Sprawl: A Tipping Point

This program is me night in D.C. to serve all of our diverse community and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you sprawl the tipping point is made possible in part by the Keith Campbell foundation supporting management of living resources and habitats reduction of pollution and citizen involvement of the Chesapeake Bay. The Campbell foundation investment in action. Question What do a forest across the mountain. And old factory being demolished. And hopeful homebuyers all have in common. The answer is growth. All across Maryland and expanding mobile population is looking for places to live and raise families. Free as we think we are unseen forces are shaping our options and opportunities largely unrecognized. In the first decade of the 21st century we stand at a threshold. Our choices

about where and how we live and work and play will have an impact perhaps irreversible on our state's treasures like the Chesapeake Bay. And our quality of life for generations to come. So stay tuned for a glimpse of our future sprawl a tipping point. Hello I'm Jeff Saucony in 30 years of meeting people and reporting news all across the region. I've seen that alternately the struggle for quality of life lies at the core of many issues. And here in Maryland quality of life is tightly linked to quality of the environment. For most of us that means our waterways and the beautiful majestic Chesapeake Bay. Today that quality of life collides head on with another fact of life here sprawl. And the car culture. Of course highways drive commerce and link cities. But with the baby boom after World War 2

many walkable communities and town centers were abandoned. For far flung suburbs built on outlying lands that were once forests and farms. The results enter and older communities declined feeding a cycle of more outward flight to safer suburbs and better schools. It all required major investments in new infrastructure like roads schools water sewage and so on. Fast forward to today many of us drive everywhere to work to play to live to shop. The commutes drain our time energy and money. Car culture also has a tremendous impact on the environment sprawl development necessarily means more vehicle miles traveled which pollutes the air and puts out more greenhouse gases. It creates impervious surfaces more roads more driveways more roofs that have the tendency to send polluted storm water runoff into our streams and ultimately end up

in the bay. It chews up the landscape in that forests are destroyed Meadows. They're fragmented in a way that damages the environment for habitat in the area. Maryland has been a leader in developing strategies for stopping sprawl. Former Governor Parris Glendening smart growth principles developed more than a decade ago. Helped define a set of solutions that have been followed worldwide. Today smart growth means directing development and funding to revitalize communities with existing. Infrastructure. And it means new community should be walkable places where residents also work shop. Play and can use transit. All built in designated growth areas to protect the environment. The result more efficient use of resources. Less dependence on cars less impact on the natural environment. It's sustainable growth and the idea is to break the

cycle of sprawl. These are not going to be easy things but without it the country is headed to disaster. And so now what we have to do is go back and reconfigure just about everything moved from subsidizing sprawl to giving incentives for investing in real communities. We have to move from segregating different parts of our life our work our shopping our living room our sleeping to re-integrating them the way they used to be. This program is a snapshot of growth in Maryland. The engine's driving sprawl and some avenues for exiting. What is increasingly the highway to nowhere. One battle in the sprawl war is being fought in the Allegheny Mountains of western Maryland. Some envision a brand new city built in the valley starting

about halfway down the ridge across the way. It's beautiful country and the highway is nearby. But why would anyone plan such a big new development in such a remote spot. There are a lot of answers to why or why not depending on your point of view. It's like a classic Western a stranger comes to a dry remote mountain land challenging the status quo. In fact this western Maryland Western has a cast of thousands. The developer with the dream county officials with a plan. State officials with a different plan. Powerful judges worried conservationists and locals at a posse of retirees waiting in the wings. The story is still unfolding and has many intertwining subplots. It's exactly the behind the scenes drama that drives a good deal of development all

over America. Follow this and a road map for managing growth begins to emerge. In 2005 Michael Carr NOK owner of PC ink of Columbia Maryland had a vision to build a planned community called Terrapin run. The full design includes forty three hundred residential housing units in an area roughly one and a half miles by two miles projected newcomers 11000. The original plan calls for single family homes townhouses an equestrian center and a shopping mall all bordering a state forest and a wildlife management area. Build it and they will come. But who. The developer is betting on active adults and retirees. So folks are are out of the big city they're out of the hustle and bustle but yet they can see their grandson soccer game a thorny afternoon drive home and then in the going to Rocky F for tea time at 9 the next morning. Or go horseback riding your terrible run the next morning

