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July 19, 2010

I was saddened to see the recent Tentacle article by Shawn Burns, who seems to be making a personal agenda out of bashing the Friends of Frederick County.

While some may hold an opinion contrary to Friends on land issues and municipal economic decisions, a charge of fraud in the public arena is a difficult standard to attest given the nature of a self associated and citizen built and governed non-profit that attempts to provide a citizen voice for rural land preservation, smart growth, models of progressive municipal growth, and caution regarding infrastructure costs and development claims.

Friends is careful to meet its responsibilities as a non-profit, public advocate, and citizen association.

I suppose, given my long involvement in the organization and direction of Friends of Frederick County, that Burns is accusing me, of some sort of fraud against the public process as well. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While I have enjoyed the many benefits of an urban and economically enhanced community in the DC area, I grew out of a generation barely removed from the hardscrabble Appalachian farming community and regularly experienced its life and virtues. I had ancestors in Frederick County several decades prior to the American Revolution. I chose to make my home here on purpose after living many years in Baltimore post college.

My association with Friends grew out of concerns with natural resources, land uses, stream protections, and a personal rural legacy – you can deny my intent, but not what comes native. I suspect that most of the other persons who’ve associated with Friends come to it in similar fashion, and with shared concerns, they've spoken to that time and again.

When Friends began, Frederick County appeared to have no citizen voice for such concerns. Even the notable groups, such as Community Commons, explicitly removed their concerns from activism and political action. They would accept grants to educate on natural resource issues, but not even write a letter in support of a farm being preserved or a stream protected. When the public record lacks any expression of community interests, the only interests that succeed are the narrow interests of environmental disregard.

Burns would have us believe that the bare statistics of farmland in Frederick County bear out a future of preserved land, active farming, and rural beauty. We do have some hope of that being the case by sheer magnitude, if farms can be sustained, but as Friends has pointed out, the land price disparity to development, the loss of available productive ground, the market forces of production, are flailing against our aging farmers. Sprawl growth is taking its toll in places like north of the City of Frederick, which Burns appears to condone. Friends says no to that, but also, not now at least, let’s rethink where and how we can grow, let’s consider in-fill development until we’ve exhausted our imagination and area resources for progressive growth.

Friends chose advocacy on environment and sustainable growth, there exist many programs and funds for agricultural land preservation, that was not the greatest need locally, Friends chose to fulfill a vital hole in our community public process.

Next Burns would declare that the annexation referendum efforts in Frederick failed, well, that is true, they did, under the timelines of the state law for signature gathering, and continue on again, and in legal suit. But even our new Mayor has recently found at least process and resource planning error in further plans for City growth. Friends is the only viable group voice to tackle a difficult challenge and weigh in on citizen concerns, to bridge the legitimate county planning concerns with the City board’s decisions for future growth. I can’t imagine that anyone would deny a full public process over a process with long range impacts and costs.

I also cannot conceive of how the writer believes that the county’s unbridled growth, which even he acknowledges, has been halted by a recent Comprehensive Plan that only adjusts and trims the last growth plan by a small margin and primarily realigns the status of a handful of properties that were inappropriately zoned for a variety of well intentioned but ultimately futile expectations of infrastructure support. Even Burns admits that the roads issues are paramount to good growth.

What really is Mr. Burns ultimate complaint? Some of it seems to be a political dispersion, as he names a couple county leaders. Then he seems to think that the county commuters and workers are harmed by their decisions. That’s a hard charge to swallow, given the county economic development efforts, budget constraints, long term planning for the basics of resident support, such as adequate water and sewer for twenty years of further growth, and patterns for services such as waste and parks and infrastructure service.

I can assure you that Friends is proud of its efforts and accomplishments. I am proud to be associated with Friends. They are our best hope at a true citizen voice against the special interests of unbridled development, which has failed us as a community. I am grateful for a place to bring together the many individual interests and personal concerns of the citizens who have few outlets to support and focus their energies. Citizens are free to consider the facts and determine who their real Friends are – I have no doubt they will be drawn to a group that is actively working in their overall interests and which welcomes their input.