Watching Charles County grow hasn't been pleasant

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

The Charles County commissioners have taken the next step in converting the county from a pleasant, rural county to a bustling, crowded, noisy suburb of Washington, D.C.

I have watched the places in which I lived being converted from pleasant, suburban locales to overcrowded, polluted, crime-ridden areas that I would disdain to even travel to, much less live in. I have worked in various locations in Northern Virginia starting in 1979, and have seen that area undergo the same kind of transformation.

I have seen the scenic Four-Mile Run and Cameron Run converted into concrete-lined, trash-filled, foul-smelling ditches. I have seen the Washington and Old Dominion rail trail be turned from family-friendly conversion of old railroad right of way to a hangout for sexual predators which woman and children are advised by the police to only use in groups.

I have seen the traffic in these areas grow from annoying to exasperating, to frustrating to unhealthful to such an extent that the report of a driver in rush hour causing a backup due to medical distress is a commonplace occurrence. These things all were created by one thing: unlimited development.

First the local governments want to increase their tax revenues by increasing business. To get new businesses they need to create attractive housing for the workers the businesses hope to attract. They build more roads and "improve" the existing. The new development attracts more people to such an extent that the "new and improved" roads are no longer enough. So then they need to build more roads.

Landowners want to make money off of land that is only marginally producing so they get in on the development boom by either developing their land into subdivisions or selling their land to developers.

Soon the businesses brought in by this spurt of development are no longer sufficient so that the local governments then resort to carrying out more changes.

When I moved to Southern Maryland in 1992 it made for a wonderful change. I could actually breathe deeply without choking on exhaust fumes and industrial pollution. I could drive down the road and see trees and farmland. I saw working horses and wildlife. There were rivers in which to swim.

Now the commissioners are in the process of taking that away.

They widened Route 228 from a two-lane road lined with woods with no direct connection to the Capital Beltway to a four-lane highway that runs right into Indian Head Highway. Both roads were lined with new subdivisions to the extent that they could no longer accommodate the traffic. They widened Billingsley Road between Middletown Road and Route 5 from a two-lane country road to a four-lane expressway lined with new developments. They did the same to Middletown Road.

Now instead of just widening Billingsley, they want to carve a new roadway straight through undeveloped woodlands all the way over to Route 210. The next stage of this plan is the building of an energetics (read explosives) technical center and business park near J.C. Parks Elementary School and Matthew Henson Middle School. Proponents of this have also claimed that this development is going to bring 3,000 to 3,500 new jobs to the county.

The end result of all this influx of people will be a complete change in the character of Charles County. In addition, the resultant runoff from all of this new development will increase the nutrient pollution of the Chesapeake Bay, the tidal Potomac and the tributaries. Watermen will no longer be able to crab because there won't be any.

The millions of dollars a year that flow into the county from bass fishing will be gone because there will be no bass. The yearly ritual of fishing the shad run in the creeks of Charles County will be at an end because the shad are gone.

Instead of people flocking to Charles County to enjoy the country and the natural resources of the county, people of Charles County will be traveling to Western Maryland and elsewhere to Jet Ski, boat, fish and hunt. All of this so some developers and landowners can make a lot of money.

Is this what the people of Charles County see as their future?

Edward Joell, Indian Head