submitted a bill to the County Council to expand curbside recycling service to businesses in the County. Already, 70 percent of homes in the County recycle, but the cost of additional recycling service has kept most businesses from joining in.

The cost of the program has not yet been made public, but it's an idea whose time came years ago. It's good to finally see an earnest effort to get it implemented.

A public hearing will be held on the bill at the February 19th Council meeting.

Charter School Crackdown

2008-01-24T19:57:00.000-05:00

What in the heck is going on with the Chesapeake Science Point charter school? It's been an extremely tough month for the charter school, a rare breed in Anne Arundel County. First, the principal, Fatih Kandil, was re-assigned by the school system. Then, a popular physics teacher, Ali Tuna, was re-assigned.

Now, the "school needs to hire a certified special education teacher, get a lease and site plan for a building for next year, and submit a three-year budget that will project their financial needs" in the next month or face closure.

This, despite the fact that the County school system currently has vacancies for 8 certified special education teachers.

These deficiencies are all topics that merit some concern, but that needs to be considered carefully, given the fact that the institution is only 2 1/2 years old. More important questions, to my mind, are what is the engagement of the student body, and how are the students doing?

On the first count, 150 students and parents wielding a 1,000 signature petition turned up at the recent school board meeting to support keeping the school open. Given that parental involvement is one of the best indicators of student achievement, this is a very encouraging sign. Granted, parents who put their children in a charter school are a self-selected group, but still, this level of engagement is impressive.

But how are the test scores? In 2006, Chesapeake Science Point students scored higher than the students of 15 other middle schools in the County on the Maryland School Assessment. Their 2006-2007 reading scores put them at better than all but five County middle schools [pdf] (there are 23 total). The math scores aren't as impressive, but put the school right in the middle of the pack [pdf].

The Superintendent insists he isn't out to shut down the charter school, but this is one experiment that I hope he will keep alive, as long as the parents are involved and the students are excelling.

Making Room for the Rivers

2008-01-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

When one thinks of a nation that has been successful in holding back the encroachment of the oceans, the Netherlands, perched precariously on the edge of the North Sea inevitably come to mind. So, when the Dutch decide that after hundreds of years of trying to wall the Sea out, that sea level rise associated with global climate change is going to make them shift strategies, it makes sense for the rest of the world to take heed.

Building bigger floodgates and higher levees is no longer an option. Instead, the Dutch are "embracing the water", letting the water back onto landscape, and allowing rivers, swollen with rainfall to re-connect with their floodplains. Many of these low areas have been farmed in the past, often because they have been laden with the nutrient-rich sediments deposited by the rivers during storms. Now, however, the Dutch government is paying farmers for their properties, so the natural hydrology can be restored.

Similar efforts are quietly taking place in the US, from the Missouri River system to Napa Valley and Texas.

As has been said here before, during the current re-consideration of the General Development Plan, it is incumbent upon the County Executive and planning staff to take this issue under serious consideration, not only for Bay and river fronting properties, but for those along streams and creeks higher in the landscape that, under healthy conditions, can arrest flooding hazards downstream.

West Street Arts District Proposed

2008-01-21T19:57:00.000-05:00

Today's Capital discusses a proposal by the Mayor to create an arts and entertainment overlay zone along the West Street corridor, from Monticello Avenue to Chinquapin Round Road. If created, the district would exempt arts venues from local amusement and admission taxes, and would provide tax breaks to developers building affordable spaces for artists to live and work in.

The idea is certainly one worth considering, but more importantly, this is one of the early volleys in the upcoming battle for the future of West Street. The first, arguably, having been the conversion of the Johnson Lumber site to the mixed use 1901 West St complex.

Now, the area between West Gate Circle and Chinquapin Round Road is largely comprised of eyesores: dumpy retail, car dealerships, and more car dealerships. There are some residential and formerly residential commercial (e.g., law offices) units along the stretch as well.

The biggest challenge is going to be to get the Hyundai, Scion/Toyota, Acura, Honda, Dodge, and Jeep dealerships to trade their prime pavement for the opportunity to cash in on loft condos. This zoning change, perhaps, represents an opportunity to make the economics of such a move a bit more favorable for developers.

It's a shift that is going to draw the ire of some, but because of its location and proximity to infrastructure, is likely to occur in time, with or without the tax breaks.

College Creek Then and Now

2008-01-20T21:07:00.000-05:00

Following up on the last post, I am going to post a snippet from a 1913 Maryland Geological Survey map of Anne Arundel County. But first things first. Apparently, what we now know as College Creek was then called "Dorsey's Creek."

1913
The road crossing the tip of the Creek is Clay Street, maintaining basically the same configuration as it does today. At that point, however, it was likely a short bridge crossing. The headwaters forked, with one branch heading south toward West Street, and the other heading west, towards what is now Admiral Heights. Former rail lines, running east-west and north-south can be seen criss-crossing the confluence.

Below is a current aerial, with the historic rail lines drawn, roughly, in white.

2005
There is clearly a huge area of fill where the Glenwood Apartments sit, as well, interestingly, to the north, where Calvary Methodist Church and St. John's College are currently located.

The Great Glenwood Gorge

2008-01-20T14:03:00.001-05:00

For three years, the sinkholes in front of the Glenwood Apartments, located off Clay Street in Annapolis, have been expanding. And, for three years, the Annapolis Housing Authority, who owns the property, and the City of Annapolis have dawdled on how to handle the situation.

Below are photos of the site from the Capital.

Photo by J. Henson
The City Administrator and acting director of Public Works, Bob Agee, said after his employees went out to the sinkholes last year, they couldn't devise how to stop it, or what was even causing it. Here's a hint courtesy Google Earth:

To the right is College Creek. In the center are the Glenwood Apartments, with the location of the sinkholes marked with ovals. To the left, marked roughly by the pentagon, are the headwaters of College Creek. Notice how they disappear between this point and the Creek? That's because they have almost certainly been piped under the fill that forms the foundation for the parking lot on that side of Glenwood. Chances are, the pipes have failed, the soil is washing out into College Creek, and the land is subsiding. Viola, sinkholes!

So what is this right way to fix this mess? How about "daylighting" the stream [pdf]? Pulling out the fill, peeling back the stream banks, and restoring the waterway will mean losing some parking (most of which has been lost for the past three years), and may mean placing a bridge or large culvert where Clay Street crosses it, but, it will arrest the degradation, prevent the additional siltation of College Creek, and be an amenity for the residents of Glenwood.

Let's hope the parties involved get their act together before damage to the foundation of the apartment complex does occur.

The Mayor Strikes Back

2008-01-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

Confronted with Alderman Dick Israel's charter amendment to strip the mayorship of some of its power over the City Administrator, the Mayor has decided to take the argument to the court of public opinion. Today's Sun has an editorial by Mayor Moyer decrying the move as "an assault on representative government."

In the piece, Moyer begins by comparing Mr. Israel to Oliver Cromwell, the 17th century British parliamentarian who helped lead a revolution against King Charles I, an advocate of the Divine Right of Kings.

She then cites a litany of projects that have been undertaken under her watch since 2002: "improvements to Edgewood Road, Forest Drive sidewalks, beginning the restoration of the Historic Maynard-Burgess House, rebuilding the Annapolis Police Department." I don't know enough about the road and sidewalk projects to say whether they've been a success, but to my knowledge, after six years, the Maynard-Burgess House still remains uncompleted and the Police Station project is mired in legal problems. The Market House "restoration" was noticeably absent from her list.

