County aims to keep development away from aircraft noise

Zoning intended to prevent encroachment

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008

Studies are underway to determine how much noise the Joint Strike Fighter will bring to the base. Those noise contours will be used to make a buffer to keep dense residential development away.

Once that data is complete, it will be added to the comprehensive plan and later the zoning ordinance, said Denis Canavan, director of land use and growth management.

‘‘It includes Webster Field” in St. Inigoes, he said, at a Tuesday joint meeting between Navy and county government officials.

But LeRoy Mattingly, the base’s AICUZ specialist, said the data for Webster Field was completed in October 2006. AICUZ means Air Installation Compatible Use Zone, and development is limited in that zone. Because Webster Field has fewer than 5,000 flights a year, it does not have accident potential zones as Lexington Park does.

Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D) wanted to make sure that the data was turned over to county government in order to map an AICUZ around Webster Field. It never had such protective zoning before.

The updated AICUZ study for the rest of Pax River NAS should be ready in October.

A regional AICUZ study is under way for the Eastern Shore as well because the Chesapeake Test Range has flights overhead. The range covers 2,100 square miles, over three states – Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

Of preventing the encroachment of civilian development near the Navy base , Mattingly said, ‘‘St. Mary’s County’s already doing it. St. Mary’s County is way ahead of anybody in the Navy.”

Raley reiterated that new data needs to be shared with the county without delay.

‘‘We’ve got an election coming up” for the board of commissioners in 2010 and rezoning should be finished before then. ‘‘You don’t want to do it half in my term and half in someone else’s term,” he said.

The target to have the comprehensive plan review completed is July 1, 2009, Canavan said.

Robin Finnacom, director of the Community Development Corporation, said business owners along Great Mills Road were complaining that limited hours at the base’s Gate 2 was cutting of the stream of potential customers. Gate 2 is closed in the evenings and on the weekends.

‘‘Gate 2 is now going to have extended hours starting in September,” Finnacom said. ‘‘That’s the kind of relationship that has been so valuable. The business community thanks you.”

‘‘We’re all in this together,” Raley said. ‘‘We do not want Great Mills Road to deteriorate into blight.”