Secretary Rich Hall, MD Dept. of Planning, confirms this is best for Smart Growth in Charles County!
On November 1, the Maryland Department of the Environment sent a letter to Charles County denying key wetland permits for the controversial Cross County Connector, citing a longstanding incomplete application that has never addressed numerous environmental issues.
The demise of this sprawl-inviting highway is a step toward Smart Growth, as affirmed by the Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Planning, Rich Hall. Read his letter here.
In fact, the highway played a role in instigating Smart Growth in Maryland in the late 1990s. It was originally conceived to facilitate the controversial Chapman’s Landing, a mega-development that would have stretched from the Potomac River to Mattawoman Creek had not then-governor Parris Glendening preserved it as Chapman Forest (now Chapman State Park). It was his familiarity with the mega-development that led Governor Glendening to foster Smart Growth in Maryland through a legislative initiative.
The highway would have brought sprawl development across the full width of the Mattawoman Creek watershed, which is beginning to decline because of excess urbanization. The highway would also have impacted the headwaters of the Port Tobacco River.
The unneeded highway also would have drawn investment away from the revitalization of Waldorf (including planned transit-oriented development), was tying up funds needed for pressing projects, and signaled a lack of commitment to Smart Growth, making it more difficult to attract transit dollars from state and federal sources. See an article that includes these issues here.
