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News

Landmark MD Court Ruling Ensures Forest Conservation Plans Can Be Legally Challenged

8/31/2022

 
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A new native tree greets spring time at a forest planting as part of our Re-Leaf the Reserve Program. (Photo- Lee Langstaff)

The following is a email from our friends at Chesapeake Bay Foundation with some great news. Forests now have far better legal protections. This ruling comes at a time that Montgomery County is revising the forest conservation policies at the local level. This state-level ruling will help make local policies stronger.  Forests matter in Maryland and MoCo  - read and share MoCo forest stories here. 
Dear Friend of the Bay,

Great news for Maryland's forests! On Friday, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that forest conservation plans for development projects can be legally challenged after being approved. From now on, forests will have the same legal protections as wetlands and waterfront lands in Maryland.
This ruling comes at a critical moment in our work to protect Harford County's Abingdon Woods, where a developer intends to clear about 220 acres of forests—including the removal of 49 large, old growth trees that are specially protected under Maryland law. Now CBF can move forward with plans to contest the developer's forest conservation plan in circuit court.
While this ruling came down through our work in Harford County, the ruling sets precedent statewide. The court recognized the importance of Maryland's forest protection law and ensured plans that fall short can easily be challenged in court by citizens, nonprofits like CBF, community organizations, and more.
For decades, CBF has prioritized forest conservation efforts to reduce pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. The work has taken on greater importance in recent years because forests are imperative in the fight against climate change. They help filter our waters, increase property values, reduce energy costs, provide clean air and wildlife habitat, and improve public health.
Thank you for continuing to stand with us as we work to protect Maryland's forests and the Bay. 
CBF's Press Release
Bay Journal/ Maryland Matters
More You May Like:​
  • MoCo Forest Stories - Forests loved - too often lost. What do forests (and their protection) mean to you?
  • Re-Leaf the Reserve- we've planted 25 acres so far - can your land host a forever forest?
  • Re-Leaf Honor Cards - give a meaningful, clutter free gift that grows
  • The way trees in a forest communicate and help each other will inspire you​​
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Take Action: Developers Looking to Turn Frederick Farmland into Huge Data Center - Bore Under Potomac in 3 Places

8/30/2022

 
Update - Quantum Loophole is still going to have their data center at the former Alcoa facility along 270 but the master plan carve out sought by developers detailed below that would have allowed another data center development on productive farmland on well and septic near Sugarloaf will not go ahead thanks to the tireless efforts of Frederick County residents. The Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Master Plan process ended a bit of a mixed bag - full update here. 
FredCo Councilmember Kai Hagen does a good summary of why keeping the boundaries of the protective Sugarloaf plan all the way to 270 makes sense and carveouts for heavy development are not forward thinking policy. Take a moment to sign the petition here.
The Frederick County Council has pushed the deadline for their decision on this plan until October 31.  Read more in the FNP
The Sugarloaf Treasured Management Plan is poised to deliver Southern FredCo's farms and forests the protection they have long needed. Here at the finish line, the County Council seems to be bowing to developer pressure on amendments that would undermine the plan and allow massive development. Join our friends at Sugarloaf Alliance in signing this petition and calling  or emailing the FredCo Councilmembers (Contacts Below). The next Council meeting is tonight (8/30) and the following one is scheduled for 9/6. 
The Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Master Plan has been a difficult process. The original plan was going to protect the farms and open space of entire Sugarloaf mountain region - only to have back room deals lead to carve outs along the west 270 for a wealthy developer, Tom Natelli, who wants to skirt the more protective zoning on his 500 acre parcel (currently farmland and forests) (mapped in red below).

The Frederick County Planning Board chose good governance and transparency and added the carve out back into the protective plan, extending the protections all the way west of 270 and all the way east to the Monocacy River- the historical boundary of this region. Now that the plan is in the final phases at the FredCo Council, there are again machinations on the part of Mr. Natelli and others and a new amendment that will be introduced by one or more Councilmembers. This amendment would seemingly allow spot zoning changes throughout the protected area - seriously weakening the plan. 

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And what do they want to build? 
A Texas-based company called - not making this up- Quantum Loophole (QL)- has already broken ground for a giant data center on a 2,000 acre site along 270 (outside of the proposed land use plan) that used to house the Alcoa factory but seemingly need more land east of 270 (within the proposed boundaries) and just happened to welcome Mr. Natelli to its board of directors last summer - hence the proposed...loophole...being proposed as an amendment to the otherwise solid land management plan in front of the Council this very week. But if the data center is underway in a redevelopment area, why do they need more land in Frederick County - land that is currently forests and farmland? 

