Town Hall Alliance

I am proud to present a Letter sent to the Town Hall Alliance from Joan Ritchie on the 620 Acre Re-Zone to Industrial.

Letter to the Editor                                                                     
Enterprise
California, Maryland

Dear Sir,
I have been reading with interest the rezoning of the 620 acres in Hillville from rural conservation to industrial. The State framework for developing or changing rezoning to industrial are clear: there needs to be a change in the community that would allow the rezoning, since 1997, the State has required that an industrial site have a sewer hook-up.
Rezoning this acreage will be the driving force that changes the Hillville community not preserves it and impact those along the McIntosh Run and Breton Bay. The potential of adding 25% pollution factor is not acceptable if we are serious about saving the Chesapeake Bay.

Commissioner Mattingly cited the development of Fowler Industrial park and touted that a new industrial park would create jobs. There are vacancies at the Flower Industrial Park. Where is the demand? I attended the latest Commissioners Forum. Commissioner Mattingly could state with absolute conviction that a racetrack, landfill or transfer station would not be built. Perhaps those of us in attendance should have played the children’s game of “twenty questions” for answers. Citizens deserve an answer as to exactly what industry is planned for this site, not speculation or a laundry list of what it won’t be.

Commissioner Russell used the phrase that “voters elected him to make decisions for them”. I have heard the same exact statement before. I heard it at the December 24th meeting on the purchase of Hayden Farm. Yes, we do elect leaders to make decisions…informed decisions. Not decisions that go against the recommendations of the Planning Commission or staff reports. When you avoided the recommendation of appraisers to have an engineer evaluate “Parcel “B” of the farm purchase, you wasted taxpayer money. That parcel has no development potential and we paid over $1,400,000!

Commissioner Raley, you have referred many times to the December 24th meeting to purchase the Hayden Farm, “a PR nightmare”. The rezoning of the Hillville
property to industrial, circumventing ALL the processes other landowners must go through raises questions. Other landowners do not have the benefit of a member of the Planning Commissioner pleading the case for the developers (one a relative), at the very least a question of ethics.”

By definition, the decision to change the zoning is “arbitrary”. Any definitions for arbitrary applies to this situation and should raise a red flag. “Arbitrary: Determination by chance, whim or impulse and not necessity, reason or principle, when applied to politics, despotic or dictatorship, an element of bad faith.” I want my elected officials to make decisions based on facts and citizen input when the decision impacts them directly.
Allow a public hearing, one in which you really listen and not go through the motions. Please review the advice of the Planning Commission and staffers. To continue down an “arbitrary path” requires justification/accountability to citizens. To replace justification with arrogance for this rezoning vote, the matter is more then a “PR issue”. It will become one of public trust.

Sincerely,
Joan Ritchie