Wrongheaded suggestion

Agricultural preservation programs exist to help economically stressed farmers keep their land in productive use, while giving them economic support to help them avoid having to sell their land for other uses. Requiring reverse bidding works to see just how little a farmer is willing to take to keep the land in agricultural production. In other words, those in the most desperate straits, those most in need, will be forced to bid the lowest. This increases their chance of economic failure … precisely the opposite effect for which the program was intended.

Shreve compared his proposed process to an eBay auction. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. In an eBay auction, bidders compete to raise and reach a fair market value. Under this process the objective is to undercut a fair value and give the farmer as little economic support as possible. The most needy will bid the lowest.

In contracting, this process is known as “bid shopping” and is considered unethical. It is forbidden by law in some jurisdictions because it leads to cutting corners and decreased quality. In agricultural preservation it is also unethical and will act to undermine support for impoverished farmers and, in the long run, work against the whole concept of the program.

BOB WHITE, member, Frederick County Planning Commission

Originally published May 17, 2012

MEDIA ADVISORY

 

The Frederick County Privatization Advisory Committee will hold a meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, May 21, in the third floor meeting room of Winchester Hall, 12 East Church Street, Frederick, Md.

 

Materials are available for review prior to the meeting.  The meeting will be televised live on FCG TV, cable channel 19, and webcast onwww.FrederickCountyMD.gov/video.

 

The agenda and background information for the meeting may be found by visiting www.FrederickCountyMD.gov/ppp.  For more information, contact Ethics Administrator Ragen Cherney at 301-600-1049 or via e-mail at rcherney@FrederickCountyMD.gov.

 

• $572 million: total value at completion
• $181 million in commercial and office development
• 700 single-family homes
• 300 townhouses
• 200 condominiums
• 1 million square feet of office
• 120,000 square feet of retail
• 80,000 square feet for a grocery store

The Frederick city planning commissioners agreed unanimously Monday that they want more details about Crum Farm Land LLC’s request to annex an additional 250 acres before they make a recommendation to the mayor and Board of Aldermen.
The proposed annexation cannot change the 2009 terms of Crum Farm Land’s 285-acre annexation of adjoining property, but it does open the door for new negotiations concerning the additional land, staff said. For the conservation group Friends of Frederick County, the original Crum annexation and its conditions do not adequately address the impact the annexation will have on schools and roads.

The proposal, for 1,200 houses and 1.3 million square feet of nonresidential development, includes a 15-acre school site, a 22-acre park and improvements to Willowbrook Road.

Commissioners Rick Stup, Lib Fetting and Josh Bokee said they would like to see some guarantees that the concessions and park connections, pedestrian trails and road construction would happen as envisioned.

Crum Farm Land representatives said they are not trying to get out of any of the 2009 agreements, but are also not looking to make more concessions because the new proposal is to build the same amount of commercial and residential development over a greater area. The result is a less dense development that does not increase the need for water and sewer service that has already been approved.

The annexation would add 252 acres west of U.S. 15, southwest of Sundays Lane, and north of Willowbrook Road. The land adjoins 285 acres of Crum Farm Land that were annexed in 2009, and would allow the developer to use 535 acres instead of 285 acres for the approved 1,200 homes and 1.3 million square feet of commercial and office space, said Bruce Dean, the property owner’s attorney.

Although the 2009 annexation took in land in what was considered the city’s Tier I imminent growth area, the current proposal involves Tier III land, which is not scheduled for growth or to have water and sewer service for 20 to 30 years. The land was originally all part of one tract, Dean said.

Commissioners said it could set a dangerous precedent to allow Tier III properties to cut ahead of the order of development envisioned by the city’s comprehensive plan.

“I’m concerned about the Tier III thing,” Fetting said.

Dean said the Crum case does not violate the tiered planning because the property has water and sewer service allotted, and the tiers designate properties according to likely water and sewer service. If there is no plan for service, then it goes into the third tier.

