June 17, 2014
Jason Dubow
Environmental, Land Use
Bay Agreement, Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Bay Agreement, critical areas
Crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and admiring America’s largest estuary, I sometimes wonder how such an immense water body can be impacted by people’s activity on the land.
I try to imagine the va
st area of land that drains into the Bay: the Susquehanna River, which empties into the Bay at Havre de Grace, starts as far north as Cooperstown, New York, w
hile the Potomac River extends west to Spruce Knob Mountain in West Virginia. Half of Pennsylvania and Virginia, virtually all of Maryland, and parts of New York, Delaware and West Virginia are in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. More
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April 16, 2014
Valerie Berton
Agricultural/Rural Preservation, Environmental, Land Use
2014 sustainable growth awards, Maryland Coastal Bays Program, maryland sustainable growth commission, maryland's eastern shore, md septics law, Worcester county maryland
Waterways in Worcester County are protected by good zoning
Worcester County may be home to Maryland’s most popular ocean resort, but many who visit the sands of Ocean City may be surprised to learn that the county also has significant agricultural and natural areas. The same county that beckons hundreds of thousands every summer has, through deliberate, effective planning, maintained 89 percent of its area in agriculture and resource conservation. More
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July 17, 2013
Maryland Department of Planning
Agricultural/Rural Preservation, Environmental, Land Use
Agriculture, Chesapeake Bay, coastal bays program, Eastern Shore, Pocomoke River, smart growth, Sustainable development, Water quality, water quality improvement, water quality standards
This op-ed (July 12, 2013) is reprinted from the Daily Times (www.delmarvanow.com). The writer is Dave Wilson Jr., executive director of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program in Ocean City.
Agricultural land on the Eastern Shore is disappearing to development built next to or upon what was previously farmland. / Daily Times file photo
Farmers have come a long way toward meeting water quality standards
In the last 15 years, there has been unprecedented scrutiny of the chicken industry and locally produced organic fertilizer produced by the birds used by farmers. This largely is the result of misguided state policies following the alleged discovery of Pfiesteria in the Pocomoke River in late 1997. More
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July 10, 2013
Steven Allan, AICP
History, Land Use, Smart Growth
barbara mikulski, Fell's Point Baltimore, highway planners, Inner Harbor, Inner Harbor East Baltimore, locust point, sustainable communities, tide point, transportation, uss constellation, William Donald Schaefer
“Hip, cool neighborhoods” are here today because a highway was not built yesterday
Had the highway planners succeeded not so long ago, we would not have Fells Point and Federal Hill as we know these neighborhoods today, as this 1959 drawing shows. Courtesy of the Baltimore City Commission on Historic and Architectural Preservation
About 50 years ago, highway planners were hard at work on a vision to build I-95 along Baltimore’s waterfront. Dirty, gritty and forlorn, a place for the down and out, the area that was to become the hip, cool neighborhoods we know today as Fells Point and Federal Hill was not much thought about when the highway extension was proposed. Few pondered the negative aspects of wiping out existing communities for something so progressive as an expressway, not to mention the unhappy result that bridging the basin would have meant for the USS Constellation’s permanent berth which would have been cut off from the water by an elevated highway. Quite likely, Canton and Harbor East never would have become the sought-after neighborhoods they are today.
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June 25, 2013
David T. Whitaker, AICP
Agricultural/Rural Preservation, Historic Preservation, Land Use
Antietam, Antietam National Battlefield, Battle of Antietam, Civil War, Civil War Trust, Gettysburg, National Trust for Historic Preservation, sharpsburg md, Washington County
Last of a 3-part follow up to How Maryland protected hallowed ground (09/07/2012)
“The key elements to Maryland battlefield preservation were Leadership, Creativity, Innovation, Calculation and Savvy – You had to have the Moxie.”
O. James Lighthizer, President of the Civil War Trust (Two-term Anne Arundel County Executive, 1982-1990 & Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, 1991-1995) Case Study: Preservation of the Antietam Battlefield Area
Part 3 of 3
Historians estimate that the area where the fighting took place at Antietam encompasses approximately 8,000 acres. The federally authorized Antietam National Battlefield comprised
The State of Maryland Monument at Gettysburg, http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com
approximately 3,400 acres. This included 1,046 acres owned in fee by the National Park Service and over 1,400 acres in private ownership under scenic easement. More
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June 24, 2013
David T. Whitaker, AICP
Agricultural/Rural Preservation, Historic Preservation, Land Use
Antietam, Antietam National Battlefield, Civil War, Civil War Trust, National Trust for Historic Preservation, sharpsburg md, Washington County
Part 2 of a 3-part follow up to How Maryland protected hallowed ground (09/07/2012)
“The idea for use of transportation enhancements for battlefield preservation may have come from (former State Highway Administrator) Hal Kassoff … We took Hal’s recommendation to the feds and they included in their regs… if you could see it from a public road then you could buy it.”
O. James Lighthizer, President of the Civil War Trust (Two-term Anne Arundel County Executive, 1982-1990 & Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, 1991-1995) Development of Civil War Preservation Policies and Programs
Part 2 of 3
Governor Schaefer working with then Sixth District Congresswoman Beverly Byron made a policy decision that the preservation of Maryland’s three primary Civil War battlefield sites
Image of the Sunken Road – “Bloody Lane” – Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, MD, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
was a Maryland priority. Essentially, he determined that the protection and preservation of the sites was of paramount importance to Maryland and to future historically related tourism in Washington and Frederick counties. He directed key cabinet and departmental directors to accomplish the task. More
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June 21, 2013
David T. Whitaker, AICP
Agricultural/Rural Preservation, Historic Preservation, Land Use
Antietam, antietam battlefield, Antietam National Battlefield, Civil War, civil war history, Civil War Trust, governor schaefer, National Trust for Historic Preservation
A 3-part follow up to How Maryland protected hallowed ground (09/07/2012)
“Governor Schaefer’s leadership was key to the early days of Maryland’s battlefield preservation. He created the right atmosphere. He demanded creativity and out-of-the-box thinking and it worked like a charm.”
O. James Lighthizer, President of the Civil War Trust (Two-term Anne Arundel County Executive, 1982-1990 & Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, 1991-1995)
Part 1 of 3
Fog over the Antietam Battlefield (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As the country commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, it is worthwhile to examine the innovative planning and land preservation techniques that Maryland pioneered two decades ago to save threatened Civil War heritage sites in the state. This article is a continuation of the September 2012 blog post, “How Maryland protected hallowed ground,” which provided an overview of Maryland’s Civil War history and efforts by the state to reduce the impact of development at several significant Maryland battlefield sites. More
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