By Mary Woznysmith

Maybe I’m slow, but this one should have been a no brainer.  The owner of the three parcels of undeveloped land surrounding Lothian Circle, Franklin Chaney, wants to up-zone his land to C1 Commercial so he can sell it quickly or develop it himself. 

It’s currently zoned Rural Agricultural (RA), like much of the land down here.  Lothian Circle's purpose is to move traffic up and down Route 2 (Solomons Island Road). 

It is not designed to accommodate additional ingress and egress from the surrounding land. Anyone who has driven through that area (and that’s plenty of us) can see that there is no way Lothian Circle needs the additional congestion. The owner’s request for up-zoning was denied by the experts at the County Planning Advisory Board, the Office of Planning and Zoning, and by County Executive Leopold as being unnecessary and in contradiction to the widely supported Small Area Plan for South Anne Arundel County. 

It should have ended there.

Enter Councilman Jerry Walker (R-Districe 7). He doesn’t support the Small Area Plan. He wants to handle the re-zoning himself.  He held three town meetings this spring to discuss up-zoning.  He said he was there to listen. None of the members of the community present, other than the landowner, rose to support up-zoning Lothian Circle. 

Last week, at Councilman Walker’s request, a few members of the Lothian Civic Association and Mr. Chaney again met to discuss up-zoning Lothian Circle. According to Mr. Chaney, Mr. Walker had said he would “give” one parcel the C1 designation.

The group was asked which parcel would cause the least negative impact to the community.  Is he kidding? Somehow, Mr. Walker seems to think that what a handful of people in someone’s living room one night can come up with is somehow better than the work of 37 experts, input from a wide number of community members over a twelve month period and a lot of facts and analysis that went into writing the existing Small Area Development Plan.

For the record, everyone in that living room strongly opposed any up-zoning of Lothian Circle, perhaps because of the rural character of the homes and farms immediately adjacent to the circle as well as the large number of empty and abandoned C1 and C4 properties available for commercial activity elsewhere in south county.

The existing Rural Agricultural (RA) designation allows more than 60 permitted, conditional and special exception uses. The property owner has a multitude of options for the use of the land. There is no legitimate basis for a zoning change at Lothian Circle.  

I would also point out that Mr. Chaney received one of the parcels under consideration as a family conveyance–an exception to local zoning offered by the county to local farmers so that family members could remain on a family farm. Certainly, this land was never intended for  commercial  development.

Lothian Circle is the heart of  Anne Arundel County’s designated Rural Legacy Area. Millions of dollars in public funds have been spent to acquire preservation easements in the vicinity. Scenic and historic road designations have been made. Authorization of a large commercial center in this area would be a significant mistake and may well jeopardize future state funding to support Anne Arundel's agriculture and forest preservation goals.

Given all of this information, does anyone think Mr. Walker's type of haphazard, spot zoning will benefit anyone other than Mr. Chaney himself? Even more importantly, can this type of favoritism at the community’s expense beget anything other than more of the same in the future?

Unfortunately, the legislative mechanics of the county-wide Comprehensive Zoning effort currently underway allow Councilman Walker to propose any amendments he wishes to the zoning bill.  As we saw last week with Mr. Walker’s first round of eleven up-zoning amendments, the other six councilman will go along with the wishes of a councilman regarding zoning in his district. 

Are you getting this? One man decides zoning for everybody in his district regardless of what the community at large has said they want.  Once the land is up-zoned to commercial, there are no backsies.  The character of our community is altered forever. 

Mr. Walker has promised more up-zoning amendments will follow in the next few weeks, possibly including up-zoning Lothian Circle. Mr. Walker has said that in spite of the huge volume of emails he has received on this issue, he doesn’t know what the community wants him to do.

What’s hard about this? The community doesn’t want him to decide these issues himself.  We want him to follow the guidelines we developed in the Small Area Plan or the recommendations of the experts at the Planning Advisory Board. 

To make it simple, we want him to tell Mr. Chaney, “NO” on up-zoning Lothian Circle. Holding “listening sessions” and then ignoring what everyone says is the most cynical form of politicking. 

Letting landowners change the rules to make a quick buck is nothing new in county dealings. That’s not compromise, that’s good ol’ boy business as usual. Mr. Walker’s approach drives the community away from the process, even as he pays lip service to working together.   

What can we do? Members of the community should contact each of the County Councilman and County Executive Leopold and let them know that we do not favor overriding the good planning of our communities with this type of haphazard, spot commercial up-zoning.

It’s easy to go to the County website right now and individually email them.  Or, here are their email addresses:

• jerry.walker@aacounty.org
• john.grasso@aacounty.org
• daryl.jones@aacounty.org
• dladd@aacounty.org
• ctrumbauer@aacounty.org
• dfink@aacounty.org
• jamie.benoit@aacounty.org
• jleopold@aacounty.org.

Let’s remind these gentleman who they really work for! 

Editor's Note: The County Council will meet in Council Chambers Monday night (7 p.m.) to determine the next round of amendments.