Point / Counterpoint on the Thatcher and Crum Annexations: Growth in Frederick City

Point/Counter Point: Growth

Posted on 16 November 2009

Frederick City is poised to grow by more than 500 acres thanks to the recent annexation of two area farms, but the move remains controversial. While development advocate Bruce Dean, (left) a lawyer specializing in annexations with McEvoy & Dean, and other supporters say expanding the city’s boundaries is key to attracting good jobs, opponents such as Janice Wiles of Friends of Frederick County (right) worry about the impact of that expansion on schools, fire protection and other public services.

Point: The City of Frederick needs more land.

Bruce Dean – McEvoy & Dean

Washington-Baltimore is one of the few areas of the country expected to grow tremendously in the next 10 to 20 years. The fact is, growth is the reality. Annexing land located just outside of the city, to the north, for employment and mixed uses has been part of the long-term plans both for Frederick County and the city for years and years.

These annexations along U.S. 15 satisfy a specific, demonstrated city need — for large parcels of undeveloped land to accommodate large new employers seeking a campus-like environment. When completed, these annexations are expected to add between 7,000 and 8,000 good, white-collar jobs and will contribute significantly to the tax base. Creating places for this type of jobs so that more people can work here instead of traveling down I-270 for work is good for Frederick and its citizens.

For the people who oppose the annexations, I don’t think there’s much of an alternative plan beyond ‘no growth.’ To my knowledge, they’ve not recommended alternate locations for the type of large office campuses that the city needs to accommodate future growth and provide residents with opportunities to work, live and recreate in the city. The big thing that keeps coming up is traffic, that this annexation will make traffic worse.

If Frederick tries to keep people out, it won’t stop the growth — it’ll just push it farther out, to Pennsylvania, to Washington County, to West Virginia — and people will drive through here and the roads will still be clogged. The alternative, which I favor, and which is consistent with the Smart Growth principles that are so widely embraced in this state, is to provide places for people to work and live in Frederick at locations, such as these annexation sites, that can be efficiently served with public water and sewer facilities.

Counterpoint: We cannot grow our way out of our problems.

Janice Wiles – Friends of Frederick County

These annexations will raise our taxes, congest our roads and either overcrowd our schools or drain our personal coffers to pay for a new school. For the past two decades the sprawl development model has consumed more than 14 million acres of land in the U.S. and vastly changed the land around us in Frederick County. We cannot grow our way out of problems and in fact will create new problems. Not only does development on such scale fragment and destroy wildlife habitat, pollute our streams and pave over rich and productive farmland, it has a direct impact on our lives by creating more traffic.

Citizens are demanding a more common sense approach to growth that preserves open spaces, natural resources and farmland, promotes local businesses, and fosters modes of transportation that do not clog our roadways. Already inadequate and highly congested, and doing double duty as a local road for Frederick residents, U.S. 15 is one of the most dangerous roads in Maryland. The northern annexations will add 12,000 to 15,000 car trips per day to Route 15 and arterial roads.

Instead of annexed land that can be home to major employment campuses for large, Fortune 500 companies such as Bechtel, IBM, MedImmune, State Farm, and the like, Friends of Frederick County promotes local economic growth, based as much as possible on using our local goods and services. We imagine Frederick County’s urban areas and political leaders working together to learn to build our community assets incorporating sustainable agriculture, green building, renewable energy, community capital, zero-waste manufacturing and independent retail — all vital components of a “sustainable community.”

There is no evidence to support the claims that the Fortune 500 corporations would employ local Frederick residents. Meanwhile, studies such as www.livingeconomies.org show that by supporting local owned businesses – ones that can fit into the millions of square feet of office space available in Frederick City – we can also create jobs without compromising the environment.

Republished from 270 Inc Business Magazine.