[CPEO-IRF] Neighbors want Ft. Ritchie (MD) environmental review

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

While you're eating eggs at the chamber meeting tomorrow..

By Jim Lemon and Robin Biser, Opinion
Hagerstown Morning Herald (MD)
December 19, 2005

"The largest real estate project Washington County has ever seen." That
is how the Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce describes
the plans of Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) to redevelop Fort
Ritchie, and that will be the topic of discussion at the Chamber's Dec.
14 "Eggs and Issues" breakfast meeting. We would like to point out
several "issues" related to this project that surely qualify for
discussion at the meeting. 

First, federal law requires that redevelopment plans for closed military
bases undergo environmental impact assessments so that local communities
will know how those plans will impact their schools, roads, water
consumption, air quality, traffic congestion and all the other things
that affect quality of life. This requirement helps protect base closure
communities from inappropriate development and all of the resultant
unwanted and unintended consequences. Because the COPT redevelopment
plan is more intense than anything that has ever existed at Fort Ritchie
before, and because the plan has never been subjected to an
environmental review - despite the fact it was approved by PenMar well
over a year ago - the public has no knowledge of the project's potential
impact on the adjacent rural villages of Cascade and PenMar, and nearby
Blue Ridge Summit and Sabillasville. 

As Cascade homeowners, we want to know what that impact would be in case
it is unacceptable. Accordingly, we have filed a lawsuit to obtain an
environmental impact review of the COPT plan. 

...

For the entire column, see
http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=127078&format=html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
_______________________________________________
Installation_Reuse_Forum mailing list
Installation_Reuse_Forum@list.cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/installation_reuse_forum