Improving Environment & Quality of Life on Anne Arundel County Peninsulas, Study notes of Topography

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Peninsula Principles

and Priority Actions

Matt Minahan AA Co CAC and Environment Commission Work Session September 18th, 2019

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AACo Peninsulas Coalition September 2019

Three Key Actions for the Peninsulas

1. Establish a zoning overlay for peninsulas
2. Conduct detailed, citizen driven land use planning to support the quality of the environment and quality of life on peninsulas
3. Define and enforce interim criteria for development on peninsulas to ensure that the pace of development does not outstrip our ability to achieve the first two goals.

2 AACo Peninsulas Coalition^ September 2019

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AACo Peninsulas Coalition September 2019

Why? Because Peninsulas Are...

 Surrounded by waterbodies on 3 sides  Wrapped by sensitive shorelines  Confined by limited road access  With heightened impact on water quality due to forest degradation, stormwater runoff, impervious surfaces, wetlands, traffic, etc  TMDL goals  And because most are densely developed already

WHY AN OVERLAY? Because the existing planning and zoning frameworks do not account for the unique geography of peninsulas. NEED TO STOP: degradation to the natural environment and quality of life.

What IS a Peninsula?

 By code (17-5-403(b), defined by a single road in and out  These 5  What’s missing?  Question: Must the peninsula overlay be restricted to the county’s definition of a peninsula?.

5 AACo Peninsulas Coalition^ September 2019

A Peninsula Overlay

Should...

 Consider the cumulative impacts on the peninsula and ecosystem as a whole in making individual land use decisions  Be based on an inclusive, transparent, and proactive process for meaningful public outreach and comment  Align with new APFOs which should be tailored to address the unique challenges on peninsulas  Represent the county’s vision and hopes for improving the quality of the environment and the quality of life for people who live on and enjoy our peninsulas and the surrounding ecosystem  Ensure long-term comprehensive land use planning rather than piecemeal, one-off decisions.

7 AACo Peninsulas Coalition^ September 2019

(^8) The Peninsula Overlay Would...

 Restrict the impact of development on water quality, shoreline forest buffers, forest conservation, land preservation, wetlands and stream health, impact fees, aquifer health (quantity and quality of the water supply) beyond what county rules and guidance currently achieve.  Establish rules, criteria, zoning, and building codes tailored to peninsula environment and infrastructure limitations  Exceed the basics of the MD state minimums:  Tidal Wetlands Buffer: Extend the 100 foot buffer to 300 feet directly adjacent to the tidal waters, tidal wetlands, and tributary streams. These are typically naturally wooded areas or a forested areas that should be specifically established or managed to protect aquatic, wetland, shoreline, and terrestrial environments from man-made disturbances.  Non-tidal Wetlands Buffer: Extend the 25 foot buffer to 75 feet for non-tidal wetlands comprised of trees, shrubs, and other plants that catch sediments and other pollutants coming from buildings, lawns, and paved areas.  Eliminate modified buffer areas, which give homeowners too much flexibility in the CA. AACo Peninsulas Coalition September 2019

(^10) In the End...

This is an opportunity to create a vision for how to live sustainably on the county’s peninsulas, backed by proactive land use planning and enforced by meaningful rules, ordinances, and building codes that are rigorously enforced.

AACo Peninsulas Coalition September 2019

Admiral Heights Improvements Association Annapolis Neck Federation Annapolis Roads Property Owners Association Arden Civic Association Arnold Preservation Council Arundel on the Bay Property Owners Association Arundel Rivers Federation Bayberry Hills Property Owners Association Beehwood Hill Homeowners Association Belvoir Farms Homeowners Association Ben Oaks Civic Association Bluff Point Community Association Broadneck Council of Communities Browns Pond Improvement Association Carrollton Manor Improvement Association Civic Association of Palisades Colchester-on-Severn Downs Property Owners Association Dreams Landing Eastport Civic Association Epping Forest, Inc. Fairwinds Beach Club Ferry Farms Improvement Association Generals Highway Council of Civic Associations Glen Oban Association Greater Severna Park Council Herald Harbor Citizens Association Holly Hill Harbour Community Association Holly Point Community Association Hollywood On Severn Improvement Association Indian Landing Community Association Indian Landing Community Association

Arundel Arundel County Peninsula Coaltion / September 2019

Peninsula Principles

In May 2019, a coalition of representatives from the major peninsulas in Anne Arundel County created the Peninsula Principles to improve the quality of the environment and quality of life on peninsulas in Anne Arundel County.