"Quantum Loophole’s first-of-its-kind data center campus offers city-scale infrastructure for hyperscale, colocation, and purpose-built data center developers. The more than 2,100-acre, master-planned site sits just 20 ms from the massive, but constrained, Ashburn ecosystem." - Business Wire
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Frederick's QL data center construction is a sister to the one they have built 20 miles away. Too bad there was not more capacity to have all the cloud computing in one spot - no big deal, QL will just create a 40 mile pipeline through the Agricultural Reserve and under the Potomac River in 3 places - entitled QLoop to enable data transfer. And here we were told the internet was actually not a series of tubes.
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What We Can Do: 
(From Sugarloaf Alliance)
    • Share this newsletter to your email friends
    • Invite everyone to sign the petition - we’re over 1,000 - let’s get even more from Frederick Co.
    • Share our website: www.sugarloaf-alliance.org 
    • Share our facebook page: Facebook@sugarloafalliance

  • Many hands, as they say…. We’re all volunteers. We do what we can. Even if you’ve commented 15 times before, please comment again and again and again. The boundary issue is back. Show up, call in, email. Contact your Council Member. Contact the At-Large Council Members. Contact Council Member Jessica Fitzwater who is running for County Executive, who may be in charge of implementing the Plan and who has yet to take a position. Tell them all: ​
  • You support the Plan’s I-270 boundary from Montgomery County to the Monocacy.
  • You support the Overlay and the Plan’s preservation goals for the Sugarloaf area.
  • Include a statement about why you appreciate the rural character of the area west of I-270 and why you believe dense development should continue to be focused on the east side of I-270.
  • You oppose the paragraph on page 54, which opens the door to short-term Plan amendments because it creates an explicit opportunity for developers to quickly push for Plan changes despite more than 2 years of work and public input on the current version. 
  • Thank the Council Members for their support of the Sugarloaf Plan.   
  • Find more talking points at our website: sugarloaf-alliance.org
  • Email your comments to the County Council at councilmembers@frederickcountymd.gov.  ​
  • Email or call your Council Member, the At-Large Members, and Candidate Fitzwater:
Steve McKay (District 2), SMcKay@frederickcountymd.gov, 301-600-1034
Michael Blue (VP, District 5) MBlue@FrederickCountyMD.gov, 301-600-1034
Jerry Donald* (District 1), JDonald@FrederickCountyMD.gov, 301-600-2336
Jessica Fitzwater (District 4), JFitzwater@FrederickCountyMD.gov, 301-600-2336
M.C. Keegan-Ayer (Pres., District 3), MCKeegan-Ayer@FrederickCountyMD.gov, 301-600-1101
Kai Hagen (At Large), KHagen@FrederickCountyMD.gov, 301-600-2336
Phil Dacey (at Large), PDacey@FrederickCountyMD.gov, 301-600-1034

Take Action: Thrive 2050's Deficiencies on Water in a Dry and Warming World

8/26/2022

 
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What used to be the River Po in Italy - See how historic droughts are impacting waterways around the world in this slideshow from Reuters

This is a two minute action request of you.
Montgomery County Council currently has before it the draft update to the general land use plan - dubbed Thrive 2050. Among the myriad troubling deficiencies of the draft- scant reference to water - whether drinking or stormwater flooding, whether River, stream, or groundwater aquifer. And certainly absent is  the effect of and response to the changing climate on water resources- climate change is relegated to reference in a non-binding appendix.
​The Thrive process was paused, rightly, to address the identified absence of racial equity language.
​But a deadline, September 1, to complete contractor product addressing equity is looming… and even the contractor has publicly expressed deep concern that the time is not adequate to properly engage the public and provide improvement.
The argument made by some that Thrive has been in the works for 2 years and there is no more time to mess with it… is nuts. Nuts! 
​​The Planning Department describes this document: “The foundation of planning for Montgomery County is the General Plan. This vision has guided all plans and policies for more than five decades.”

Notwithstanding the frustration over length of update process… during a pandemic… with lack of public transparency and full stakeholder participation… the Council must provide the means to improve both process and substance by giving the needed time and attention to get this plan right. 
So we ask - take action to ask our Council to pause and give appropriate time/effort - get this important guiding plan right.

