Smart Growth

Frederick County Commissioner Blaine R. Young's op-ed piece in The Sun ("Smart Growth politics," Sept. 20) causes me to write. Mr. Young might be right that Gov. Martin O'Malley's "PlanMaryland' is objectionable. Many might say Mr. Young is wrong. The silly part of Mr. Young's opinion piece is his musing that the governor has proposed this plan to boost the control of this state by "liberal Democrat jurisdictions in the metropolitan areas. " Mr. Young doesn't disagree that this plan might increase the population of the metropolitan areas.

A controversial big housing development in western Maryland that was reported last fall to be shelved apparently has new life. Terrapin Run, which sparked lawsuits and legislation to strengthen the state's Smart Growth laws, is back on track, Columbia developer Michael Carnock told WCBC radio in Cumberland.  He said he hopes to proceed with his original plan to build 4,000 townhomes in eastern Allegany County. The developer had reportedly been trying to sell the 935-acre site near the Green Ridge State Forest, and Allegany's county commissioners agreed to drop their lawsuit against the state planning and environment departments to aid a sale, according to the radio station.

In response to the story "Smart Growth incentives fail to rein in suburban sprawl" (Nov. 3) there's no denying that sprawl continues to be a problem and that we need to work together to solve it. But the limitations of the Priority Funding Areas charted during Gov. Parris N. Glendenning's administration were known long ago. In fact, they were pointed out 11 years ago, not long after the law passed, in a report by the nonprofit Abell Foundation. In addition, most of the research analysis cited in the article came from our own data.

I'll be honored today to accept a national planning award on behalf of Gov.Martin O'Malleyat the national conference of the American Planning Association, the largest professional planning organization in the country, representing 40,000 members. The APA selected Governor O'Malley for its 2012 National Planning Leadership Award for his advocacy of green policy and smart-growth planning. He's the first governor to win a national award from the distinguished group in at least eight years since Governor Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware in 2004 and Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey in 2000.

The Baltimore Sun recently published an editorial in support of the Maryland Department of the Environment's proposed new storm water regulations, to become effective May 4. What The Sun's editorial neglected to appreciate was the threat these new regulations pose to Smart Growth in Maryland. Particularly for Maryland's most populous jurisdictions, such as Baltimore County, redevelopment provides a critical opportunity to absorb new population growth, maximize the use of public infrastructure and create economic opportunity and jobs, while simultaneously reducing consumption of valuable land and rural open space.

Today the Maryland Department of Planning is unveiling a draft of Maryland's first state growth plan, which we're calling PlanMaryland. In 1974, the General Assembly authorized such a plan "to promote the general welfare and prosperity of the people of the state through coordinated development of the state," but such a plan was never fulfilled. Maryland went on to adopt pioneering policies to promote smart growth, but the results have fallen far short of the original ambition. In fact, since a pioneering law was passed in 1997 to encourage development in areas best equipped for it, more than three-quarters of residential growth in land area has occurred outside those areas in Maryland.

I agree with the conclusion of your editorial "Drawing the line on development" (Aug. 10): Smart growth is not no growth. It is growth that maximizes the public investment in existing infrastructure and minimizes costly environmental impact. The pressures your editorial cited are precisely why the O'Malley administration successfully pushed in 2009 for passage of the Smart, Green & Growing Act. It requires zoning to support comprehensive local plans so that land use truly aligns with a community's stated planning goals.

Let's not dump Maryland's stormwater regulations overboard ("A threat to Smart Growth" Feb. 2). Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr., other local governments and developers have raised the alarm that the new regulations will halt smart growth infill and redevelopment projects. We reviewed the regulations with the same concern in mind, but the combination of the stronger standard for new development in suburban and rural areas and the flexibility for urban areas and redevelopment allows for both smart growth and better management of stormwater.

Although Maryland has a national reputation as a leader in smart growth, urban development continues in places where it is not wanted and rarely occurs in places where it is desperately needed, a University of Maryland report reveals. Further, in several smart growth performance measures — multi-family housing construction, per-capita vehicle miles traveled, housing affordability and compact development — Maryland ranks near the middle of the 50 states and has not measurably gained ground over the last decade.

