Highway plan faces rejection by state

Cross-county connector in peril

Friday, Nov. 21, 2008

Speaking during the commissioners' session, Melvin C. Beall, director of planning and growth management, said the Maryland Department of the Environment notified him that they "will not be able to make a favorable decision" on the proposed northern phases of the cross-county connector by Nov. 30.

Beall told the commissioners he plans to ask the state for a six-month extension of the decision in order to give the county time to respond to the concerns of MDE and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Both agencies must issue permits to allow county highway crews to build across the environmentally sensitive Mattawoman Creek.

In the Nov. 12 letter sent to Beall by MDE, Amanda Sigillito, chief of the nontidal wetland and waterways division, acknowledged that MDE had not asked the county for additional information since it extended its decision deadline from Oct. 31 to Nov. 30.

"While I understand that the county has not been notified about additional information requirements to date, given the outstanding issues still under review by MDE and the Corps, the department will not be able to make a favorable decision by the required date," Sigillito wrote.

According to Sigillito's letter, the agency may not extend its deadline again. She stated that the county could request a six-month extension, delaying the decision until as far as May. The agency could render a decision anytime within the 6-month extension period, and a spokeswoman for MDE said that the agency has set a new Dec. 30 deadline for a decision.

The county and its contractors have already largely completed the first four phases of the connector, which consisted of expanding Billingsley Road to a four-lane highway from Route 5 to Middletown Road in Waldorf.

However, completion of phases 5, 6 and 7 would require building an entirely new road from Middletown Road to Route 210 in Bryans Road, crossing Mattawoman Creek.

Critics of the highway turned out in force at a July public hearing to claim that the project would be an ecological disaster, both in itself and in the hundreds of acres of new development it would allow. They claim that one of the Chesapeake Bay's last pristine tributaries and fish hatcheries — the Mattawoman — would be destroyed.

Critics say that MDE and the Corps should require the county to complete a full environmental impact statement over the next year, fully cataloging the impact the road would have on the creek.

Jim Long and his group, the Mattawoman Watershed Society, have spearheaded local efforts to stop the highway. On Thursday, his reaction to the delay was tempered.

"I'm discouraged, on the one hand, that they didn't deny the permit outright," Long said. He said he was likewise encouraged that MDE is taking a long, hard look at the project. "That good, hard look should be in the form of an environmental impact statement."

However, the county claims that it has spent $650,000 to study the impacts that the highway would have on the Mattawoman. It claims that, with ecologically responsible construction and new land use laws for the region, the project would not significantly harm the creek.

Commissioners' President F. Wayne Cooper (D) said that a full EIS would cost the county $250,000 to $350,000 and would take another two to three years.

"If we had started two years ago, the project would have been finished by now," Cooper said, noting that each year of delay raises the price of the project due to inflation. He said he does not know what additional information MDE needs, but he is not giving up hope.

"I still feel positive about it. I haven't seen anything at this point to feel discouraged."

The county wants the cross-county connector to provide easy access from Route 5 and U.S. 301 to its proposed 260-acre science and technology park, which is being planned for and built in Bryans Road. The center is the keystone in the county's plans to bolster its commercial tax base and promote high-paying jobs.

jfriess@somdnews.com