Thrive 2050: What it Says, What it Will Do, and Why We Have to Hit Pause

8/16/2022

 
County Executive March Elrich wrote to the Council asking that Thrive 2050 be paused to address some glaring omissions and to continue the work of the equity consultant. 
The Equity consultant Nspiregreen gave a briefing to the Council on Tuesday - coverage of that briefing from WTOP (below section on Purple Line) highlights the need to consider -and implement- the full findings of the Equity consultant. 
We are proud to be part of a coalition of organizations advocating for changes to the proposed Thrive 2050 plan. The general plan update has a number of ways it misses the mark. This is a general plan update and we need to take the time to get it right. Take 2 minutes to write to the County Council here. 
For Much more background on the plan and our proposed changes, read on....
Hit the Pause Button on Thrive Montgomery 2050 - it’s headed in the wrong direction.
August 2022
Dear Council President Albornoz and Councilmembers,
Thrive Montgomery 2050, the proposed update of Montgomery’s General Plan, if enacted, will fundamentally change our land use policies.  The direction of that change is of deep concern to us.
In keeping with our existing General Plan and master plans, we support these smart growth and housing policies:  
  • In order to redress racial inequities and socio-economic injustices, our General Plan must promote and enable full housing for all - especially for low-income and moderate-income families.
  • protecting our Agricultural Reserve and our clean streams, clean air and drinking water supplies. 
  • Removing planned-but-unbuilt highways including proposed M-83 from all of our master plans.
Thrive’s current version approved by the PHED committee, if enacted, will take our County in the wrong direction: more sprawl and pavement in rural areas - and more displacement in urban areas. Streams, forests and trees in both urban and rural areas are threatened by Thrive’s growth policies. Thrive wrongly promotes non-farming “recreational” land uses in our Ag Reserve; these threaten farmers’ long-term, stable access to affordable land. Thrive would accelerate high-end market-rate housing in our urban and suburban areas which would raise land prices and rents, reducing opportunities for non-market-rate housing (a.k.a. social housing).
These proposed changes require much greater public review, participation, debate and revision, before the Council takes any final action on Thrive. The Racial Equity and Social Justice (RESJ) review of Thrive must offer thorough revisions to the entire Thrive document, including to its housing, growth, and transportation policies. But the rushed RESJ process is unlikely to yield needed revisions to these policies.  Let’s get it right. Let’s not pass such a flawed product in the false belief that “we’ll fix it later.” Let’s fix it now.
Given these problems, I request your active support for these three steps:
(1) Hit the Pause Button on Thrive – and on all Thrive-related strategies, plans and zoning changes. 
(2) Extend Thrive’s schedule to re-program a new effort to review and revise Thrive, through a much more inclusive process. Work with the new incoming council and planning director to enable them to review, evaluate, and revise Thrive as needed – based upon full and inclusive public participation with residents as respected planning partners. 
(3)  Hold public hearings this Fall of 2022, to enable on-the-record public review and comment on the PHED draft, including on any proposed revisions from the RESJ process.

The Background on Thrive 2050 in 3 acts: 

1. Background: Award-Winning Smart Growth

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The Wedges and Corridor map from the 1993 General Plan

2. Thrive's Sweeping Changes

3. Likely Outcomes of Thrive's Proposed Policies: Sprawl, Displacement, Rent Increases, Loss of Farms

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There is still time for the Council to pause Thrive in order to get this plan right. Take 2 minutes to contact the Council here. 

PLENTY Magazine - A Tool to Educate and Inspire

8/9/2022

 
The Summer Growing Season issue of PLENTY magazine is out now in local markets, libraries and independent shops plus online right here. 
 
PLENTY has become a much-loved Montgomery County publication whose mission has been to cultivate increased awareness and deep appreciation for our 93,000-acre Agricultural Reserve

From the beginning PLENTY has been supported by its advertisers and investments by its publishers. Keeping a publication afloat during covid has been no easy feat. 
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It is part of the MCA core mission to educate and inspire residents about the Ag Reserve, and PLENTY can play a key role in accomplishing this. We hope you will join us in our efforts to ensure that PLENTY remains a free and widely available by lending your tax-deductible support to our work with PLENTY on Ag Reserve content.
Here at MCA, we say "We Protect What We Love." We value PLENTY as an effective tool to inspire, increase and deepen affection for the Ag Reserve.
Join us in support of PLENTY's Ag Reserve coverage with your tax-deductible support
Support PLENTY
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Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​info@mocoalliance.org
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MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
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