Ms. Moyer may have a point, that stripping the already weak Mayorship of its bureaucratic oversight capacity is a bad idea, but with her ongoing track record of misadministration, it's not clear she's the best situated to convincingly make that case.

Fort Meade to Burn Gas from Garbage

2008-01-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

Discussed here almost a two years ago, the idea of Fort Meade utilizing landfill gas to fuel operations at the base appear close to being formalized.

According to the Sun, county officials have confirmed that methane gas, produced as a result of garbage decomposition at the Millersville landfill will be pumped, via a 5-mile pipeline, to Fort Meade. Currently, the gas is just burned off at the landfill, but the new arrangement will allow the County to raise revenue through the sale of the gas to the base.

This is a great use of the tens of thousands of cubic feet of methane generated by the garbage on a daily basis, and represents, at least in the near term, a renewable source of fuel based right here in the County.

I would urge the County Executive, the Council, and those at the Department of Public Works to consider the potential capture and sell methane gas being produced at the other County landfill facilities in Glen Burnie and Sudley as well.

Homestead Head's Up

2008-01-18T14:51:00.000-05:00

The Homestead Tax Credit was put in place to limit the amount of assessment increase that homeowners can expect on their property tax bill. Any homeowner, regardless of income level, is eligible to take the credit on their primary residence.

However, in an effort to avoid individuals taking the credit on multiple properties, the legislature passed a law requiring that a one-time application be made in order to receive the credit into the future. The application, at the State Department of Taxation and Assessments website, can be found here.

According to the site, "This credit can have a significant impact on your real estate taxes regardless of your property’s value or your income level. If the property is used as your principal residence, you are strongly encouraged to complete this application."

Council Flinches on Impact

2008-01-16T20:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the County Council had their work session on the County Executive's impact fee proposal. The bold plan, predictably, drew quite a bit of heat from the Council, for reasons ranging from the disingenuous (see Ed Middlebrooks feigning concern about "affordable housing"), to bad-faith misdirection (see Cathy Vitale: "The numbers that were produced were not based on one specific methodology"), to being insulted that the Executive gave the Council the legislation rather than vice versa (see Jamie Benoit's request to have the Council hire its own consultant).

From the start, there was never a question that a significant hike in impact fees was going to be an uphill battle, despite the fact that several members of the sitting Council blamed the Owens' administration for a failure to appropriately hike the fees.

Now, I certainly won't begrudge the Council its due diligence, but to question the consultant, James Nicholas' credentials or his "methodology" strikes me as a bit desperate. After all, Nicholas literally wrote the book ("A Practitioner’s Guide to Development Impact Fees" (1991)) on impact fees, is an urban & regional planning professor at the University of Florida, and has been a consultant on the issue to at least 5 states, 28 counties, 22 cities, and the US government. His resume can be found here [pdf].

If the Council can find a more qualified consultant, I would certainly welcome his or her assessment of the County's situation. If, however, the Council is just chafed to learn that every time a new home goes in, the taxpayers of Anne Arundel County get rogered in the pocketbook, they should do the right thing and make new development pay its own way.

This is, arguably, the most important issue that will come before this Council. Thousands of new homes are slated to come to the County as a result of BRAC, and if we don't have serious impact fees in place when they do, taxpayers will be subsidizing each new home to the tune of something like $20,000 apiece. That's the way business has been done in the past, and it's why, despite adding 60,000 people from 1990 to 2000, our tax burden continues to increase.

UPDATE: Sun coverage.

Advisory Commission Recommends End to Oystering the Commons

2008-01-15T19:48:00.000-05:00

According to a piece by the Post, the Maryland Oyster Advisory Commission, set up by the State of Maryland is prepared to release a report dramatically changing the nature of oyster harvesting in the Bay.

The report recommends that, in order to help the oyster population bounce back from its historic collapse, free-ranging harvest of public oyster beds be scaled back, and instead move the industry towards private, "shellfish farms."

Despite the fact that $40 million has been spent on oyster restoration, the population remains at about 1 percent of its historic levels. The negligible impact of these dollars is at least in part due to the fact that much of that money has been spent on a watermen welfare system, where the State and conservation groups pay to grow and set spat, only to be harvested a few years later - so called "put and take" programs.

Given the miserable condition of the population and the exceedingly small group of people left profiting from its demise, I think the report's recommendations are right on the money. We'll see, in short order, if the Governor and General Assembly have the courage to stand behind them.

A Brief History of the Ratrie Property

2008-01-14T19:26:00.000-05:00

A review of the Fourth Circuit decision in Crofton Ventures v. G & H Partnership (2001) has an extensive description of the property that adjoins the County trail segment through Odenton.

Initially, the property was intended to be 32 acres peeled off from an existing 55-acre tract of land owned by Harry and Dahlia Ratrie, and was going to be used as a location to store totaled cars and sell their parts.¹ The property was sold in 1991 with the previous owners affirming that, to the best of their knowledge, no hazardous waste had been stored on the property.

In 1995, when Crofton Ventures began to develop the property, they quickly found a waste dump that contained 285 fully or partially buried 55-gallon drums of various offensive substances, most notably Trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent and known carcinogen. Sampling confirmed "high levels" of TCE in the soil and groundwater at the site.

Turns out, the location had previously been an asphalt plant, and that the drums, which contained a mixture of asphalt and TCE (a solvent to test asphalt) were almost certainly stored on the property as part of the operation. Though Mr. Ratrie was owner of the property during at least part of the time when TCE was dumped, he denied knowledge of the dumping in court. Conveniently, no record of the drums' disposal turned up.

Upon discovering the drums, Crofton Ventures "cleaned up the site."

The question that remains in my mind is, what, if any, pollutants remain on the site, and how many more of these silent time bombs lay buried in our abandoned mine sites?

¹ This activity will be the subject of a future post.

Maxwell Offers Home for Artwork

2008-01-14T13:56:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that John Leopold and Kevin Maxwell don't play well together. So, it wasn't surprising when Superintendent Maxwell grabbed the opportunity to embarrass the County Exec in the latest drama surrounding the display of children's art work on the Calvert Center.

Maxwell has extended an offer to the good folks at ArtWalk to hang the paintings at a school facility. While it's unfortunate that Leopold and Maxwell continue to wage their battle against each other, I can hardly think of more deserving beneficiaries of their squabble than the kids of Clay Street.

BREAKING NEWS: Odenton Dump Just the Tip of the Trashberg

2008-01-14T13:14:00.000-05:00

Several new facts have come to light since Sunday's story on the plastic dump just "recently discovered" along the right-of-way for the WB&A Trail connecting the Anne Arundel County system to the trailhead in Prince George's County.

First, contrary to the claims of officials quoted in the Capital article, that the dump was only recently discovered, it has been confirmed that the existence of the site has been known for quite some time, and that steps were not taken to address it sooner.

In addition, the manner in which the current clean-up was handled, apparently without the involvement of the proper regulatory authorities, such as MDE, may prevent the County from being able to file a criminal complaint against the prior owners of the property, Piney Orchard Master Partnership, a subsidiary of Constellation Energy Group.

To make matters worse, there is now word that an adjacent property, a former sand and gravel mine, is currently home to an unknown quantity of 55-gallon drums of fluid, currently leaching into the Little Patuxent River. The property is the site of the now infamous Crofton Ventures Limited Partnership v. G & H Partnership case [pdf].

More to come....

