Russell voted to fully fund nitpicking on homeowners but gives away the store to developers

By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN ---  The long-term effects of the unexplainable cavalier attitude of Critical Areas Commission staffer Mary Owens came home to roost on Tuesday when the St. Mary’s Board of Commissioners turned down a request to use county funds to supplement a state grant to fund three positions that enforce critical area laws in the county.

Land Use and Growth Management director Denis Canavan brought the proposal to the board, which sliced, diced and sent through the commissioner’s rarely used chipper the ill-fated proposal to have the county provide the shortfall of $10,000 in funds that the state chopped out of their budget.

Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) pointed out that the state has once again cut it’s own budget by passing on the costs enforcement of a state law to the county and warned that much more of this type of so-called budget cutting which has taken place at the state level simply is a matter of shifting the burden to the localities around the state.

Jarboe and Commissioner Tommy Mattingly (D. Leonardtown) pointed out that the Critical Area staff has been remote, unaccountable and unresponsive to both the public and the county.

Critical Area staffer Mary Owens is often blamed for being responsible for the agency’s often capricious enforcement which reaches into the backyards, not of developers, but of citizens.

Owens often holds up projects for simple homeowner requests but a proposed new home in the critical area buffer for a relative in Leonardtown sailed through the maze of regulations, proving that do-gooders do good for family, as always.  A proposal for a boathouse and yacht club at St. Mary's County, both facilities which were built directly on the beach at St. Mary's City, sailed through the Critical Area Commission with less review than that given for a permit for a stepping stone for a citizen.

Commissioner Dan Raley (D. Great Mills) pointed out that the critical area staff recently made one homeowner pick up pavers from the grass and said that the public is afraid of the agency.

A simple request by St. Mary's Ryken High School to correct a mistake made by the county which inadvertently left the school facility out of the proper zoning category tied the county and school up for nearly 8 years for what should have been an hour-long review of the paperwork.   County officials had endless meetings with state critical area staff on the topic and school officials were held up from moving ahead with plans for additions to facilities.  

Russell said on Tuesday that the Critical Areas Commission has dealt with the staff's problems but he didn't appear to convince anyone with his argument.

All the while that minor enforcement details are carried out with zeal and pettiness, the real pollution to the Chesapeake Bay comes from the runoff of Baltimore City which has nearly zero stormwater management and from the sewage treatment plants of the Baltimore and Washington areas.

The Blue Plains sewage treatment plant on the Potomac just south of Washington dumps raw and untreated sewage into the river during heavy downpours and the metropolitan area communities turn tons of fertilizer used to make suburban lawns green into the river, killing off oysters and fish.

Commissioner Jackie Russell (D. St. George’s Island), who was appointed to the Critical Area Commission by Gov. Martin O’Malley, has become the best friend of the developers in St. Mary’s by approving for the first time hookups for new homes at St. George’s Peninsula which did not qualify for public sewer allocations in the Valley Lee area, with the possibility of the entire area of the county being wide open for new development.

Russell also pushed for the same developer to be able to have the Lexington Park development district expanded to accommodate yet another housing development which will dump more than 800 homes onto Rt. 4 which is already in a state of failure.

Russell also voted to spend over $700,000 for a new park, which is located just 2 miles from the waterfront 192 acre Myrtle Point park which was bought ten years ago but still does not have a ball field, picnic pavilion, boat ramp or fishing pier.

The land for a new park on Indian Bridge Road was purchased from the same developer that Russell supported in getting sewage hookups on St. George’s Creek. 

But at the commissioners meeting, Russell was pushing for funding the critical area staff budget which was short-sheeted by the State.  

In all respects, Russell has done an about face from the positions he took as a candidate for commissioner but on one vote held this week, Russell voted for the enforcement that does not confront developers who are polluting creeks but instead nitpicks homeowners by making them remove paving stones and holding up permits for years to repair their seawalls or grind stumps.

Russell was the only commissioner to vote in favor and the vote to use emergency funds from the commissioner’s reserve failed on a 4-1 vote.