Tier II is for property where service is to be available in about 10 years, and few are left, Dean said. In the case of the Crum properties, if they are reunited, the water and sewer is available as part of the Potomac Water Service Agreement.

The 2009 annexation agreement requires most development to wait until a new interchange is built at U.S. 15 and Biggs Ford Road, and that would not change if the additional land is annexed, Dean said. It would take about 10 years to develop the first 350 to 450 houses, and 20 to build the entire project, said Mark Fries, Crum Farm Land consultant.

Janice Wiles, Friends of Frederick County director, told commissioners neither annexation agreement can be combined with the 2009 annexation. The effects on U.S. 15 traffic and school capacity have not been adequately addressed in the 2009 agreement or the current one.

Commissioners tentatively rescheduled their vote for their July 9 meeting and plan to have workshops with Crum representatives to get more details of the plan.

“I don’t have a clear picture of what we’re getting,” Stup said.

No fangs in PlanMaryland

Its objectives haven’t been altered either: Help curb sprawl that consumes farmland and forest, and that pollutes our local streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay, and promote growth where it is best suited.

If the good citizens hired the lobbyist mentioned in the article to “defang” PlanMaryland, they wasted their hard-earned money.

Richard Eberhart Hall, Maryland Secretary of Planning

Originally published May 15, 2012

Frederick City growth area (Tier 3 shown in gray)

[Letter to Frederick City elected officials]

To whom it may concern:

As residents living in the vicinity of the Keller Farm, we are writing to express our concern with the annexation and development plans for this 302.67 acre property located along Yellow Springs and Rocky Springs Roads, west of Walter Martz Rd. The Keller Farm is part of a rural and agricultural community. To the south is another working farm (Hooper Farm), and to the north are homes at a density of one house for every two acres of land.

We wish to raise specific concerns with respect to the plans to build 500 single family homes and 350 townhouses and condominiums on the property (850 total), possibly including 100 moderately priced dwelling units.

Traffic

Yellow Springs Road/ Rosemont Avenue is the only road connecting the neighborhoods around the Keller Farm to downtown Frederick and to US-15. Rosemont is already overburdened with traffic, and is the site of frequent accidents. Most of the available jobs can only be reached by taking US-15 south, which is already disastrously overcrowded at rush hour. The 500 single family dwellings alone will put nearly 5000 additional car trips each week to these already dangerous and crowded roads.[1]

We understand that there are 1200 residential units to be built on the nearby Crum Farm, and there are others in the city’s Tier 2 municipal growth plan.  Will there be a combined impact analysis done so that plans can be made to avert overcrowding our roads even further?

Quality of Life

Yellow Springs vicinity is a rural community with little crime. Residents love the rural feel of the community and school and the safety of our neighborhoods. We love the farms, trees, creeks and rolling hills, with views of the mountains. Adding a large, overcrowded neighborhood along both sides of Yellow Springs Road will take away from the rural nature of our community and likely bring crime. The areas of Frederick County with the highest density of population also have the highest per capita crime rates. (neighborhoodscout.com/md/frederick/crime)

Schools

A school analysis was done and made available by the City of Frederick Planning Department. There is no information on who provided the analysis or when it was done. There has been no analysis provided from the Frederick County Public Schools or from Frederick County, the ultimate voice on school budgets and planning for new schools.

We are also concerned that there is virtually no Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) pertaining to schools in Frederick City. The city’s APFO does have a standard for capacity, however if a development project fails to meet that standard it only needs to wait 3 years before it automatically passes the APFO – regardless if it fails to meet the standard.

Emergency Services

We do not have data on the ability of our EMS services to handle the new families who would be dependent upon them. Will Frederick Memorial Hospital be able to handle these additional family demands, considering the other developments planned for this region?  It is the only hospital in the immediate community, and expansion of services and sites for the hospital is difficult and costly.

