From Bill Wehland:
Evergreen Apartments
Plumtree Road and Route 24
Board of Appeals Case No. 5781
After three hearing dates in February, the Zoning Hearing Examiner for Harford County on July 8, 2013 recommended that the Applicant’s Special Development Request to permit a Planned Residential Development for the construction of 198 apartment units at the south corner of Plumtree Road and Route 24 be approved. This decision was in direct opposition to the Harford County Planning and Zoning Department Staff Report recommending that the Special Development Request be denied and the concerns of citizens who were opposed to this development.
This matter is not just about the building of these apartments in an already over developed area but the combined traffic with other proposed developments in the confined area that includes the proposed Walmart and MedStar Health Care Center at 924 and Plumtree Road, and the 300 plus homes at Magness Overlook behind the new Richardson’s Legacy of 42 homes. Evergreen Business Trust, also known as the Haron Dahan Foundation, is the owner of the land for the apartment site and the land for the Walmart site.
The impact on traffic, safety and quality of life are the primary concerns in addition to the possible closing of the Plumtree intersection with Route 24 when Tollgate Road is extended through the proposed department complex. Tollgate Road from Route 1 to I-95 will become the next 924 nightmare and connectivity from all the homes and other intersections to Tollgate will become a major traffic and safety issue.
An appeal to the above decision has been made and there is now a public hearing before the County Council/Board of Appeals for the purpose of Final Argument based upon the evidence in the record. This meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 @ 6:30 PM. (Refer to the attached Notice Of Final Argument Before the Board of Appeals)
After the final arguments are heard from the parties requesting the hearing the final decision will rest with the County Council members. They will not make a final decision that evening.
Bill Wehland
Stop these developers. Money, money, money to stuff pockets. The area I live in will only see increased traffic, accidents and lives taken. How very sad greed is.
Hate to break it to you but anyone on the duclaws side of Tollgate already knows how to cut through the neighborhood to the Plumtree side if they want to. If anything it will mean less traffic cutting through. Again if you didn’t want to be near development you should not live in the development envelope!
I laugh whenever someone is outraged that development is occurring inside the development envelope.
I groan more than laugh now. But there’s a difference between complaining about development, and complaining about the details of a specific development.
For example, some people just think Walmart shouldn’t be allowed, it should be a park or some crap like that. The second example I’m referring to is someone who doesn’t really care what the development is, but is concerned about the traffic mitigation plans, or the storm water management plan, or the way the parking lot is designed, etc.
Those are legitimate concerns and people taking a sincere interest in making their community better should not be laughed at.
Yes but serious people are there when the signs pop up and not after it was approved. They also realize Walmart is not tasked with making the traffic better but simply maintaining the Status Quo!
Of course drivers know how to cut through. However, those that currently cut through are making local trips and heading to the Abingdon Library, Emmorton Elementary, or to the baseball/soccer fields. The stated intent of opening up Tollgate is to provide an alternate route for commuters headed to I-95 and to alleviate congestion on Rt 24. The county/state plan is to dramatically increase the usage of Tollgate Road and funnel additional traffic to the Tollgate side of the 26 million dollar Tollgate/24/924 intersection.
Also part of this plan is the removal of access to Rt 24 from Tollgate at Plumtree. So anyone DuClaws side trying to shop at any of the existing or planned development (Festival, Emmorton Rec and tennis, Verizon, etc.) will have to approach the area from Ring Factory by the playground and assisted living facility, Singer or Wheel, both by schools and sports fields, or brave the ensuing traffic nightmare of Bel Air South Pkwy. It’s unreal, you couldn’t make this situation up! Only thing worse would be putting 12,000 cars a day by another school and fire station…oh wait, that is planned too!
The Medstar facility, in and of itself, is not a major problem.
The Evergreen apartments project, in and of itself, is not a major problem.
The Walmart in and of itself, is not a MAJOR problem. (it is, however, a rather poor site plan in a HORRIBLE location, undertaken in a manner that in no way acknowledges its impact on the community by a company that has demonstrated a repeated pattern of desiring above all else spending as little as possible to mitigate said impact, all of which only exacerbates the severity of the problems posed by it)
Even connecting Tollgate Rd (long planned in Harford County, for YEARS), in and of itself, is not a problem.
It does become a major problem for that community when all of these things are happening at the same time.
And the real root of that major problem is a development process that doesn’t fully look at all of them at one time. It operates with blinders, pretending that everything happens in isolation.
Walmart itself, filing in court this week to get a review of the Medstar project, is recognizing that each of these projects have impacts on the others– yet the County basically does not?
And the county can’t, because how could the evaluation and approval process account for so many variables on several different unfinished plans and projects at the same time, and give expedient and fair results? It couldn’t.
So the solution lies elsewhere. The solution is in an evaluation and complete overall of the entire development process, from Community Input Meetings (that people are barely aware of) to changing the county code in the APF’s.
It’s broken. Fix it.
Correction– case was filed by the land owner for the Walmart site, Dahan Foundation.
Walmart made no court filing against Medstar, the Harron Dahan Foundation did, in an attempt to preserve it rights to sell the property no matter what happens in the area, and channel the money from the sale to the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community school and the Bar-Jlan University in Israel.
The headline in Wednesdays Aegis WalMart VS Med Star was very misleading.
Thanks Hal harford county misses you 🙂
Let’s not anyone be surprised that an Aegis headline is misleading. I’m just thankful that there were no incorrectly spelled words in it. The Aegis has a specific point of view and it shows on every page, not just the editorial section.
I can agree with that!
Yes sorry about that, I immediately noted my mistake.
If you examined all possible development efforts collectively, nothing would ever be built in this county.
I agree with that too! Twice in one day Karn!
Which is why I suggested other changes to the process need to be examined. It’s not at all realistic to somehow magically examine everything all at the same time.
I remember a particularly grueling form of execution called “Death from 1000 slices”
I know how everyone likes and respects my comments so that being said I say build, build and built some more until you can’t build no mo.
Hate to ask this at such an early stage, but what are the planned targeted income levels for these “planned” apartments?
I would hate to think that with increased vehicular traffic, we will be bringing low-income families into the area to increase our crime rate?!??!!?!
This leg of the tollgate road has been promised to residents part of the Brac project. The county wouldn’t build it because the developers promised the road to be built as a part of the apt project. Now all of a sudden everyone’s up in arms about the apts. where have yoU been for the last 5, 6, 7 years?
Appeal of Evergreen Apartments Withdrawn; Owners Agree to 12 Conditions Limiting Size and Scope of Bel Air Development
http://www.daggerpress.com/2013/09/10/appeal-of-evergreen-apartments-withdrawn-owners-agree-to-12-conditions-limiting-size-and-scope-of-bel-air-development/
Undocumented immigrants have to live somewhere, have to shop somewhere, have to get medical treatment somewhere.