Last week I wrote about mental health, trauma, and isolation. On Saturday, I experienced the antidote to all of that - place making, the making of places where people connect with one another and experience joy.
The occasion was a ribbon cutting to open the Severn Center, a new $16 million county building that will house a Senior Center, a Boys and Girls Club, and space for all kinds of community activities. It was a joyous celebration that included hundreds of residents from Meade Village, Pioneer City, and Stillmeadows, kids from nearby schools, and Governor Wes Moore. It has been a community dream for 37 years, and four years ago neighborhood icon Glenda Gathers (Ms. G) presented me with a hand-drawn floor plan that I have had taped to the door of my office ever since.
New friendships, learning, and joy will emerge from this place, only because it was made. It was made because proponents did the work, and obstacles were overcome. That’s not always the case in placemaking efforts.
Whether a project is for recreation, transportation, commerce, or housing, its fate often depends on community and political support. One of the hardest parts of my job is determining whether a project is in the public interest - by considering factors like environmental impact, adequacy of supporting public facilities, and potential improvements to the quality of people’s lives.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t make every decision. We are a development-by-right county, meaning that if a project is in compliance with zoning and land use regulations, the landowner has the right to build. When the project is on county land or is county-funded, however, elected officials like me do hold its future in our hands, and we should be held accountable for our decisions.
As I look back over what’s been approved and what’s been rejected in my administration, I’m pretty satisfied that we’re getting it right. We try to engage residents not just on specific projects, but on planning. We’ve put a lot of work and gotten good community engagement into Plan 2040, the Green Infrastructure Master Plan, Move Anne Arundel, Walk and Roll, and the Land Preservation, Parks, and Recreation Plan, and we use them as a guide for what to build.
The plans also are designed to drive legislation that manages private development. They are why we passed forest conservation and must pass a redevelopment bill, as well as updates to our Adequate Public Facilities laws to end school overcrowding and ensure that traffic moves. By removing obstacles to good development, we can do more and better placemaking for future generations.
Unfortunately, there are times when elected officials make land use decisions based on how it impacts their prospects in the next election cycle. That can mean supporting projects merely to win political contributions from their developers, or opposing them simply to win votes from nearby opponents. The only way I know to prevent politics from interfering with planning is better politics - the politics of informed residents calling out elected officials for failing to adhere to the plans.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with me about what kind of development is or isn’t in the public interest, or where it should be, but I do like to be transparent about what I think. Here are some things I believe.
- I hate to see mature forests removed.
- I’d prefer construction of tiny homes over mansions anywhere and everywhere.
- We need more sports fields.
- Part of the reason our town centers aren’t thriving as intended is that too few people live near them. We need housing for our workforce, especially in town centers and near transit.
- It burns me up that this county has over 16,000 empty seats in our schools while many parts of the county that Plan2040 targets for growth are closed to housing development because a local school is over capacity. That was a failure of past school boards, and I am thrilled that the current board and superintendent are doing the essential work of redistricting. We won’t have any overcrowded schools when they’re done!
- We need to connect and expand our bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Isolated communities are dying communities.
- We need to connect and expand our transit infrastructure. Isolated communities are dying communities.
- Saving farmland is good public policy. Happy to discuss the fiscal, health, and environmental impacts with anyone anywhere.
- Government regulation is necessary, but it grows like proud flesh (google it). Thousands of hours are wasted on regulation that has no public benefit, so let’s use technology and common sense to streamline.
- Make a plan, and amend it as needed. But don’t ignore it.
The making of places is an ancient human practice that has always been our key to progress. As our world becomes more complex we must not lose our capacity to make places, places where we can thrive in harmony with nature.
Let’s build more Severn Centers.
Until next week…
Steuart Pittman
Anne Arundel County Executive