Taxes

It has been shown that “increased population generates less revenue for local government than the costs associated with providing infrastructure to the additional residences.  Because costs exceed benefits, tax rates actually increase as population increases, as each new home creates a larger gap between costs and tax revenues.”[2]  If the city officials insist on rapidly growing Frederick, they should require the developers to show, in detail, that the new development will pay for all of its costs to the city and county, so that current residents will not be left with increased taxes as a result of this development.
Public Water and Sewer

We are unclear about the need for an extension of the Potomac River Water Agreement to service this development. What are the criteria by which extension will be allowable?  Who will negotiate this, and when? What scientific criteria will be used to judge that there will not be irreparable harm to the Potomac River?

There are plans for significant growth in our area of Frederick City, namely the Crum Farm and other farms within the Tier 2 growth area. Is there an analysis of their combined impact on our local infrastructure, specifically water and sewer capabilities and environmental upgrades?

Environmentally sensitive areas

Little Tuscarora Creek, which runs through the Keller Farm property, is one of the few streams in the area to support brook trout, is suitable for public drinking supply, and is an important resource to conserve. Because of this it is classified as a class III-P trout stream. What will be done to mitigate impact upon this important creek habitat?

In Summary

Our summary concern is that there has been inadequate analysis of the impacts of the planned residential development on roads, schools, natural resources and sensitive areas, emergency services, safety – and all other impacts that adding potentially 850 families to our area will have. Subsequent to assessing the impacts we would like to see the plan and cost to mitigate those impacts and be informed by Frederick City about who will be held responsible to pay these costs. We as Frederick City and County residents do not want to be held partially responsible for the costs of these and other impacts for this development with increased taxes down the road.
You may contact Lesli Summerstay when that information is available and we will ensure that it gets circulated. Thank you.

Sincerely,

LIST OF NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF CONCERNED CITIZENS

Please email Lesli Summerstay (jsummerstay@gmail.com) with your name, address and  neighborhood if you would like to sign the letter. The letter will be presented to Frederick City officials at a public meeting on June 11, 2012.

Rand D Weinberg, Esquire, Law Offices of Rand Weinberg, LLC, the Keller Corporation, the Martha W Keller Family Partnership LLLP, Yankee Land Trust, Edward M Johnson and Jeanette W Johnson, Great Southern Investment, LLC (Marvin Ausherman), Julie Ann Castillo and Albert Castillo, the Charles E Keller III Qualified Personal Residence Trust (E Daniel Bittle Jr, SUsan T Bittle, Lexington T Bittle, Kelsie G Bittle).  (Note that Castillo is joining petition as an accommodation to the petitioner but city shall not impose city taxes on Castillo’s property.)  These signatories also represent no less than 25% of the persons who reside in the area to be annexed and who are registered as voters in Frederick County elections.  Those who signed are the owners of not less than 25% of the assessed valuation of the real property located in the area to be annexed.

The Farm is located along Yellow Springs Rd and Rocky Springs Rd, west of Walter Martz Rd

The following documents will help citizens understand more about this proposal.

Annexation Petition

• Pg 2 section 5 of the annexation petition states that the Second Tier follows the boundary of the Potomac River Water Supply Agreement.  When will that PRWSA be extended, and how can citizens be sure that it the amount will be adequate to support this plus the other additional development planned for Frederick County?
• Pg 4 section 9:  ”the property is subject to the City’s APFO”.  How will the city and county deal with ensuring adequate school space, since the city APFO has a loophole that allows all development to go forward in Frederick CIty (even after failing the APFO for schools) as long as the developer waits 3 years before proceeding?

Comprehensive Plan Analysis

Fiscal Impact Analysis

School needs

Traffic impacts

Water and Sewer Planning Study //Water and Sewer Planning Study – appendices

Christopher Crossing Rds Traffic Study

Additional area traffic studies for Frederick City

Efforts to preserve the brook trout in Little Tuscarora Creek (that runs through the Keller Farm)

Outline for extension of services

Letter given to NAC3 residents on 4/16/12 (page 1)