WB&A Trail Extension Opening Delayed

2008-01-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

Ask anyone who lives in Anne Arundel County, particularly anyone who lives along the Route 2 corridor, what they think of the WB&A Trail, and chances are, they think it's a tremendous community resource. Sure, there were initially reservations about whether or not it would bring "unsavory" elements into the neighborhoods that abut the trail, but those concerns were largely unfounded.

An extension from Odenton to Bowie, which will connect the Anne Arundel and Prince George's County trails, is now nearly complete. The opening of the final segment, which includes a footbridge over the Little Patuxent River, is now being held up, in part, because of an enormous dump site of plastic waste adjacent to the trail. The County has already spent $47,000 removing 230 tons of plastic from the site, but several hundred more tons still remain. At least some of the plastic trash bears the logo of Nevamar, a plastic manufacturer that was based in Odenton from 1943 to 2004.

Let's hope the County pursues compensation for these remediation efforts if a culprit can be pinpointed. And, kudos to the County for pursuing this expansion of our well-traveled trail network.

Below is a map of the Anne Arundel County portion of trail's current configuration.

UPDATE: Sun coverage.

Alderman Proposes Empowering City Administrator

2008-01-13T08:17:00.000-05:00

Ward One Alderman, Dick Israel (D), has proposed a charter amendment to significantly broaden the the powers of Annapolis' City Administrator. Among the proposed changes are: allowing the Administrator the power to take charge of hiring and firing decisions in the City bureaucracy and the ability to set the compensation levels for director-level staff.

It appears, however, that the Mayor isn't too keen on the plan, contending that it will create "an adversarial government," pitting the Mayor against the Administrator. Her consternation is somewhat understandable given that Alderman Israel's motivation is "an election does not guarantee that a mayor will have the managerial skills needed to effectively supervise the delivery of routine municipal services." Ouch.

In a certain way, it may have a freeing effect on a Mayor, like this one, who refuses to make tough hiring and firing decisions in the face of repeated administrative incompetence. Once enacted those responsibilities would clearly be the purview of the Administrator. The irony here is that if this bill passes, and the Mayor is stripped of authority, it will be precisely because the sitting Mayor failed to exercise the authority she does have and put an end to the string of embarrassing project mismanagement that has dogged her Administration.

The amendment will likely be introduced at tomorrow's Council meeting.

Alderman Israel, in his own words.

Maryland Schools Ranked Among Highest

2008-01-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

A report just released by Education Week ranks Maryland's public schools among the top in the nation. The report, Quality Counts, ranks Maryland third best in the nation, behind only New York and Massachusetts. Each of the States and DC were ranked according to 17 indicators in six broad categories. Among Maryland's strengths, early childhood education, adult outcomes, spending, and standards. Areas for improvement include college readiness, and accountability for quality, and building and supporting capacity in the teaching profession.

Congratulations to the teachers and students in Maryland Schools, and something for each of us to think about next time we wonder where our tax dollars are going.

Compromise Forged on Subdivision Bill

2008-01-09T21:01:00.000-05:00

At Monday's County Council meeting, Councilman Reilly's bill to exempt so called "minor subdivisions" from school adequacy of public school provisions ran up against considerable opposition, and faced substantive amendments by Councilman Cohen.

The bill, ostensibly designed to address cases where local landowners are being held up in the process of subdividing their land so their children or other family members can build homes, was opposed by several groups, including South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development (SACReD), on the grounds that it was too open-ended. Or, as Mike Shay said, "The bill was never really crafted to serve the people they were intending to serve."

Councilman Cohen's amendments narrowed the number of new units that can be created from five to three and require the land owner to possess the property for five years before subdividing. Curiously, Councilman Reilly opposed both.

Lifeguard Removal Bill Beaten Back

2008-01-09T12:24:00.000-05:00

On Monday, the County Council defeated one of the more bizarre pieces of legislation in recent memory. Councilman Reilly sponsored a bill, apparently at the behest of a local hotel owner, to remove the requirement that hotels with pools of a depth of 5 feet or less have a lifeguard. The smarmy rationale of the hotel owner, Steve Merchant was that, "having no lifeguards may have parents better monitoring their children." Yes, let's adopt a laissez faire attitude to the protection of tykes in water wings and see which ones make it to adulthood.

Mr. Reilly, dumbfounded that the bill got only his vote, offered, "my peers were concerned about protection in spite of the economic cost." Imagine that, the County Council, whose charge certainly includes public safety, is more concerned about children drowning in the local Motel 8 than they are about the hotel having to pay a high school student minimum wage to monitor the pool. Have they no sense of priorities?

Even more confounding, however, was Health Officer Fran Phillips' support of the bill. Her defense? “We don’t see a detriment to public health, as we will still monitor the pool’s operation.” Yes, because checking the pool weekly for high bacteria levels is in any way, shape, or form related to the capacity of children to drown in the absence of supervision. She also said, "most of the county’s six drownings last year were outside of pools." Perhaps that's because the pools had lifeguards and the law is working.

This is now at least the third time in the past year that the County's Health Department has underwhelmed me. The first two being their blame deflection game regarding the fly ash situation in Gambrills, and their persistent defensiveness in the face of the inadequacy of their waterway bacteria monitoring program.

Turning Table Scraps Into Topsoil

2008-01-08T15:58:00.000-05:00

Last month, I discussed a report that Anne Arundel County was seeking ways to reduce its waste stream. I mentioned the opportunities for recycling and composting, but it wasn't until just today that I realized Anne Arundel County has a large-scale, commercial composting operation right in Crofton.

Chesterfield Farms, at 1230 Cronson Boulevard, accepts all organic material, manure, and food waste (but, no tree stumps), for conversion into high quality compost. They sell the finished material from their Crofton site, along with green roof soil blends and double-shredded bark mulch.

This presents a huge opportunity for the County to reduce its refuse load, as organic materials make up 2/3's of the waste stream in the US. The County already runs an aggressive backyard composting program, but it would be interesting to see it undertake a curbside composting pilot program as well, perhaps in a portion of the County where backyard composting is impractical.

Let's Get Ready for the 2008 Session

2008-01-07T14:48:00.000-05:00

Today's Capital has profiles and contact information for the entire Anne Arundel County Legislative Delegation.

Anne Arundel County's Delegates and Senators are a strange mix. We are represented by the Speaker of the House, one of the most powerful individuals in the Assembly, but also by the "least effective Senator", and the "fourth least effective Delegate".

We're also home to at least one Delegate who can't seem to get himself out from under clouds of suspicion about various illegal activities.

Newcomers, James King (R) and Steve Schuh (R) bring a set of fresh faces, and some interesting new ideas to the Assembly. Let's hope they can all work together to make Maryland a happier, healthier place to live.

More Market House Madness

2008-01-06T13:15:00.000-05:00

Just when you didn't think things could get any worse with the Market House situation in Annapolis, the management company operating the facility sues the City for $2 million. Site Realty Group, which won the lease for the prime property on Annapolis' harbor a couple of years ago, is suing the City for $2 million, alleging that the bungled air conditioning situation has cost them lost rent. They are also asserting that the City didn't allow them to rent sidewalk space to vendors.

With regard to the insufficient air conditioning, the City's defense appears to be that they had negotiated a situation with Site Realty whereby the unit would be fixed in January 2008, after the heavy shopping season. In the case of the absent sidewalk stalls, the Mayor claims never to have been made aware of such provisions. To be fair, I had never heard discussions of sidewalk rentals mentioned before either. Of course, I've never read the contract.

