I caught a fish + AA County public water access and 20 year land use policy need emai

[Lisa]

Hello all,

Good news! I caught a fish (little rockfish the size of my hand on a Mepps(?) spinner. I let him go.) Other news - Anne Arundel County needs to hear about public water access in the General Development Plan (GDP) by Thursday, September 10, 2020. Please send emails, details and addresses below.

Below is an article I wrote about the GDP and public water access. The GDP will set land use policy for the next 20 years. Right now the process is a hot mess. Please read the article and write your own email to the addresses listed. Tell AA County why you want public water access. I am going to focus on the South River and the Severn in my personal email. It would be so easy to open a kayak launch from South River Farm Park onto Selby Bay, which would provide access to Selby Bay, Ramsey Lake and the South RIver. The county bought Valentine Creek Park on the upper Severn River a couple of years and hasn't done anything with it. A basic launch would give us access to the upper Severn.

I hope everyone is well.

Thanks,

Lisa



Hello Anne Arundel Country residents,

We have a *September 10, 2020 deadline* for comments on the draft Anne Arundel County General Development Plan (GDP). This GDP will set county land use policy for the next 20 years. The draft GDP lacks any mention of public water access, misclassifies our public waterfront parks as Conservation areas to be "(u)sed for conservation purposes in perpetuity"and sets up a Peninsula Privilege that will effectively block basic park improvements for the next 20 years. If you live in Anne Arundel County, it is urgent that you comment in favor of public water access, against misclassification of our public parks and against Peninsula Privilege. *Email addresses and instructions below.* (Anyone can comment, but the county will pay most attention to county residents.)

1) Demand public water access, public kayak launches, public boat ramps, public fishing piers and public swimming beaches. Eighty percent of the people in Anne Arundel County do not live in waterfront homes or water privileged communities. The county must build public boat ramps and public swimming beaches instead of diverting public tax dollars for private benefit. Loch Haven, a subdivision next to South River Farm Park, is getting $129, 000 from the county to fix its private community beach. Next door, South River Farm Park gets nothing for public water access improvements. Cape St. Clare is getting $250,000 from the state Waterway Improvement Fund (WIF) for "beach nourishment" of its private community beach. WIF money comes from big boat excise taxes and is meant for public boat ramps. Anne Arundel County has the most trailered boats and the fewest public boat ramps of all the counties in Maryland on the Bay. WIF must be spent for new public boat ramps, not private community beaches.

(Why, you ask, do kayakers care about public boat ramps and public swimming beaches? Public boat ramps have a little beach on one side for kayaks and public swimming beaches have an area for kayaks. And boat ramps and swimming sometimes have funding sources that aren't available to standalone kayak launches.)

2) Demand that our public parks be classified as "Public Use" not misclassified as "Conservation" areas. These parks were bought with state Program Open Space (POS) and federal Land and Wildlife Conservation Fund (LWCF) grants. Those grants of public money have public strings - the county must use the land bought with public money for public access.

3) Demand elimination of the proposed Peninsula Privilege, which will block basic improvements to our waterfront parks. Peninsula Privilege gives special traffic protection and special development protection to the most affluent areas of the county. Traffic and development protections should be applied evenly and fairly across the county, instead of giving special privileges to the already privileged.

Please send your comments by *Thursday, September 10, 2020* to:

Official GDP comment address: Plan2040@aacounty.org
County Executive Steuart Pittman: expitt99@aacounty.org
Rec Advisory Board Chair Rudy Brown: TheRaven52@verizon.net
Rec Advisory Board Member Mike Lofton: MSL49@aol.com

Please *also* send your comments to the County Council members:

County Council Members:
District 1 Councilwoman Sarah Lacey: slacey@aacounty.org
District 2 Councilwoman Allison Pickard: allison.pickard@aacounty.org
District 3 Councilman Nathan Volke: nathan.volke@aacounty.org
District 4 Councilman Andrew Pruski: andrew.pruski@aacounty.org
District 5 Councilwoman Amanda Fiedler: amanda.fiedler@aacounty.org
District 6 Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien: lisa.rodvien@aacounty.org
District 7 Councilwoman Jessica Haire: Jessica.Haire@aacounty.org

Remember to include your full name and snail mail address so they know you are a real person and a real constituent. .

Thank you! If we stick together, if we act for the public, we will all get to the water together.

It's all of us or none of us.

Lisa

[Mark]

Lisa,

Thank you for your continued efforts to expand and improve our water access in Anne Arundel County.

I will send a few words on the subject to the officials you listed above.

And congrats on your fish. May there be many more catches in your future!

[Lisa]

Lisa,

Thank you for your continued efforts to expand and improve our water access in Anne Arundel County.

I will send a few words on the subject to the officials you listed above.

And congrats on your fish. May there be many more catches in your future!

My brother is teaching me to fish and we have a weekly fishing date. His wife doesn't like to fish, his daughters don't like to fish and voila! a miracle occurred: one of his sisters said "teach me to fish."

I didn't know that fishes were so wiggly and kind of slimey - more like a light goo than slime.

And thank you for telling the county that you want public water access in the GDP. This is one of those long running processes where if you don't say what you want in the beginning, then a few steps down the road you get told, "Well, you should have told us 6 months ago at the public input stage. We can't put that in now."

Lisa

[Lisa]

We have 2 days to comment on the upcoming General Development Plan (GDP). The deadline is this Thursday, September 10, 2020.

If you want to hide something stinky when writing policy, you bury it in the definitions and hope no one notices the smell.

The Plan2040 website defines a Conservation category, defined as "Conservation (CON) Publicly and privately-owned lands where primary function is conservation in perpetuity" and THEN classifies our waterfront public parks as Conservation. Slick and sneaky.

WRONG. The primary function of our waterfront public parks is to be PUBLIC parks, open to the general public. The county used state Program Open Space (POS) money and federal Land and Wildlife Conservation Fund (LWCF) money to buy our waterfront parks and that funding mandates public access.

Further problems: 1) the county using public money to fix private community beaches instead of building public boat ramps and public swimming beaches 2) the draft GDP gives Peninsula Privilege for special traffic privileges that will be used to block public access to public parks 3) there is NO mention of public water access in the draft GDP.

*Please* send your comments to the email addresses upthread by this Thursday, September 10, 2020. This whole process looks like a rubber stamp for the well-connected and it's time to UN-stamp it!

Thanks

Lisa

[Tim Elliott]

A huge thank you to you Lisa for bringing up the issue of a lack of public water access for AA county residents. I just finished up sending each and every official that you listed above some comments of my own. If anyone on this forum happens to be an AA county resident as well, please send your comments to the officials mentioned.

And congratulations on your catch, I hope that you catch some more as well!