or go trout fishing in 50 Mile Creek. And we believe that there are some real opportunities here not only for the employment base to grow but also to have a planned community was doesn't exist in Allegheny County. The proposed development is controversial because most of the area is known for agriculture and conservation. Smart Growth activists and some locals filed a series of lawsuits after the county's Board of zoning Appeals gave the development a special exception to the county's comprehensive plan for land use. Since the 1990s local comprehensive plans are supposed to direct the growth in rural areas to existing population centers. But Maryland's highest court narrowly affirmed the special exception for Terrapin Ron agreeing with a lower court that Alleghenies plan was only a guide not a regulation. This ruling had a state wide ripple effect in terms of Smart Growth planning

pitting local zoning authorities against state officials and contributed to new green legislation being introduced in the 2009 General Assembly. We are proposing through the smart growth and sustainable growth Act of 2009 to clarify and to reiterate that once a county has adopted a comprehensive plan there's zoning decisions should follow that comprehensive plan. Meanwhile back at the ranch another subplot is unfolding starring Mother Nature. More specifically water how much and how clean. Water for Terrapin run would come from wells and streams. But there are no detailed studies about how much water exists in the fractured rock bed under the proposed development site because of the uncertainty. County officials scaled down the original number of forty three hundred housing units in their water and sewer plan for the sites.

Until some other infrastructure situation has made itself available they're going to be limited to around 100 units total. But within the first 10 years or so we're talking about three hundred sixty. Carr Knox says he plans to build additional infrastructure including a new 10 acre reservoir and a wastewater treatment plant. Where will the water for the reservoir come from and the treated waste water go. The big picture trickles down to a couple of small streams Terrapin run gives the development its name. It drains into 15 Mile Creek the source of the water for the proposed reservoir. One or both of these streams would also receive tens of thousands of gallons of treated waste water every day. Conservationists are worried about the proposed developments impact. Right now a 15 mile Creek is rated among the highest in the county for water quality. So we're here walking down the last few yards of terrapin run these conditions

are very typical for this time of year. A little water is coming down the creek is actually kind of filtering through this cobble bar. On it's way out here to its final destination which is 15 Mile Creek. There's around 40 species of fish that use this creek. There's a population of a plant called Harper rela which is an globally rare and federally endangered plant species that in a lot of places around the Chesapeake Bay watershed we're spending a lot of money to clean up and restore streams that have been impacted by Urban Development. I think we need to think very carefully before we go down the road of impacting integrating these streams. The Nature Conservancy and Nassau are funding multiple year research at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science on the impacts of the Terrapin run development. The state also has a say in water resource issues through a variety of permits and regulations.

The Maryland Department of the environment rejected the parts of Allegheny County whose 2007 Water and Sewer plan pertaining to Tara Penrod to date no further appeals or permits are currently pending at MDA for the development and no bulldozers have arrived at the site. The suspense is trying to locals. Many had participated in hearings and the lawsuits about terror of Enron. One is David Russo owner of the town hill bed and breakfast and retreat center down the road from Tara and run along scenic route 40. His business reflects the small scale of development already in this area. The biggest concern for us your town hill is a water we drill a new Well we came here in 0 1 and coincidentally or not when they drilled the test wells to see on the side of a mountain for the therapy run project. The water in our well disappeared. Since then roofing has dug another well and a holding tank.

I just don't believe the water is there. David trail has a cattle and calf ranch on land his family has farmed for three generations just below the proposed development. Only two of 13 farms remain in the area. Most developed into four or five acre lots. And I suspicion that this property probably would end up in the same way except I never never in my wildest imagination would thank that they would put 43 hundred units on a 900 acre tract sprawl is not always bad. But. As a farmer. One of the. Issues you always come up against is the carrying capacity of the land. What's the resources we have to use. The biggest concern I have and I'm almost positive we don't have the resources. If Terrapin run succeeds it will add dollars to the county's tax base but it will also be a new burden on local infrastructure and Natural Resources

similar land use and planning issues are playing out across the state. And our next Maryland snapshot features a development that could not be more different than Terrapin run. An aging industrial community in the middle of Maryland's largest city Westport on the middle branch of the Patapsco River in Baltimore city is undergoing radical redevelopment. Remember Rosen he's going to still have trick Turner of Turner Development Group LLC of Baltimore has a track record of building bold properties including the futuristic waterfront condos at silo Pointe Westport is his new venture at an abandoned Brown Field industrial site. Here too it's all about water as in riverfront. Turner's project is getting a lot of attention from Smart Growth proponents. This is the site of the former BGT power plant that actually powered all of Baltimore

