Dear Community Leaders and Members of Anne Arundel County,
I learned that our Board of Appeals rejected a development application for a project called Marsh Landing, on land that should not be developed, land that drains downhill to the Cattail Creek Restoration Project, one of the most important stream restoration projects in Anne Arundel County.
Neighbors took me on a tour of this project during my first week in office. They told me about the Marsh Landing project, and I told them that it looked to me like bad development. I also told them that I would not make the same mistake my predecessors had made, which was to intervene on behalf of my friends to influence the development review process.
I told them that we had a lot of work to do to change practices at Planning and Zoning and Inspections and Permits, to get our staff to move from the old directive of facilitating development to a new mission to protect our environment.
I was disappointed that the project was approved under the previous administration and that our staff was unable to overturn that decision, but I was appreciative that residents never gave up. They organized and they won at the Board of Appeals, but they should not have had to step in to correct the county’s work.
