Ehrlich Pitches for
Leonardtown Developers
Permits process will vaporize under the
Governor's 'Lets Make A Deal' Program
By SARAH LESHER
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS -- The Poppleton neighborhood on Baltimore's west side
and Leonardtown Wharf in Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, were
designated the first two "Priority Places" by the Department of
Planning Tuesday.
The projects are part of a revitalization effort focusing on the
development side of Smart Growth, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
said. The Smart Growth Initiative has several components,
including the preservation of rural land and the redevelopment of
urban or previously developed sites.
An interagency planning staff selected the two Priority Places
from among 22 locations that applied for the designation. The
staff was drawn from 10 state agencies, including the departments
of Planning, Environment, Natural Resources, Housing and
Community Development and Business and Economic Development.
A project planner will help local groups in the Priority Places
find and apply for appropriate grants from the 10 agencies.
Priority Places will go to the "head of the line" for grants
because the governor has put his weight behind this approach and
because all agencies voted for the selected locations, said Chuck
Gates, spokesman for the Department of Planning.
However, there is no separate funding in the budget for them, he
said.
The approach seeks to combine offices, shops, restaurants, a mix
of housing, and, where appropriate, public transit or, in the
case of Leonardtown Wharf, a scenic destination, into a vital new
neighborhood.
Leonardtown, the county seat and only municipality in St. Mary's
County, was for 200 years a shipping port for tobacco, oil and
other products. The chosen site is approximately 6 acres that
formerly held the old oil depot, a deserted ice plant and the
charred remains of a restaurant done in by arson 20 years ago,
said Mayor J. Harry Norris III.
Leonardtown had earlier used $105,000 in state funding to study
the environmental issues and clean up the site, he said, noting
that the county had also helped with the project.
Once the site was cleaned up, private developers purchased about
5 acres, on which they plan to put mixed-use development, Norris
said.
The town got .75 acres of waterfront for a park with a boardwalk
and kayak and canoe rentals. Engineering and design of the park
site will cost $3 million, he said.
"We're pleased that (the governor) is moving forward with a
piece of Smart Growth -- that has been going forward in Maryland
for a number of years," said Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive
director for 1000 Friends of Maryland.
"But overall these Priority Place awards do little to make up
for other violations of Smart Growth," she said. She was critical
of the administration's lack of funds for land preservation and
poor transit choices -- including support for the Inter-county
Connector and failure to invest in public transit.
"What these projects most need is funds. Ehrlich raided the
Neighborhood Conservation Program funds and cancelled the
program," Schmidt-Perkins said.
The Priority Place program will expedite regulatory approval and
end the era of waiting for permits, Ehrlich said.
"That makes sense," he said.