La Plata, MD – The Charles County Commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday, June 6 to pass the controversial Watershed Conservation District zoning and text map amendment into law.
The movement to protect the fragile headwaters of Mattawoman Creek and limit development on more than 37,000 acres places stringent zoning in effect, limiting developers to one home per 20 acres. Commissioner Debra Davis [D-District 2] made no bones about her opposition to the amendments.
“I am disappointed it has gotten this far,” Davis said. “This is by far the most divisive issue I have seen in my six-and-a-half years as county commissioner.”
Both Davis and fellow commissioner Bobby Rucci [D-District 4], who tried in vain once again to have the issue brought before the county in a referendum vote, voted against the proposal, even down to voting against simple typographical errors in the text of the document being corrected.
“I didn’t vote for those amendments because it’s putting lipstick on a pig,” she said. “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.
“Good leaders would defer to the community,” she added. “These amendments just further divide the people. That is wrong. Before you take away people’s property rights, I beg my colleagues not to do this.”
“We do not have the right to pick and choose people’s property rights,” Rucci agreed.
Commissioner Ken Robinson [D-District 1] added an amendment to include the now-defunct Indian Head Technical Park in the WCD and the commercial mixed-use designation in Bryans Road as a village rather than a commercial and industrial zone and to include an airport overlay zone to allow new commercial development around the airport.
That measure, along with every typo correction and amendment proposed, passed by a 3-2 margin, with Robinson, Commissioner Amanda Stewart [D-District 3] and Commissioner President Peter Murphy [D] voting in favor, while Davis and Rucci cast their vote as opposed.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com