My understanding is that the situation is so bad now, that the Market House will be closed during weekdays through the winter. How the City can continue to screw up this situation, which really should have been a boon to downtown, is beyond me. It's almost as vexing as how the Mayor can allow those who got the City into this mess to stay in its employ.

Leopold Proposes Bold Hike in Impact Fees

2008-01-04T14:29:00.000-05:00

According to today's Capital, last night the County Executive unveiled a sweeping proposal to raise impact fees on new development to make it cover its full cost, as recommended by a consultant to the County. The impact fees would be raised for both residential and commercial projects, with residential development having to pay for increased school, road, and public safety infrastructure costs, and commercial having to pay for roads and public safety.

In practical terms, that means the impact fee for an average home will increase from about $4,500 to $20,500. The fees on commercial development will be significantly more, likely weighted towards meeting traffic needs. The money collected through these fees is used to provide additional infrastructure to accommodate growth.

Predictably, the Homebuilders' lobbyist, and vice president of Ribera Development, Eric DeVito cried wolf, saying, "the new fees are so high that it may shut down building in Anne Arundel." We should all be so lucky to see such a day.

Once introduced, the future of the bill is in the hands of the County Council. Let's hope they don't gut this important piece of legislation in favor of pandering to the development community. It's about time that new development started to pay its own way, rather than relying on subsidies from the public-at-large.

Our Own Sweet Lord Deemed Dumbest on Wall Street

2008-01-03T13:22:00.001-05:00

Own very own Albert Lord, he of the personal golf course in South County fame, was awarded "Dumbest on Wall Street for 2007" by business website TheStreet.com. Why, you might ask?

Mr. Lord, the CEO of Sallie Mae, the nation's leading provider of student loans, first, apparently bungled a buy-out deal, leading the company's stock price to implode.

Then, Mr. Lord, faced with a margin call, had to sell 1.2 million shares of stock (~$25 million worth). As a result of Mr. Lord's actions, the company now finds itself in a position where it may have to spend over $1 billion to purchase more shares in order to consummate the original leveraged buyout.

In a final flourish, "a recent conference call with analysts turned into a piece of performance art in obfuscation and offensive asides. Oh, and don't forget the cursing and threats. He told analysts that they would be put through a metal detector at an upcoming meeting."

Someone who captured the recent Sallie Mae conference call did us the service of putting it up on YouTube. Mr. Lord, apparently, was in a quite a rush to exit stage right. Listen below. [WARNING: Not child friendly]

The full transcript can be found here. [WARNING: Also not child friendly].

Here's hoping Mr. Lord's environmental mess of a golf course is put on hold, indefinitely, due to "financial miscalculations."

Pork as "Protection"

2008-01-02T14:57:00.000-05:00

Chalk up another local pork barrel project masquerading under the guise of "security spending." First, it was the tank that would protect Annapolis from the famed Al Quaeda Panzer Division. That was $1.4 million down the drain. Now, the County is applying for a $670,000 federal "grant" to buy a special boat that will allegedly "patrol Anne Arundel County waterways" attempting to "detect biological or chemical attacks and respond to nuclear explosions." According to Cathy Vitale, whose husband is a firefighter, "the boat will benefit the County." Sure it will. Sounds like a delightful place to have fundraisers.

Now first things first. County taxpayers foot the bill for federal "grants" just as surely as they do for the money the County spends, it's just that it gets to go to Washington first, and get mingled with the dollars from taxpayers in the other 50 states. If one considers this a waste of our tax money, we certainly shouldn't be burning the dollars of Montanans and Californians on it either. And, it is a waste.

The County already has a fire boat, the Lady Anne, that "patrols during major events like fireworks, sailboat races and the Bay Bridge swim." That would seem to mean that the other 362 days a year, it's free to putter up the Magothy, Severn, and South, looking for ill-intentioned ne'er do wells. Is it? If so, I've never seen it happen.

The ridiculousness of this whole episode is compounded by the fact that the County Department of Inspections and Permits is still relying on citizens, rather than its own inspectors, to catch violations along the waterfront, because it lacks the will or the money to purchase an inspection craft to patrol the most environmentally sensitive areas in the County, its 480 miles of shoreline.

So, while we're off asking for federal handouts for fire boats to sniff the trail of unlikely boogey men, we continue to allow the very real destruction of our County's natural resources on a daily basis for want of the ability to provide real monitoring.

Oystered Out

2008-01-02T10:41:00.000-05:00

According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, the current population of oysters in the Bay is around 1 percent of where it was when Europeans explored the area in the early 1600s. How did we get from a situation where there were so many oysters in the Chesapeake that they could filter the Bay once every three or four days, to the situation where they can filter it perhaps once or twice a year?

It's a story, like so many others of this sort, of greed, mismanagement, and in the end, a lack of will. Unfortunately, these traits persist in the Bay region to this day. A great little primer I've come across is The Oyster Wars of the Chesapeake Bay by John Wennersten, published in 1981. Several interesting details from the book follow.

In 1884, 15,000,000 bushels of oysters were taken from the Bay, which represented the height of the fishery. (As recently as 2005, it was down to 32,000 bushels).

Did you realize that the aquatic boundary between Maryland and Virginia, east of the Potomac River was largely the product of oyster bar harvesting disputes that had to be settled by the US Supreme Court? And, that watermen on both sides of the border were killed in skirmishes over harvesting rights?

When do you think first State-funded survey of the oyster population in the state took place? 1980? 1950? It was actually 1876, and the Naval Lieutenant who headed up the mission, Francis Winslow, warned then that oysters were being taken from the Bay at a rate far greater than natural reproduction could offset.

We are told that the downfall of the Chesapeake's oysters was disease, Dermo and MSX, but the truth is, disease has been able to sound the death knell for a population that was already ravaged to within an inch of its life by human greed. And yet, after 130 years, we have learned very little. We continue to allow menhaden, crabs, and other aquatic organisms to be taken from the Bay at an unsustainable rate. Will 2008 be the year we finally learn from our mistakes?

The chart below is great source of oyster milestones on the Chesapeake from NOAA [Click to enlarge].

Tragedies vs. Statistics

2008-01-01T15:05:00.000-05:00

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." Joseph Stalin

A Monday Sun article beautifully re-affirms Stalin's maxim. We are presented with a portrait of "suburban" violence as being deliberate and rational, whereas urban murders are "drug-fueled" and "impersonal."

The sentiment in the article seems to be that, in the 'burbs, you're likely to be killed by people you know, whereas in the City, you could be killed at any time, as part of random violence. Of course, as described in the article, the "highest profile homicide" in Baltimore County was carried out by hooligans from the City who were executing a police informant in Rosedale. Are we to believe that this sort of tit-for-tat is unknown when conducted solely within the City limits?

I suspect the article was cobbled together as a well-intentioned end of the year crime wrap-up, but the truth of the matter is that it's precisely the sort of piece that continues to lull enclaved suburbanites into the delusion that if they can just stay on good terms with their spouses and business partners, and avoid the hellish heart of darkness on the inner harbor, they can safely ignore the hundreds of victims sacrificed on the streets of Baltimore each year.

Upcoming Hearing on Impact Fees

2008-01-01T12:57:00.000-05:00

The Planning Advisory Board will meet on Thursday, January 3, 2008, at 6:00 p.m. in the Chesapeake Room, Second Floor, Heritage Office Complex, 2664 Riva Road, Annapolis, MD.

