Be Part of the ConversationRecently, the Crystal Spring developers filed a new Forest Stand Delineation (FSD) with the City to greatly expand the area that could be considered for development to include an additional 76 acres of Mas Que Farm. This is beyond the original 111 acres at Crystal Spring. The FSD must be approved before the development can move forward with the next step, a Forest Conservation Plan (FCP).
Our organization submitted formal comments urging the City to reject the new Forest Stand Delineation on the basis that any development on the Mas Que Farm parcel would be in direct violation of the 2005 Annexation Resolution. Under the Annexation Agreement, and according to multiple pledges from the developers and owner, this land was to be kept undeveloped and protected in perpetuity under a conservation easement. In addition, the developer has pledged in their filings and publicly to place a conservation easement on all land and remaining forest on the 111 acre Crystal Spring site as part of the development approval process, but no proposal has been submitted for such an easement.
Before any further processing of the FSD or any future FCP occurs, we are urging the City to require the perpetual conservation easements to be clearly drafted and agreed upon for Mas Que Farm and any remaining undeveloped land at Crystal Spring. The easements should include detailed metes and bounds, with provisions prohibiting any further development and clearing of forest on these sites and disallowing expansion of the Crystal Spring development into Mas Que Farm – whether for stormwater management facilities or otherwise. This is all the more critical with the new filing for an expanded FSD that would potentially allow development of Mas Que Farm.
On March 22, the City sent the FSD back for technical revisions, but ignored our comments. The City has the power to require the perpetual conservation easement for Mas Que Farm be drafted and agreed upon, and they have the power to reject the FSD outright that would expand the acreage that might be developed. But they refuse to do so.
The current FSD was approved by the City in March 2013 and covered only the 111 acre of Crystal Spring. All subsequent filings with the City and all public comments, work sessions with the Planning Commission and City officials, and presentations to the City Council over the last three years were based on this FSD.
Now, the developers want to greatly expand the area covered to include all of Mas Que Farm. We are asking the City to, please, just say no!
No to Crystal Springs and to all present, pending and future development on our little tiny artery called Forest Drive. The Bay, Environment, Schools, Hospital, Police, Water systems, Wildlife, Air quality, Schools, Taxes and Roadways cannot handle the load of over 2-3,000 cars let alone the poisons these projects will release in our environment and souls.
These developers will not live here, they will not sit in traffic for hours to get to their home, they will not worry as their children drive to the overcrowded Annapolis High school. They will not be around to see the Senior housing units they requested standing empty. They cannot see that no Senior Csn handle the astronomical the HOA’s and Condo They do not care how the changing the community from age restricted to section 8 can effect the entire city and County. We pay a lot of taxes, let’s show these developers WE are not going away!, that when the dwellings built as age restricted fail to sell will not see the faces of the These developers are not in danger of a loved one from the end of the peninsula being in danger and possibly dying on the route to the Hospital slowed by an accident and or daily gridlock. The only way to prevent future misery is to react now when we can make change. Who wants to say-wow, if only we had stopped it, etc. Be the change you want to see. Go to bed every night knowing you did all you could to keep the “forest” in Forest Drive!