CHARLES COUNTY'S CROSS COUNTY CONNECTOR

The Issue | The Project | Mattawoman Creek

Bay Daily Blog:  08/06/09  Plans to Build Sprawl Highway Are "At A Standstill"

Charles County is moving forward on the construction of a four-lane highway that local groups and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation feel will irreversibly harm a valuable ecosystem--the Mattawoman Creek--and the Bay, while setting a very poor precedent for managing growth in the 21st century. The seven-mile Cross County Connector would connect the malls of Waldorf with the rural community of Bryans Road on the western edge of the county. It would cross through the heart of the Mattawoman Creek, significantly increasing the amount of impervious surfaces in the watershed, inducing low-density development and forever changing the landscape in what the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has called one of the most productive watersheds in the

On September 15, 2008, CBF, along with other state and local environmental groups, filed comments with the Army Corps of Engineers and the MD Department of the Environment urging them to deny wetland permits for the project and to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) if necessary to assess the potential impacts of the project.

For years, CBF has worked with concerned citizens, and local and state government to manage growth and development in a way that protects our natural resources while providing opportunities for development in areas best suited for growth. CBF, along with a number of local organizations, feels the Cross County Connector, which would destroy many acres of forest and wetlands, and stimulate sprawl-type, low-density development, is the opposite of how we should be managing growth in the 21st century in Maryland. The road has been in the county plans for decades but times have changed. When county planners conceived the road, the concept of Smart Growth (building in designated areas that have infrastructure to support growth while avoiding and protecting sensitive natural resources) did not exist. Gas prices were well below what they are today, and air and water pollution and global climate change were much less of a concern. The road is an anachronism. The county needs to rethink where and how to grow given the new realities rapidly reshaping our world.

You can help by writing Governor O’Malley and asking that his administration deny the wetland permit for the Cross County Connector in Charles County. We must protect the valuable natural resources we have left and grow sensibly. 

The Issue | The Project | Mattawoman Creek