Some great correspondence went to County Executive Leggett's office to express concerns about the paving of rustic Poplar Hill Rd in Darnestown. Leggett put in the asked for stop-work order and now we have the opportunity to push for this historic road to be the test case for gravel road best management practices at the Rustic Roads Advisory Committee has asked for.
And with good reason- keeping gravel roads unpaved will keep less runoff from sensitive streams, keep roads workable for recreation of bikes, horses, hikers and cars at the same time, keep speed low on twisty roads with low visibility and keep maintenance costs lower.
Here are some choice excerpts from emails to the County Exec on Rustic Roads:
Here are some choice excerpts from emails to the County Exec on Rustic Roads:
It may be useful to remember why the concept of rustic roads was introduced before altering the Poplar Hill Road, one of the 98 Rustic Roads in the County. The concerns raised by RRAC point to a serious breech of the forward-looking promise of the County Council to safeguard the gravel roads as a continuing legacy of the agricultural reserve. A stop work order for work on Poplar Hill Road is urgent until the RRAC concerns have been addressed.
I must say that I am appalled that the County with your apparent blessing now intends to pave over Poplar Hill Road, in direct contradiction to the advice and recommendation of the Montgomery County Rustic Roads Advisory Committee.
I am doubly disappointed that the Montgomery County Department of Transportation intends to undertake this travesty in the name of "maintenance."
The November 4, 2016 letter from the Advisory Committee sets out the many salient reasons why paving Poplar Hill Road -- and other County Rustic Roads -- is a terrible idea. But the Advisory Committee is not alone in its view. The National Institutes of Health has recognized that turning permeable into impermeable surfaces seriously threatens for the environment. See Paving Paradise: the Peril of Impervious Surfaces, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1257665.
The 1.1-million-acre Chesapeake Bay watershed, one of the most diverse and delicate ecosystems in the world, is now being impacted by the 400,000 acres of impervious surfaces in Maryland.