Stop the presses: A new report finds that Maryland's 15-year-old Smart Growth law isn't working very well. That's hardly news. The state's own data have shown for years that more land continues to be developed for homes in the countryside instead of in urbanized areas, where growth is meant to go under the 1997 law. But the report issued Wednesday by the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University...

Gov. Martin O'Malley's retooled proposal to limit development on septic tanks gets a hearing in Annapolis today, along with his other major green initiatives - increasing the "flush fee" to fix wastewater treatment plants and providing ratepayer subsidies to boost offshore wind energy projects. Lawmakers will hear from the governor on all three measures, but also from environmental and smart-growth activists, local officials, farmers and developers. Among those making a case for curbing low-density development on septics will be the Queen Anne's Conservation Association, which commissioned a study of growth trends in the Eastern Shore county just across the Bay Bridge from Annapolis.   You can view a YouTube summary of the study by Washington College here: Opposing the bill will be rural and some suburban officials, development and farming groups.  Interestingly, the Maryland Association of Counties, traditionally skeptical and even resistant of any state Smart Growth proposal, has decided to support the bill with amendments.  That may signify some support for the curbs among the more urban of the suburban counties, or it could be a ruse to appear supportive while proposing changes that effectively gut the legislation.  Carroll County 's commissioners, among the most vehemently opposed to any state role in curbing septics or limiting sprawl, take a hard line.  Richard Rothschild, vice president of the commissioners,...

A state panel said Wednesday that members of the Carroll County Board of Commissioners violated the state's Open Meetings Act by holding a fee-based forum on a controversial smart-growth policy attended by a majority of the board. "The County Board violated the Act by charging admission to a meeting held for the consideration of public business," the Open Meetings Compliance Board said in a written opinion. "We commend the County's prompt posting of materials from the event on its website.

Stop the presses: A new report finds that Maryland's 15-year-old Smart Growth law isn't working very well. That's hardly news. The state's own data have shown for years that more land continues to be developed for homes in the countryside instead of in urbanized areas, where growth is meant to go under the 1997 law. But the report issued Wednesday by the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University...

Gov. Martin O'Malley's PlanMaryland, which has become the subject of bitter opposition in parts of rural Maryland, is now official state policy for managing growth. At a ceremony that included two of his Democratic predecessors, O'Malley formally accepted the plan, which had gone through two draft versions before being adopted. The plan has been decried by conservative county officials and Republican legislators as a usurpation of local power over land use, but O'Malley defended it Monday as a framework for making wise decisions about where the state should invest in capital projects.

To its supporters, Gov. Martin O'Malley's Plan Maryland is a long-overdue effort to bring Maryland's disparate programs to promote Smart Growth under one consolidated plan with an agreed-upon set of rules. To its detractors, the plan is a naked power grab aimed at concentrating power in Annapolis at the expense of local governments. Those two views clashed Monday in a Senate committee room, where state Planning Secretary Richard Hall defended the administration's effort to draft an executive order implementing those rules against Senate Minority Leader E. J. Pipkin's demand that any such plan be submitted to the General Assembly for approval.

Jacques Kelly 's article about the rebirth of Union Mill did a superb job of recognizing the innovative program that has driven Seawall Development's reuse of the historic property ("New tricks: Redone factory now homes," Nov. 23). This model project is a testament to the vision and generous spirits of Donald and Thibault Mannekin and their partner Evan Morville. It probably would not have been possible, however, without the assistance of a small, but highly effective public program.

Frederick County Commissioner Blaine R. Young's op-ed piece in The Sun ("Smart Growth politics," Sept. 20) causes me to write. Mr. Young might be right that Gov. Martin O'Malley's "PlanMaryland' is objectionable. Many might say Mr. Young is wrong. The silly part of Mr. Young's opinion piece is his musing that the governor has proposed this plan to boost the control of this state by "liberal Democrat jurisdictions in the metropolitan areas. " Mr. Young doesn't disagree that this plan might increase the population of the metropolitan areas.

Smart Growth or partisan planning? That is the question an increasing number of county and municipal officials throughout Maryland are asking. The issue that spurred this debate is the new "PlanMaryland" idea presented by Gov. Martin O'Malley at the recent Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City . The governor and his minions went to great lengths to assure us all that PlanMaryland is merely a logical extension of existing...