City. It's a massive demolition project it's taken almost six months to tear the project down intermediated. Where we're standing now would be a plaza in the new development. People want to get back into the urban mix they want walkable livable safe communities. What we're providing here is just that. Turner's 1.4 billion dollars designed for West port calls for millions of square feet of office and retail space as well as two thousand residential units restored wetlands along the riverfront will be part of a Green Harbor on the Patapsco. Some of Turner's capital is the support he's garnered from government officials environmentalists and many in the existing Westport community. They will have access to the riverfront again with the abandoned factories and concrete gone. This is incredibly important for Baltimore. It's going to a number of things is going to bring jobs back into this location. It's a blight on our existing light rail systems those can be making use of the existing transit. It's

improving the environment. Along the. Patapsco River. Smart Growth advocates like the idea that Westport has transit and lies near I-95 and other major roads so no new roads will be needed. Baltimore City has designated Westport a special taxation or TIFF district. The city will borrow and then grant the Westport project a whopping 160 million dollars in public funds to improve infrastructure. Some question the fact that the development will only provide 10 percent rather than 20 percent affordable housing. While we think that the Westpark projects as an important step forward we're disappointed that it doesn't provide the full 20 percent affordable units that would have been required under the inclusive housing ordinance if it had been applied here. The TIFF money does provide for 200 affordable housing units including rehab of 70 vacant properties in the older community of about 300 homes where

33 percent of the houses are boarded up. It's the classic bring a vitalist sation dilemma what happens to the existing residents when an area becomes gentrified across these tracks. Dream Westport meets existing Westport and a reality check. Colleen Vance skiver has operated Colleen's corner here for almost 28 years a local landmark fan skiver founded the new Westport Business Association. Our motto is it's all about Westport. Let's move business forward in Westport. I've watched Westport go from. A very. Active. Community a cat with blue collar people. And fall. In the past. 10 or 12 years. I want to be able to see all the people that's lived here all these years through the rough years be able to stay.

And not be displaced. There are also high hopes for revitalizing Annapolis Avenue once west porch Main Street. This is what we're going to try to have as our new Main Street a lot of the houses and businesses up here are still boarded up. But. We have our fingers crossed that we're going to get the make use rezoning and Annapolis roads going to be our main street again. As a young girl coming up. We have full says drugstore. The holiday of naive who was to go and get ice cream so we just sit through city talk at the loom. We don't have that any rule. Any business this would have bring. People. Together. It included to walk and talk to the families grew less flexibility to the vote. Patrick Turner is investing more than half a million dollars to establish a community improvement center in this historic bank. Westport development has purchased the building and we are going to be rehabbing it into the Westport Community Partnerships office. We're working with the

Living Classrooms foundation to set up a workforce development center to provide a clean team that cleans the streets every day and they're also going to be our contractor on the facade grants. We're working with parks and people foundation to plant trees throughout the neighborhood. So we're partnering with a lot of non-profits and they'll be able to use this space to get their work done in Westport as well. First construction at Westport is scheduled for 2009. Smart Growth advocates are promoting Westport because they provide so-called infill growth making use of space in an already developed area with infrastructure. The investment here is still huge possibly more than a similar project would cost on raw land. But with the infill an area in decline will be revitalized no cornfields or forests will be bulldozed and forever lost. New residents will drive less in the so-called mixed use communities where they can walk to shop work and transit and

important wetlands will be restored to the Patapsco River on its path to the ailing Chesapeake Bay. Smart Growth proponents are looking to infill development as they grapple with future growth. The Maryland Department of Planning or MVP expects the state to grow by more than one million residents by 2030. That's about the population of two more Baltimore's. The Department projects that most of the growth could in theory be accommodated by building in or near existing communities. Their projections show the difference in impact between current development trends and smart growth. So planners are focusing on projects where residential retail and commercial development are built near each other and ideally located within a half mile radius of an existing transit station that's considered the smartest kind of smart growth it's known as t o d or transit oriented

development. Ad it is the next stop in our survey of sprawl in Maryland. Michael Lombardi a civilian software and chemical engineer came to work at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County to help others move to Maryland from Fort Monmouth New Jersey. As a result of BRAC the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005 brek shut down some military installations throughout the country and expanded others including Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade. BRAC will increase Maryland's population by 25000 new households by 2011. That's a small percentage of the state's projected future growth but a concentrated pulse in a very short time for impacted areas like APJ. So BRAC is a test case for whether the principals have sustainable smart growth can really succeed.