The Board’s agenda is:

6:00 - Call to Order; Public Hearing on Legislation regarding Impact Fees

Speakers that have signed up will be invited to speak. Public Officials, Documented representative of civic, neighborhood, business or professional associations will be given five (5) minutes to speak; Individuals will be given three (3) minutes to speak

Written testimony will be accepted until January 10, 2008. Please mail to:

Office of Planning and Zoning
PAB, Attention: Sharon Faulkner
2664 Riva Road, MS 6403
Annapolis, MD 21401

Requests for more information can be addressed to Sharon Faulkner, Office of Planning and Zoning, at (410) 222-7432. Assistance for persons with disabilities will be provided upon request at least one week prior to the meeting. Call Sharon Faulkner, Office of Planning and Zoning, at (410) 222-7432 or the Americans with Disabilities Act Office TDD/TTY at 410-222-4355.

Capital Homicides

2007-12-31T11:45:00.000-05:00

The nine murders in Annapolis this year mark an unfortunate record. The Capital has deemed it the top local story of 2007, and I'm inclined to agree. The nonchalance with which this sort of violence is accepted by both the City and the communities in which it is occurring is increasingly frustrating.

Details describing the victims and their murderers (where they have been identified) can be found here.

Eradicating English Ivy

2007-12-30T08:50:00.000-05:00

Many people plant English ivy (Hedera helix) in their yard thinking that it's a nice, easy-to-maintain, evergreen ground cover, or will help stabilize steep slopes (it won't). They're correct that it's low maintenance and green year round, and that's part of the problem. The plant, which is native to western Asia, north Africa, and parts of Europe has found a very comfortable home in the eastern US, and spreads aggressively, shading out native seedlings and strangling mature trees, as in the picture below:

This is the perfect time of year to begin an eradication plan. English ivy can be removed mechanically (i.e. by hand) fairly easily as the tendrils are shallow-rooted and will come up in clumps if yanked. If you have ivy climbing trees, as in the photo above, girdle each of the vines around the circumference of the tree. By the spring or summer, the vines should be dead and will be much easier to remove.

Like any invasive control effort, if the plant is established in your yard, it may take two or three rounds to get it removed completely, but once you do, you will have made a much more hospitable environment for native plants and done an important part in cleaning up our region.

Comparing County Tax Rates

2007-12-29T12:49:00.000-05:00

While making my way around other state blogs, I came across this informative tax table from the Maryland Department of Taxation and Assessments.

There's an awful lot of discussion about Anne Arundel being a "tax cap, tax averse" County. In fact, the County Executive seems to rattle it off at this point like it's second nature. So, just how "taxed" is Anne Arundel County relative to other jurisdictions in the State?

Let's begin with size. With an estimated population of 509,300 in 2006, Anne Arundel County is the fifth largest of 24 County size jurisdictions in Maryland (smaller than only Montgomery, Prince George's, and Baltimore Counties, and Baltimore City).

At $.87/$100 of assessed value, our real property tax rate is 8th lowest in the State. Our personal income tax rate, the so-called "piggyback" tax, is 2.56%, the 3rd lowest in the State. Only Worcester and Talbot Counties, with less than 1/10 the population have lower rates in Maryland.

We may well be "tax averse", after all, I can't say I've ever met anyone who relished paying taxes, but for anyone to assert that we are "overtaxed", particularly compared to other jurisdictions in the State, is not accurate¹.

To my knowledge, we still have an enormous school maintenance backlog (it was $1.5 billion 18 months ago), perhaps it's time to consider bumping up the piggyback tax to fix our schools before we have any more embarrassing situations like the one that occurred with Severna Park High School in 2006.

¹ I will say, however, that taxes in Baltimore City are out of hand. What do you get for a property tax rate ($2.268/$100 assessed) that is more than double the next highest in the State and a personal income tax rate (3.05%) that is 7th highest? Atrocious schools, failing infrastructure, and two murders every three days. Something needs to change in Maryland's biggest city.

Historic Eastport in Pictures

2007-12-29T12:24:00.000-05:00

As is so often the case, wonderful treasures that give us a glimpse back into the past of our beloved region were sitting buried away in someone's forgotten storage pile.

Thankfully, when the owner's of the Dawson Gallery came across their stack of photos of 1930s Annapolis and Eastport, they turned them over to historian Ginger Doyel, who is working on an historical account of Eastport. Some of the photos, taken by Annapolis photographer Howard Hayman, and additional details can be found on the Capital on-line here.

Leopold Vows Firm Stand on Impact Fees

2007-12-28T22:00:00.000-05:00

Today's Sun has an article on decreasing home sales in the County, dovetailing that finding with Executive Leopold's increasingly firm stand in favor of a significant increase in impact fees. Predictably, the homebuilders got on the record mewling that "higher impact fees would limit their opportunities to provide affordable housing." Leopold responded, with all that really needs to be said about that laugher, "the enormous success of the homebuilding industry in the previous few years has not produced a significant increase in work-force housing units." In fact, I'm pretty hard pressed to identify any "work-force" housing units that have been produced in the County, outside the few theoretically mandated by the City of Annapolis.

It's a wonder these people can sleep at night. Put an inclusionary zoning bill in front of them for their endorsement and they send their top shill to the County Council to fight it tooth and nail. Tell them you are going to make new development pay its own way, and they try to paint you as an "opponent of workforce housing." "Shameless" doesn't even begin to describe these folks.

Let us hope that the County Executive can stand firm, and that the Council can stand behind him, in his effort to expand impact fees to include at least 100% of road and school related impacts. We can be assured that the development community will be bankrolling the opposition.

Dairy Farm Dithering

2007-12-28T15:05:00.000-05:00

The ink has hardly dried on the County's contract with the Naval Academy for the former Gambrills Dairy Farm, and already local residents are "worried" about the fate of the farm. The terms of the lease require the County to pay $320,000 (about $373/acre) per year to rent the farm, paid on a ongoing basis. Wisely, and perhaps by legal mandate, Executive Leopold and Councilman Benoit, have refused to tie the hands of future administrations by guaranteeing that the County will hold on to the property for the full term, even though each has said it has every intention of doing so.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think you'll find a more vocal proponent of keeping the farm in agricultural use. I repeatedly denounced efforts to turn the farm into a horse stadium and sand mine. But, this latest Capital piece, and other recent appearances by some of the residents who live around the farm have left me cold.

County taxpayers will likely have shelled out well over $7 million for the rent on the site by the time the contract is up, and every one of us has a right to see some benefit from the property. I truly hope that the County will open the farm to community agricultural plots and opportunities for passive recreation and hiking. And, I hope local residents can stand down and stop looking this gift horse farm in the mouth.

Treating Oysters Like Royalty

2007-12-27T13:47:00.000-05:00

Today's Capital reports that a local inventor, Andrew Murdza, has devised a new way to raise oysters to help replenish the Bay's decimated bivalve population. Murdza founded Oyster King several years ago and established a base of operations at Discovery Village in Shady Side.

He is now selling "Oyster Hotels", cages filled with barley straw to help filter contaminants, to house oyster spat and protect them from predators.

Mr. Murdza's initial tests have yielded excellent short term (6 month) survivability and he looks forward to eventually spawning 50 million baby oysters to help re-stock the Bay. His method of growing oysters at the water's surface mimics the well-documented accounts of European settlers who first came upon the Bay. For instance, when Captain John Smith explored the Bay in the early 1600s, oyster reefs broke the water's surface and were often deemed "hazards to navigation." One is left to contemplate not only the role that these massive reefs historically played in oyster propagation, but also in protecting the shoreline from high wave energies.

