Some still upset at Swan Point plan

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007

About 75 people showed up for the hearing — a repeat of one held in January by the Maryland Department of the Environment and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The hearing was necessary because the developer significantly changed some of the components of the expansion of the 897-acre planned waterfront community, said Richard Dengler, vice president and chief operating officer of Brookfield Homes LLC. The company and U.S. Steel Corp. are proposing the expansion.

In particular, the developers are proposing to downsize a marina on Cuckold Creek from 250 slips to 112 slips and add a 150-slip marina on the Potomac River off Weir Creek Peninsula, Dengler said. The changes were made to the plans to answer concerns of local residents who live in communities near Swan Point about the impact of a large marina on Cuckold Creek.

Proponents of the expansion say it will raise property values and boost the county’s economy by attracting visitors to the Cobb Neck area. The project also includes shoreline stabilization along the Potomac River and the construction of 1,500 residences, a yacht club, a hotel⁄conference center on Weir Creek Peninsula, retail shops and restaurants.

Ken Robinson, president of the Swan Point Property Owners Association, testified that the expansion of the community would benefit both Swan Point residents and visitors to the county.

‘‘Swan Point is the community most impacted by these expansion plans,” he read from a written statement during the hearing. ‘‘It has the largest population of all the communities on the Cobb Neck Peninsula. The SPPOA strongly recommends that the permits being requested by the [developers] be issued by the regulating agencies.”

Robinson said the developers have worked with Swan Point residents to ensure the expansion will be something the community can be proud of.

‘‘From the beginning, Brookfield Homes and the Swan Point Development Company have been willing to both discuss issues with the community and react positively to community concerns,” he read from the statement. ‘‘... We respect the opinions of those in opposition to the planned marina on Cuckold Creek. The developer has listened to those concerns and reduced the original size of the marina by two-thirds of the number of slips originally planned.”

But Cobb Neck residents who oppose the expansion said a lot of what the developer is going to do in the community is going to be detrimental to the environment and create unsafe conditions in the event of inclement weather when some parts of Swan Point will be cut off from police and emergency aid.

The reduction in the number of slips at Cuckold Creek marina is cancelled out by the addition of a 150-slip marina on Weir Creek Peninsula, said Edward Marshall, a member of the Cobb Neck Citizens Alliance. The group formed a couple of years ago to keep an eye on proposed development in the Cobb Neck area of the county.

‘‘Weir Peninsula is a pristine, beautiful forested floodplain,” he said after the hearing. ‘‘I don’t want to see it developed. The state ought to buy it as a park.”

Marshall suggested that the developer build the hotel⁄conference center, condominiums and marina targeted for the peninsula on a parcel of land known as the ‘‘horse farm,” instead.

‘‘The land is a lot higher and it’s more construction-friendly,” he said. ‘‘There’s plenty of room.”

John Gardner, a member of the Potomac River Pilots Association who lives along Cuckold Creek, agreed that the 202-acre parcel of land would better support the sort of development Brookfield plans for Weir Peninsula.

‘‘Why build a convention center on a floodplain in an inaccessible area?” he said after the hearing. ‘‘The horse farm has excellent accessibility for emergency vehicles. There’s no access for any type of emergency vehicles to get to the peninsula.”

Gardner, a 71-year-old retired commercial ship’s captain who has plied the local waterways all of his life, said he still is not happy about a marina being built on Cuckold Creek even though the number of slips has decreased.

‘‘It’s still going to be in the main path of the discharge from Swan Point’s sewage treatment plant,” he said. ‘‘There’s going to be light pollution from the docks and noise from the boats.”

Gardner said the developer’s plan to build a harbormaster’s office on Cuba Island in Cuckold Creek is a bad idea.

‘‘It’s a floodplain and it should be kept as a park. They should stay off of it,” he said.

Bradford Ross has lived in an historic home — Maiden Point — along Cuckold Creek for 60 years. Ross said he is infuriated that the state and county are allowing such intense development along Cuckold and Weir creeks, especially since most of the amenities included in the expansion will be for private use.

‘‘It’s not for the citizens of Charles County; it’s for private use. That, to me, is a land grab,” he said last week. ‘‘They want to completely take our creek to the detriment of all of their neighbors. It’s going to be a private marina on the creek that completely takes away from the quiet enjoyment of everyone who lives there.”

But Swan Point resident Bill Bartelt said the developer has bent over backwards to modify the expansion plans to answer the concerns of Cobb Neck residents who live near the community.

‘‘Brookfield and U.S. Steel have been good neighbors; they’ve been consistently concerned about the environment and the neighbors,” he said. ‘‘The presentation that they gave at the hearing shows significant changes to the development. It shows they’re not just coming down here and money-grubbing.”

‘‘Brookfield has modified their plans several times to try to build a community that we all can be proud of,” said Mike Kovach, who has lived in Swan Point for seven years. ‘‘This community is already on the books and it’s time to allow them to go on with the process and build.

‘‘The community is going to develop whether Brookfield develops it or somebody else,” he added. ‘‘Sooner or later, we just got to allow them to do it.”

Dengler said in a recent interview that the expansion is as environmentally friendly as the engineers could make it.

‘‘It’s a green plan,” he said. ‘‘There’s going to be more than 55 percent open space in the community. It’s going to be very environmentally sensitive and great community ... We’re doing everything in accordance with government regulations. In most cases, we’re exceeding them.”

But Cobb Neck residents who oppose the expansion say they are not convinced that the project is not going to harm the environment.

‘‘This is a critical situation that is going to affect an incredible amount of people,” Gardner said. ‘‘Good, bad or indifferent we’re going to have to live with it.”

E-mail Nancy Bromley McConaty at nmcconaty@somdnews.com.