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Candidate Gayle Powell believes that we can have economic growth and still preserve the high quality of life we have come to expect here in Anne Arundel county. According to Powell, a "smart growth" policy means that the government should be "directing development, commercial development, into areas that already have development, and protecting the open space areas." |
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We need to "redevelop the areas that have become run down and direct future development into those areas." We have "a lot of options," she said. We can "still have the development and the growth without having to hurt the environment. This is a lovely area." "There are a lot of pressures for people to sell their farms to developers. One of the programs I think is really wonderful, that we need to make sure is adequately funded, is the rural legacy program, [where] the state and county buy the development rights to open space land and farm land so that [people] can own land and get some of the economic benefits that they need to put their kids through college, to keep the farm, to be able to retire, and still keep this wonderful resource that we have. This piece of legislation has become a model that other states are looking at across the country ... but it is not going to be successful if it is not fully funded. If we lose the areas, we can't get them back. It's a matter of doing it sooner rather than later." When you do have development, Powell told us, "you also need to build the roads and the sewer systems, and the schools to support that growth." She said that some officials and residents have "almost been in denial" about the amount of growth there has been recently. "We've allowed the growth to happen without building the support" systems needed. "That just puts more stress on the existing roads and the existing schools ... We need to be smart about the way we do the development." Powell added that we should "limit [growth] as much as we can in the wetland areas and the rural areas to try to preserve as much of that as we can." |