Curiously, the cost of the Oyster Hotels is $500 apiece, which corresponds exactly to the upper limit the State will reimburse homeowners for placing oyster aquaculture floats on their property. Oyster gardening supplies can be purchased from a wide variety of suppliers. A partial listing can be found here.

Whole Foods Bags Plastics

2007-12-27T11:10:00.000-05:00

Despite a public relations campaign that extended to interviews with the highest echelons of the national press, Annapolis Alderman Sam Shropshire was unable to muster the votes necessary to get his plastic bag ban bill passed in the Annapolis City Council. At the same time, however, the Whole Foods in Annapolis voluntarily stopped offering plastic bags.

Now, the entire corporation is looking to phase out plastic bags by early 2008. The company will still offer 100% recycled content paper bags and will sell reusable "Better Bags", made from 80% recycled plastic bottles.

The move represents a welcome trend in the retail sector, to move away from disposable bags and packaging to reusable materials. Other retailers, such as Ikea, are now charging customers 5 cents per bag.

Surely, there are those who will object to such a move, claiming that it limits their choices unfairly, or that they got good use out of those plastic bags. And there may be some truth to that, but there is no good reason that all consumers, particularly those who bring their own satchels, should be subsidizing the cost of everyone else's "doggy bags."

Bay Clean-Up Estimates Too Optimistic, If You Can Believe It

2007-12-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

A recent analysis of Bay pollution reduction models by the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) found that half (18) over-estimated progress, most of the rest (15) were accurate, and a few more (3) under-estimated progress. I suspect this isn't much of a surprise to anyone who has spent any prolonged length of time around the Bay in the last decade or so. Despite undeniable and important advances (e.g, the flush fee), the region continues to grow astronomically, with ever-changing consequences.

The Program models seem to be relatively accurate in the case of point source pollution (e.g., sewage treatment plants), where a discrete discharge can be easily measured, but pollution from non-point sources, like farm fields, or septic systems is difficult to accurately gauge. In those instances, data from case studies has to be extrapolated to a much wider set of circumstances, and errors in the case study, or the appropriateness of the wider application, can skew the results wildly.

To reduce the margin of error in the models, CBP is doing experimental work on a number of pollution controls and best management practices. That data should be available by the end of 2008.

Recycling Your Tree - Recycled

2007-12-25T12:59:00.000-05:00

From the archives: What to do with your Christmas Tree after the holiday.

Talking Trash

2007-12-25T12:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's Sun reports that with trash disposal contracts coming up for renewal in the not to distant future, Anne Arundel and Howard Counties are contemplating options to reduce their waste stream. The County's waste disposal contract with Waste Management Inc . expires in 5 years, and it is expected that disposal fees could double or triple from the current $33/ton when the contract is renewed.

Howard County has started a pilot program to roll out 5,000 wheeled recycling carts to residents to try to encourage additional recycling, and has seen an 18% increase in tonnage in 3 months. Anne Arundel County has funded two additional positions to boost the number of recycling workers (still only half the number of the residential waste staff), and Executive Leopold is apparently planning a County bill to "push" commercial firms to recycle more.

Widespread commercial recycling would certainly be a good start, but how about also inverting the waste pick-up schedule? That is, having recycling pick-up twice a week and reducing garbage pick-up to once a week. Think about it, if you pull the paper, glass, metal, and recyclable plastics out of the waste stream, and compost all the organics, the amount of garbage produced by a household drops tremendously, and our landfills will last much longer.

Simple Gifts

2007-12-25T07:58:00.000-05:00

I heard this tune again recently, and was reminded what a delightful sentiment that it is, particularly during this time of year:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gain'd, To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come round right.

A Shaker dance song, written by Elder Joseph Brackett (1848)

Annapolis Blogs

2007-12-23T10:45:00.000-05:00

It's been almost 4 years since Blog Arundel began, and in that time, some pretty impressive blogs have popped up in the area. The City of Annapolis, in particular, is well represented. Here are some of the prominent (and prolific) blogs focused on life in the City:

Annapolis Capital Punishment - Written by former Democratic candidate for Ward 8 Alderman, Paul Foer, this blog takes aim at Republicans and Democrats alike, with particular focus on the sitting Mayor.
Annapolis Politics - Although written by Brian Gill, a local Republican activist, and possessing a consistently conservative bent, Brian's blog is a wealth of information on current events in the City. Let's hope he can keep it up after he moves out in January 2008.
I Live on Clay Street - Written by local community activist Timm Kostenko (aka Timmy Grins), this blog provides illuminating insights into a poorly understood neighborhood. Timm has taken on the bold charge of trying to clean up Clay Street and we wish him all the luck.
Talk of Annapolis - Written by local Republican (former Democratic) activist, Scott Bowling. The newest of the Annapolis blogs, it's a solid supplement to the rest.

Flush Fee In Action II

2007-12-22T20:07:00.000-05:00

When the Bay Restoration Fund (aka The Flush Fee) was passed in 2004 by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Ehrlich, there was great hope for the impact it would have. Several years on, we are now seeing the results of its implementation.

Today's Capital discusses the progress that has been made as a result of the $30/year/home fee on wastewater. All of the Anne Arundel County wastewater treatment plants are slated to be upgraded to "ehanced nutrient removal", at least in part with the assistance of flush fee funds, by 2011. According to the Capital report, some $111,760,000 from the flush will be spent in Anne Arundel County on the collective treatment plant upgrades.

There is also flush fee grant money available through the Anne Arundel County Health Department for upgrading septic systems. Sadly, only about 50 homeowners in the County have taken advantage of the program so far.

Regardless, the program seems to be working well. According to MDE estimates, the current upgrades have led to an annual reduction of nearly 700,000 pounds of nitrogen and nearly 80,000 pounds of phosphorus, and it's estimated that nitrogen will be reduced by 7.5 million pounds per year once all the plants are upgraded.

The success of this model reinforces the notion that in order for infrastructure upgrades to get the funding and attention they deserve, they need a dedicated funding source with an ongoing revenue stream. Counting on politicians to fund maintenance, whether it be for wastewater or stormwater, through the general fund, is pollyannaism at its highest.

* Added Bonus: 6 Common 'Flush Fee' Myths - From CBF

Impact Fee Suit to Continue

2007-12-21T15:24:00.000-05:00

The failures of the Owens' Administration continue to haunt the County as the latest twist in the unspent impact fee saga unfolds. Circuit Court Judge Paul Harris ruled earlier this week that two former County officials can remain in their case charging that Anne Arundel County misspent (or failed to spend appropriately) impact fees collected during the Owens' Administration. The suit revolved around an argument, made by the Ethics Commission, that the two officials, former County Attorney Phillip F. Scheibe and Robert J. Dvorak, a former top administrator, had used inside knowledge of the impact fee program to try to make money by suing the County after leaving their jobs in the late 1990s.

Schiebe and Dvorak have contended that the Ethics Commission suit, brought in 2004, was politically motivated, and they're probably right. They embarrassed the Owens' Administration pretty badly. Of course, they weren't content to use their inside knowledge of the mis-administration of impact fee funds to try to correct the program. They've instead seized on a golden opportunity to try to make a buck and raid the funds collected through the program.

