Tonight, Maryland’s Critical Area Commission begins review of the $1 billion, 2,700 home Blackwater Resort project planned just south of Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The developer wants to build a hotel and golf course within the Chesapeake Bay Critical area, an environmentally sensitive zone governed by a state law designed to protect water quality and the Chesapeake Bay. Gov. Robert Ehrlich has taken a stance that land use is a local issue and he refuses to intervene. It isn’t just one farm at stake tonight, but the ability of our government and more than 20 years of progressive state land use policy to keep the real estate lobby in check.
The riverfront site lies just upstream from the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, a federally protected area of tidal marshes, freshwater ponds and hardwood forest. The sensitive nature of the area has set the stage for yet another epic battle between environmentalists and property rights advocates.
Environmentalists fear runoff from the new development will add to the refuge’s already mounting ecological problems. The refuge is one of the largest conservation areas in the state and a crucial habitat for migrating birds. Endangered and threatened species are known to inhabit the project site and several more including the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and nearly 300 other bird species use the downstream refuge.
The city council, apparently blinded by the prospect of millions of dollars flowing into the beleaguered Cambridge, overlooked many aspects of the project and moved forward without having the necessary information. First, they annexed the land at the developers request, then approved an inadequate and incomplete plan. The developers claim net improvements in water quality at build-out but fail to show how. Despite many commendable concessions and assurances from the developer, it is clear the project’s environmental risks are too great.
The fact that this project has come so far in the approval process raises serious questions about the state’s commitment to its own “smart growth” principles. The state directs funding to compact developments in existing, walkable communities to save money and conserve land. Yet the Blackwater Resort is far from smart. The developers predict about half of the residents will make the 75-mile commute over the Bay Bridge to Baltimore each day. Regardless, the land in question is now technically part of Cambridge, meaning the state considers it “smart growth,” leading to a paradox where the project both meets smart growth principles and flouts them at the same time.
The Blackwater Resort is just one high profile project among many smaller and more innocuous ones around the state. But all of them taken together add up to a staggering and unprecedented change to the state many of us call home. Maryland is expected to accommodate 7 million people – 1.5 million more than its current 5.5 million – by 2030. By 2050 more than 60 percent of Maryland’s developable, unprotected land will be used up, according to the federal government. This unnoticed trend ensures both the end of large subdivisions and cheap housing and a new era of traffic congestion and environmental degradation. Yet our leadership continues blindly on our current development trajectory, committing hundreds of thousands of acres to irreversible sprawl.
I urge the Critical Area Commission to stop the Blackwater Resort before it can proceed any further. This project and others like it transcend traditional home rule political posturing. I call on Governor Ehrlich and the state legislature to take proactive measures to ensure no egregious project of this magnitude is seriously considered again. Looking forward, Maryland must adopt an approach to land use that is grounded in reality and directs much needed housing to sensible places – the consequences of inaction are too great.
David Daddio is a senior environmental economics major. He can be reached at ddaddio@umd.edu.