Yellen has a pop quiz before us. Are we going to grow smart. Are we going to grow dumb and that is around brac. Imagine 60000 new people on our roads already congested. Or using this opportunity to structure new communities restructure existing communities so that people can use transit more. That is the opportunity we have with BRAC to refocus our state dollars towards this infrastructure rather than paving over our farmlands Aberdeen Proving Ground or a P.G. lies in Harford County near the top of the Chesapeake Bay. It's already one of Maryland's fastest growing areas. A county that has felt the impact of sprawl way before BRAC anything south of here. You going against traffic in that. But that helps considerably. Commuting was on my mind when he looked for housing. Part of my logic and reasoning for moving into the area we did was to minimize my commute wanted to stay about 20 maybe 30 minutes no

more than 30 minutes out. I work late quite a bit and I didn't want to be on the road for an hour an hour and a half and then get home after my son went to bed and that's important as it is the many people who are involved in the BRAC move. Also were 15 minutes from the Bush River which leads into the Chesapeake Bay we're lucky enough to join a boat club there. I definitely feel we at least got the quality of life in a lot of areas improved the quality of life from where we came from. Marylanders do enjoy a high quality of life Lombardi made a smart growth choice by settling in an established community. But he almost doubled his commute options for transit are limited. The city of Aberdeen bordering Aberdeen Proving Ground has an underutilized ageing market. Commuter rail station service is limited and there's no connection to the base. There is. Great potential.

One BRAC idea is to redevelop the station here or at another larger site into a multimodal transit center with expanded train service more parking buses and shuttles to such a station would be an ideal site for transit oriented development. We're t o d. An example of which is this mixed use planned for the Naylor road metro station in Prince George's County. People who live near transit stations drive about 40 percent blasts. It's a more dense compact development pattern so it reduces pressure on sprawl reduces pressure on traffic congestion and it also saves families money. What's under discussion here in Aberdeen is an example of what we can do across the state to promote smart growth. Even with compact transit oriented smart growth. Natural resources are an issue. Fewer trees would be cut down at such a development but just as much water is needed and just as in western Maryland

that present challenges our county is going to be the recipient of about 80 200 federal jobs about 10000 in solar jobs that come with that which means a population increase of about 20 to 25000 people. We need to get ready and build infrastructure schools water sewer those types of things. We're here today at the Abington water treatment plant in Abington it's a 10 million gallon a day with a treatment plant. We are in the process of doubling the size of it that should carry Harford county's needs for water through the year 2015 which obviously means that it carries us through the BRAC process. The upgrade won't be cheap. About 70 million dollars and much more water will be pumped from Loch Raven reservoir and the subsequent Hannah a river that provides half the bays fresh water even though the saucepan is one of the largest rivers in these coasts we do have to be concerned because there are dams along there that need certain flows for hydroelectric power generation and also for environmental protection because in drought situations you can't withdraw too much water at one time because it endangers the fish and other wildlife that had on that river also. So even

though it seems like it's the super abundant source of water with a very you very careful how we use it and preserve it. Governor O'Malley and the Maryland General Assembly have launched new initiatives to help localities support smart growth projects. In 2008 the BRAC sub-Cabinet was created to coordinate local and state BRAC efforts. It's led by Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown. One of our big initiatives recently was the creation of BRAC revitalization zones. We work with the General Assembly local government in the private sector where we have created much like an Enterprise Zone a program where local governments identify zones within priority funding areas where the state will partner with local government to provide financial incentives for development and redevelopment in these priority funding areas. The city of Baltimore has won the designation of BRAC zone for Westport and the city of Aberdeen plans to apply to also

in 2008 the Maryland General Assembly passed the transit oriented development bill which authorizes the Department of Transportation to use its property and resources to promote T.O. deeds. Recently the MVP is taskforce on the future for growth and development published its smart growth in land use report. The state also launched a new Maryland smart green and growing initiative to link revitalization transportation economic development Smart Growth and natural resource restoration. Key is green prints and interactive mapping tool to guide land conservation and growth. In every corner of our state. There are tensions over growth how fast where to put it. Smart Growth for sprawl. There are a million new neighbors on the way to our beautiful state. The question is when they get here what will be our quality of life. Sprawl a tipping point was made possible in part by the Keith Campbell foundation

supporting management of living resources and habitats reduction of pollution and citizen involvement in the Chesapeake Bay. The Campbell foundation investment in action.