And we, the taxpayers of Anne Arundel County, get to continue reaping the consequences of people like Janet Owens, Phillip Scheibe, and Robert Dvorak "serving the public."

Invasives Report Released

2007-12-20T11:07:00.000-05:00

The Environmental Law Institute just released a report on "Halting the Invasion in the Chesapeake Bay: Preventing Aquatic Invasive Species Introduction through Regional Cooperation". May be worth a read.

Paone Wins Ward 2 Seat

2007-12-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

Anne Arundel County Prosecutor, Fred Paone (R), won yesterday's special election in Ward 2 with a plurality of the vote. Vote totals (and percentages) are below:

Paone (R) 427 (45%)
McKerrow (D) 358 (38%)
Jennings (G) 162 (17%)

Developers Seek to Erode School Protections

2007-12-18T15:08:00.000-05:00

According to today's Capital, the County Council is seeking to "address" crowded schools. Of course, for the development community pushing the bill, "address" means "remove the school capacity related obstructions to new home construction by any means necessary." Council members Dillon, Vitale, and Benoit are developing a new methodology for determining school capacity, which is more responsive to demographic changes, and that is a good thing.

However, simultaneously, the eerily named Alliance for Fair Land Use, has been lobbying, persistently, to drop the adequacy of public facilities requirements for "small property owners." John Pantelides, paid lobbyist for the development community, and head of the Alliance has been trotting out every Tom, Dick, and Harry, who has had to wait to develop a parcel for his long lost son/daughter because of overcrowded schools, at Council meetings for the past several months.

It truly is a shame when people are asked to abide the law, isn't it? Especially when it's a law that is intended to protect school children from an overcrowded learning environment. Instead, Mr. Pantelides and his funders would like the Council to exempt developments of 5 or fewer homes from the school capacity test. I ask you, to the kids of current taxpayers sitting in already crowded schools, what difference does it make whether additional kids are coming from 5 house subdivisions or 20 house ones?

Patuxent 20/20

2007-12-18T09:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the Patuxent Riverkeeper released its latest report [pdf] on the health of the Patuxent River.

Among the recommendations the report makes to restore the health of the river, are:

Implement low-impact development strategies based on the Stormwater Management Act of 2007 [pdf].
Create a dedicated fund for stormwater retrofits.
Increase permit staff overseeing sediment and erosion control and stormwater management.
Reduce use of fertilizers.
Limit the use of septic systems in new developments.
Maintain full funding for Program Open Space.
Increase impact fees and wetland permit fees.
Ensure that major wastewater treatment plants are upgraded by 2010.
Increase funding for, and use of agricultural best management practices (BMPs).
Increase public transportation options.
Adopt total maximum daily load limits (TMDLs) for the river and enforce them.

Mayor Proposes Green Building Standards

2007-12-14T14:26:00.000-05:00

On the heels of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' call for green building standards throughout the region, Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer has introduced a bill that would "require all new construction and major renovations of any buildings greater than 10,000 square feet meet green building standards set by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating system."

The bill would require that new homes, and major home renovations meet at least minimal LEED standards as well.

The public hearing on the bill will take place in January 2008. If passed, Annapolis will join Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD as local jurisdictions requiring some sort of green building standards.

The Annapolis Gun Project?

2007-12-08T15:52:00.000-05:00

In the wake of yet another shooting in the City of Annapolis, again in one of the public housing neighborhoods, it's long past time to start wondering if we shouldn't change the way that we approach violence in our communities, particularly drug-related violence. The capacity of local municipalities to affect the supply side of the drug equation is essentially nil, which to my mind, is a good thing. It's a waste of time and money.

So what can Annapolis and Anne Arundel County do on the demand side, and how might they be able to reduce the violence associated with drugs? Let's not forget that 8 people have been murdered in Annapolis so far this year (and an astounding 269 murders have occurred in Baltimore in 2007).

One program that has been remarkably effective elsewhere is the Boston Gun Project, which has focused on getting young gang/drug trade involved men to put down their guns by involving local clergy, the law enforcement staff, and community leaders in an "intervention" of sorts. The full results of the program in Boston can be found here [pdf], but even a sampling is impressive: a 63% reduction in youth homicides, a 32% decrease in "shots fired" calls, and a 25% decrease in gun assaults. My only question is: why aren't we trying this here? Why aren't we trying this everywhere?

Court of Appeals Ruling Threatens Vital Wetlands

2007-12-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled [pdf] against the Olde Severna Park Improvement Association, and for homeowners wanting to build a 610-foot bridge/pier across extremely sensitive wetlands on the Severn River.

The decision essentially set forth that waterfront homeowners have riparian rights unless they are expressly excluded in the deed.

The particular significance of this decision is that in this case, the proposed bridge/pier spans a highly sensitive wetland called a bog. The area is also adjacent to one of the County's gems, a forest protected by the Nature Conservancy.

Here's hoping that MDE or the good sense of the new homeowners will prevail, and this bridge to nowhere will never get built.

Dairy Farm Saved

2007-12-05T08:57:00.000-05:00

On Monday night, the Council took the final step in approving the County's 30-year lease of the Naval Academy Dairy Farm. The County intends to keep renting some of the property out to Maryland Sunrise Organic Farm, and will likely make community parcels available to County residents at some point in the future. Also discussed for the site are passive recreational opportunities for hikers, bird watchers, and horseback riders.

The County is wise to protect this 857-acre parcel for as long as it can.

Council Fumbles SMART Fee

2007-12-04T16:45:00.000-05:00

Last night's Council meeting was surely one of the lower points in recent County Council history. With scores of individuals testifying on behalf of the amended SMART fund (over 60 by the Capital's estimate) and only a handful speaking against, the four councilmembers who have opposed the bill since its inception, stood firm. The result likely is that we'll be without a stormwater bill until one of the other Council members (e.g., Reilly or Vitale) or the County Executive can introduce a bill that's going to stroke their ego, that is "theirs."

The Sun's take.

Bay Scores Lower than Last Year

2007-12-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation just released its 2007 State of the Bay Report, and the results aren't good. This year's score is 28 out of 100, one point lower than last year's score. Three of 13 indicators fell, phosphorus, blue crabs, and water clarity.

Gilchrest Speaks Up for Menhaden

2007-12-03T11:06:00.000-05:00

At this point, the news is a bit dated (it happened in November), but it still deserves comment (and praise). Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, who represents the eastern shore of Maryland, and a small area of the western shore in District 1, has introduced legislation that would create a 5-year moratorium on menhaden fishing on the east coast.

As has been addressed here in the past, the gluttonous Omega Protein, running ships out of Reedville, VA continues to harvest unsustainable numbers of menhaden, a filter feeder, from the Bay for use in its vitamin and animal food products.

At this point, it's clear that Virginia is not going to reign in this industry, so it's good to see Mr. Gilchrest attempting to bring the federal government in to stop this abuse of our shared resource.

Lawsuit Filed in Fly Ash Case

2007-12-03T10:48:00.000-05:00

On Friday, the Sun reported that one of the families in Gambrills that has been affected by the toxic groundwater plume caused by fly ash contamination has filed suit against Constellation Energy, claiming the contaminated water killed her husband. It's a good first step. Litigation against MDE and the Anne Arundel County Health Department for criminal negligence and the sand mine for its complicity should probably be considered as well.

It's unfortunate, but too often legal action is the only way to move corporate or government entities to do the right thing.

