My wife and I could not travel up Forest Drive from our home on Aug. 15 because there was yet another accident blocking all traffic. It seemed only fitting that we were stalled opposite Crystal Spring Farm Road, the driveway into the woods where the huge, environmentally damaging Providence Point development is proposed.

Congestion is a daily problem on Forest Drive, but if you think it is bad now, just wait until another 500 cars from Providence Point pour onto the crowded roadway. In all, more than 1,000 new homes are planned or under construction in the Forest Drive corridor. The Spa Road-Forest Drive intersection is failing now.

Walter Vasquez flippantly wrote that those worried about worsening traffic shouldn’t be concerned because the city has initiated a traffic study (The Capital, Aug. 14). Really? My guess is that the developers will pay for the study and, if that is the case, you can predict now what the conclusion will be.

Mr. Vasquez dismisses environmental impacts even though the planned subdivision would destroy nearly 40 acres of contiguous older forest habitat, including 65 large specimen trees. It would replace only 16 acres, thus violating a pledge to reforest 100 percent.

Providence Point will worsen traffic, further pollute Crab Creek and the South River, and destroy forest — perhaps the last real forest on Forest Drive! This will be a disaster for everyone who lives, drives or boats in the vicinity of this project. This is a quality of life issue for everyone who lives or works or owns a business in a peninsula bisected by Forest Drive. The city needs to reject this flawed development plan.

JOHN FRECE, ANNAPOLIS

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