Purpose

The purpose of the Peninsula Principles is to effect change in the development review and building process in ways that support of the quality of the environment and quality of life on peninsulas in Anne Arundel County, including but not necessarily limited to Annapolis Neck, Broadneck, Hog Neck/Mountain Road, Mayo, Marley Neck, and Shadyside.

This document has been created by a coalition of organiza- tions on Anne Arundel County’s peninsulas. The aim is to advance a three-point request to the County Executive and County Council, as follows:

1. To establish a zoning overlay for peninsulas consist- ing of rules, criteria, zoning and building codes tailored to the unique environment and infrastructure limita- tions on peninsulas 2. To conduct detailed, citizen-driven land use planning to support the quality of the environment and quality of life on the county’s peninsulas 3. To define and enforce interim criteria for develop- ment on peninsulas to ensure that the pace of devel- opment does not outstrip our ability to achieve the first two goals

We would like to work with the county to outline a time- frame and specific actions to work toward these goals.

Summary

Peninsulas are fundamentally defined by their topography: nearly surrounded by waterbodies, they are wrapped by sensitive shorelines and are confined by limited road access to most neighborhoods, parks, and businesses. We want to work with the county to develop a “peninsula overlay” — concepts, criteria, zoning, building codes, etc., that are spe- cific to peninsulas, given their unique nature and geography and the outsized impact that development on peninsulas has on traffic and infrastructure, the surrounding rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay.

The rules and criteria for peninsula development should:

• Prioritize comprehensive planning focused on

Endorsed by the following organizations

Kensington Community Association Kilmarnock Homeowners Association Linstead Community Association Loch Haven Civic Association Magothy River Association Maynadier Homeowners Association Mayo Civic Association Neighbors of the Mayo Peninsula Olde Severna Park Imp. Association Oyster Harbor Citizens Association Parker Creek Coalition Pines Community Improvement Association Providence Club River Club Estates Homeowners Association Saefern Saddle & Yacht Club Saltworks on Severn Citizens Association Selby on the Bay Community Association Severn Heights Improvement Association Severn River Association Severn River Garden Club Severn View Homeowners Association Severna Forest Community Association Sherwood Forest Club, Inc. Shipley’s Choice Community Association Shoreham Beac Citizens Association South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development (SACReD) Spa Creek Conservancy Truxton Heights Residents Assoc. West Annapolis Civic Association West Severna Park Community Association Whitehall Bay Conservancy Whitneys Landing Community Association Winchester On Severn Assoc.

Among the approximately 200 community organizations are:

PRINCIPLE 1 - Comprehensive Land Use Planning

Ensure long-term comprehensive land use planning on peninsulas is a priority in order to set and achieve sustainable goals, action plans, and procedures. Piecemeal development and its unintended consequences is no longer an option for geographically constrained peninsulas facing ever greater demands to support both human communities and ecosystem services. Long-range planning that considers cumulative impacts from multiple uses is critical. Action areas would include:

• Providing a public outreach process that is inclusive, transparent, pro-active, and meaningful.
• Identifying/mapping high priority resources (woods, wetlands, shoreline buffers, etc.).
• Consulting, updating and acting on the Small Area Plans. Citizens contributed an enormous amount of time and insight to help create these plans; many of the recommendations are still relevant but have not been acted on, and residents throughout the county have called for a renewed effort.
• Creating a framework through which multiple projects and related APFOs could be considered at a single point in time to accurately represent the peninsula’s capability to absorb the cumulative impacts.
• Consider vulnerability to sea-level rise and large storms and salt-water intrusion into wells and aquifers.
• Evaluate soils for their ability to support proposed development.
• Eliminate the grandfathering of subdivisions (and, thusly, building construction codes). Why the concern? “Death by a thousand cuts” continues to take its toll on all aspects of peninsula communities, from traffic congestion and emergency response times to polluted stormwater runoff and shoreline erosion. Many changes that might appear relatively small in other settings often escape close scrutiny and have an exponential combined im- pact on peninsulas because of reliance on one or few main roads and a proximity to the Bay and rivers that intensifies water pollution for human contact and aquatic life. We must avoid stovepiping the planning process, which masks the cumulative impacts.