County Executive to Take Up Impact Fees

2007-12-02T09:50:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that the last County Administration acted irresponsibly, bending to the will of the development community, and refusing to raise impact fees to the level recommended by the County's consultant. In fact, the fee was levied at about 40% of the recommended level. County Executive Leopold has decided to re-examine the fee structure, and it looks like we may finally get the fee hike we need.

The most recent consultant report puts the current fee for a single-family residence ($4,500) at about one quarter of where it should be ($20,000) according to the County Executive in the Capital report. The two examples given in the article are that builders currently pay $969 and $3,810 for road and school impacts respectively, when their actual costs to us, the taxpayers are $11,000 and $18,000+.

I would like to implore the County Executive to follow Montgomery County's lead (they just bumped up their fees to cover 90% of the actual cost of new development), and do them one better. Our new fees should cover 100% of the costs of new development, and be tied to inflation, so this issue need not be revisited anew every couple of years.

The current situation can't persist. It is a sick, downward spiral where existing residents shoulder the financial burden for development that most of us don't want.

Ward 2 Special Election

2007-11-06T09:39:00.000-05:00

The filing deadline was yesterday, and it now looks like the field is set in the special election to replace Alderman Mike Christman (R).

Karen Jennings - Green Party
Debbie R. McKerrow - Democrat
Fred Paone - Republican

The special primary election will be held in Ward 2 on Nov. 27, the special general election on Dec. 19.

One Vote from a Stormwater Start

2007-10-17T15:05:00.000-04:00

Monday's County Council meeting held several pleasant surprises. Most notable among them was Ron Dillon's recent effort to champion a stormwater utility that would build upon the County Executive's SMART fund effort.

Councilman Dillon appears to have gotten religion on the issue, declaring, "We have been 30-plus years trying to save the bay. We haven't gotten very far. It's time to be radical."

Can I get an "Amen"?

Councilmen Dillon, Benoit, and Cohen introduced the amendment to charge each residence a $25 annual fee and each business/industrial site a $100 annual fee to be used to correct the damage that has been caused by stormwater runoff at Monday's meeting. The bill will be voted on at the next meeting.

Councilwoman Vitale, who apparently thinks the $1.3 billion problem can be solved by creating tax incentives for rain barrels, "felt sandbagged" by the maneuver. However, it would be great to see her get behind this bi-partisan bill (perhaps with an amendment to create parallel incentives for good stormwater management practices), and help push Anne Arundel County to the forefront in the efforts to clean up the Bay. The bill has particular relevance for Ms. Vitale given the proposed $3.5 million going into the restoration of North Cypress Branch, on the Magothy, in her district.

Despite the fact that Councilman Middlebrooks, the most vociferous opponent of the bill, insists on calling the utility a tax, this issue was resolved last year, in a decision by the Attorney General's office.

Home Slice

2007-10-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

No, that's not a photoshop job from an Onion article, that's the real deal. In an effort to get around setbacks on small lots, developers in Anne Arundel County are now building 12-foot wide, free-standing house slivers.

Council Punts on Legislation to Ban Fly Ash

2007-09-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

Several Republican Councilmembers last night stonewalled the Leopold administration's effort to ban the dumping of fly ash in Anne Arundel County. Rather than move to protect public safety, Councilmen Middlebrooks and Dillon seem to be having second thoughts on the matter. After Middlebrooks amended the bill from a ban to a 1-year moratorium, Councilman Dillon declared "I almost feel, in a sense, that we've dropped the hammer too fast." It should be noted that two of Constellation's coal plants, which produce the fly ash, are in the heart of Mr. Dillon's district.

Leopold Takes Important Step on Stormwater

2007-09-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

The Leopold administration today announced that it is seeking to start levying a fee of $.25 on each new square foot of impervious surface created by development projects. It is estimated that this will generate something on the order of $5 million additional dollars per year for restoration and mitigation projects.

Though it's not a stormwater utility, it's certainly a step in the right direction.

County Takes Action to Stop Poisoning of Wells

2007-08-01T18:55:00.000-04:00

Executive Leopold has introduced emergency legislation to stop a practice that has been decried on this site a number of times, the storage of fly ash in soils where it can leech into groundwater.

Fly ash, a particularly nasty by-product of burning coal, is an amalgam of goodies, often including such heavy metals as: nickel, vanadium, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, barium, chromium, copper, molybdenum, zinc, lead, selenium, uranium, thorium, and radium. Earlier this year, the EPA released a report on the potential dangers of fly ash to human health.

The legislation would prohibit the disposal of fly ash anywhere in the County. Let's hope it passes unanimously.

County Helps Conserve Crownsville

2007-06-28T09:11:00.000-04:00

This week, the County Council voted to turn over 192 surplus lots in Herald Harbor, comprising about 10 acres of floodplain, steep slopes, and sensitive area, to the Crownsville Conservancy.

The action represents a huge success for the community and the Conservancy, as "enterprising"/unscrupulous developers have made a cottage industry out of finding "unbuildable" lots throughout the county, hiring a good land use attorney, and denuding/filling/grading some of the most sensitive lands in our watersheds. Because the sellers are often under the impression that these lots can't be built on, developers can flip these lots for pennies on the dollar (minus the legal fees to steamroll the Board of Appeals).

Other communities would do well to find out if their infill lots are on the County's surplus list and work to have them placed in permanent conservation as well.

Sturgeon Makes First Cameo in Three Decades

2007-06-07T16:51:00.001-04:00

According the the Bay Journal, a waterman working off Tilghman Island recently caught a pregnant, 7-foot, 170-pound Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrhynchus). The last time a sturgeon carrying eggs had been caught was in 1972.

County Wins Naval Academy Farm

2007-06-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

Initial word is that the County has been successful in its bid to lease the former Naval Academy Dairy Farm. Good news for the community and the County.

How About that Ethics Code?

2007-06-03T15:25:00.000-04:00

A number of recent cases merit a review of the County's Ethics Code.

Article 7, Title 5 focuses on "conflicts of interest." Of particular interest is the subsection below:

§ 7-5-105. Representation by former employees. (a) Generally. A former employee may not assist or represent a party other than the County in a case, contract, or other specific matter for compensation if the matter involves the County and: (1) the former employee participated significantly in the matter as an employee; or (2) the former employee had information not generally available to the public when the former employee undertook the assistance or representation. (b) Waiver. On application, the Ethics Commission may waive the prohibition of this section if it determines that the County's interests will not be adversely affected by the assistance or representation and may attach to the waiver any conditions that it determines are in the County's best interest. (1985 Code, Art. 9, § 5-105) (Bill No. 38-03) State Code reference – State Government Article, § 15-504(d).

Council Circumvents Community on the Annapolis Neck

2007-06-03T09:39:00.000-04:00

At last Monday's County Council meeting, Councilman Cohen's colleagues failed to give him the votes to update the zoning on a property in his district. In fact, they deliberately lined up against it. The zoning change, the product of long negotiations between the Annapolis Neck Peninsula Federation and the developer, the Samaras family, would have converted a 6 acre parcel on Forest drive from 2 acres of commercial frontage with 4 acres of residential in the rear to 6 acres of commercial with more forest cover, better stormwater management, and architectural oversight by the community.

Now, some are claiming that the Council Members who blocked the change conducted a backroom deal with an adjacent property owner who has failed to negotiate with community groups.

Left from the Capital's account is the sudden (and ominous) reappearance of former Zoning Director Joe Rutter, a close acquaintance of the property owner in question. There's no way we've heard the last of this sordid situation.