PRINCIPLE 2 - Road Capacity

Require that existing access road capacity is a fundamental criterion for authorizing and approving any proposed devel- opment and density changes on the county’s peninsulas. This is critical for quality of life as well as the health and safety of peninsula residents and visitors. This should be a priority for the state and county, and be completed in advance of antici- pated development with community input to improve vehicle and pedestrian safety and alleviate traffic congestion. Appro- priate upgrades should be addressed in advance of anticipated development. Action areas would include:

• A public outreach process that is inclusive, transparent, pro-active, and meaningful.
• Regular, accurate traffic studies
• Methods for considering the cumulative impact of multiple proposed development projects
• Consideration of single points of failure in the road system due to limited rights of way, flooding, lack of shoulders, inadequate access for fire and EMS, power lines, emergency evacuation plans
• Consideration of safety for cyclists and pedestrians Why the concern? Most peninsulas are served by one main access road. The smaller peninsulas are served by just one two-lane road, areas of which have no shoulders, leaving thousands of residents vulnerable to isolation and without access to fire and EMS services when there are accidents, emergencies, fallen trees, or flooding. In addition, pow- er outages and the heavy rains of 2018 have left access roads closed for several hours at a time. Emergency response times on several peninsulas are longer than the recommended national average and in some cases (such as a barricade situation) have blocked inbound and outbound access for hours. By contrast, Broadneck Peninsula is served by a series of highways that are heavily traveled and over capacity most summer weekends, making access by and for residents increasingly difficult.

Peninsula Principles / Anne Arundel Peninsula Coalition 3

PRINCIPLE 3 - Environmental Stewardship

Rigorously enforce federal, state, and county natural resource laws; strengthen county requirements for protecting the environment on peninsulas, including the management and regulation of stormwater; improve other county standards as needed; and increase resources to vigorously enforce them. The protection of trees, forests, headwater streams, wetlands, and shoreline buffers is critical on peninsulas. The county should create zoning, runoff, and remediation rules that pro- tect the natural topography of peninsulas. It should also increase its capacity to enforce existing rules and regulations and enhance protections on peninsulas; develop new tools to help homeowners and developers protect sensitive lands and re- sources; and capitalize on existing federal and state incentive programs for land conservation. (One example is the transfer of development rights to encourage development in less environmentally sensitive areas). Action areas would include:

• Ensure adequate inspection capacity for county offices (see the 2018 South River Federation report on enforcement gaps and opportunities.)
• Reduce the number of approved variances in the Critical Area on peninsulas. (See the 2017 University of Maryland report that found Anne Arundel County granting 89% of the variance requests for the Critical Area.)
• Review adequacy of environmental protections during the development process.
• Require comprehensive land use planning on peninsulas to set and enforce appropriate density.
• Enforce state regulations for forest conservation and reforestation, and increase protections found to be appropri- ate for peninsulas. The county needs to strengthen its protection of existing forests which are currently reducing runoff and pollution. Again, the effect must be local. Reforestation lost on the peninsula must be replanted on that same peninsula if there is to be a balance in environmental and life qualities.
• Deforestation of multiple acres in a single operation should not be permitted on peninsulas or under a single grading permit. Trees should be removed only to accommodate the building footprint and a reasonable work area surrounding it.
• Strengthen and rigorously enforce the management of stormwater. While this is a problem across the county, the inherent nature of peninsulas, especially near the Critical Area, makes them even more susceptible to the ravages of stormwater, greatly increasing the negative impact on rivers and the Bay, especially from new construction.
• Builders need to remediate against greater rainfalls in a 24-hour period. The county needs to step up its inspection and oversight of construction sites when heavy rains are forecast. Extend the length of the Adequate Storm Drain Facilities test (17-5-701) from the subdivision’s year of completion to three to five years after completion to allow for testing under several climate cycles.
• The county should implement and enforce a no net stormwater runoff provision in the code during subdivision design review and inspection. In older non-compliant communities DPW has a responsibility to remediate as these stormwater systems or lack thereof were tacitly accepted by the county at the time of subdivision. Why the concern? With every development and building permit issued, the natural environment loses trees and undis- turbed ground cover, which causes immediate adverse environmental impact. Development accelerates the loss of for- ests and wetlands and often provides inadequate mitigation. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. They stabilize the ground, screen unwanted pollutants, regulate the flow of water by intercepting rain, and release it slowly to the ground where it can gradually run off into rivers or enter the groundwater. Currently, builders are required to mitigate against rains of 2” per 24-hour period. By the end of 2018, there had been 7 rain events exceed- ing 2”, including three in July, 2018. The number of large rain events experienced this year indicates the 24-hour rainfall expectation ceiling needs to be increased. At the same time, efforts to accelerate development and increase density on peninsulas are detrimental to environmental quality and quality of life. Several developments on peninsulas that are under discussion with county officials — some in or adjacent to critical areas — will ultimately increase the density of development, reduce the tree canopy, increase runoff, add oxygen-depleting nutrients to waterways, tax strained aquifer and septic capacity, and increase traffic beyond levels that already exceed the state definition of roadway capacity. Even with recent laws increasing the notice areas, communities are still poorly informed about plans, often gaining

4 Peninsula Principles / Anne Arundel Peninsula Coalition

Arundel Arundel County Peninsula Coaltion / September 2019

Peninsula Principles • Priority Actions

In May 2019, a coalition of representatives from the major peninsulas in Anne Arundel County created the Peninsula Principles to improve the quality of the environment and quality of life on peninsulas in Anne Arundel County.

The Peninsula Principles represent three requests to the County Executive and County Council:

1. To establish a zoning overlay for peninsulas consisting of rules, criteria, zoning and building codes tailored to the unique environment and infrastructure limitations on peninsulas 2. To conduct detailed, citizen-driven land use planning to support the quality of the environment and quality of life on the county’s peninsulas 3. To define and enforce interim criteria for development on peninsulas to ensure that the pace of development does not outstrip our ability to achieve the first two goals Note that existing county code also supports and encompasses these efforts (§ 17-2-102, appended below).

Near Term Priorities

1. Begin a citizen-involved effort to create a baseline map of existing land features on each peninsula to include forests and tree canopy, the critical area, streams, wetlands, migratory species locations, forest interior species (FIDS), storm- water runoff sources, and impervious surface. Use resources such as the Resilient Design and Form Based Codes Insti- tute to help establish maximum and minimum requirements for these land features with the intent of reducing runoff and minimizing flooding. 2. Limit the size of subdivisions (3 or more?) until the zoning mapping and Regional Area Plans are completed and are fully integrated into the new GDP. 3. Pause all development on peninsulas where the main arterial road into the peninsula has intersections with a “D” rating or less based on the most recent traffic studies. 4. Ensure that citizens in peninsula communities are fully engaged in local Small Area Planning that is fully fund- ed and supported to address current peninsula-specific needs around infrastructure, emergency services, forestation, stream and water quality, development, and transportation (roads/bikes/pedestrians). Further, ensure that the GDP and zoning maps are amended to reflect each of the Small Area Plans on peninsulas once they are completed.

Medium Term Priorities

1. Establish an overlay for peninsulas – rules, criteria, zoning, and building codes tailored to peninsula environment and infrastructure limitations.
2. Set impact fees at 100% and ensure spent where impacted.
3. Use cumulative impact of development on the surrounding communities.
4. Require community involvement and consultation on zoning maps before they are finalized and sent to the council.
5. Create APFOs specifically designed for peninsulas.
6. Increase substantially the size of critical area buffers around first order streams.
7. Increase standards for forest preservation on peninsulas.