Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Stupid Growth in Maryland

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

I had the pleasure of visiting Annapolis, Md., a couple of weekends ago, a city I had not seen in maybe 20 years. After watching Navy trounce Wake Forest in football, my family and I spent the night at the Governor Calvert House across the street from the state capitol (see pic) and spent several hours the next morning wandering the streets of the historic district.

Historic Annapolis is a place that “works.” The historic houses are beautiful. The streetscapes are eminently walkable and visually appealing: At the terminus of many streets there are grand structures such as churches or government buildings like the magnificent capitol building. The street layout, arrayed around two main circles, are narrow but not excessively congested. The zoning code evidently permits the construction of new buildings, easily spotted by their drab, utilitarian architecture, but they are are built to scale with the surrounding buildings so they do not offend. And, then, of course, there is the waterfront with its marinas, boats and dockside restaurants.

I was envious. There’s really nowhere like it in Virginia. What an exquisite spot to inspire the smart growth legislation that Maryland has enacted into law!

If you read Ed Risse’s latest post, “Light at the End of the Tunnel,” however, you might guess where I’m heading. Especially if you took note of this quote, as I did, having recently seen the vivid truth of it:

EMR is often quoted as having pointed out for 20 years that from 50,000 feet there is not a whit of real difference between the human settlement patterns in Maryland, vs in Virginia (or West Virginia) or North Carolina or Pennsylvania.

My father, an old Navy grad, had warned us to take the U.S. 58/I-95 route home, even though it was a longer route as measured by miles. But fool that I was, I decided to take the “scenic” route back to Richmond along U.S. 301, bypassing the Washington Beltway with all of its hazards. It was Sunday afternoon — no rush hour. How bad could it be?

Well, I can tell you that from a ground-level perspective, there’s not a whit of real difference either. U.S. 301 is a monstrosity. It suffers from every evil of “suburban sprawl” (by which I mean scattered, low-density, auto-centric human settlement patterns) that you can find in Virginia. Is this what Smart Growth hath wrought?

A four-lane highway that once served as a useful inter-regional road connecting two state capitals has been transformed into a conduit for cul de sac neighborhoods, innumerable stop lights and endless expanses of strip shopping malls. All traffic in the disaggregated non-places such as Waldorf, Upper Marlboro and La Plata seemed to empty onto U.S. 301. What should have been an hour drive took at least two hours. I shudder to think what the road looks like in rush hour.

Annapolis was founded in 1649 — 360 years ago. The downtown core remains a beautiful, vibrant place because successive generations of inhabitants have fallen in love with it, preserved it and invested in it. That’s what happens with places that “work.” The communities along U.S. 301 do not “work.” They are livable only as long as gasoline remains cheap. They appeal to no aesthetic sense. They will inspire no one to reinvest in them, they will run down, and they will become the slums of the late 21st century.

I don’t call that Smart Growth. I suspect that most Smart Growth advocates themselves would disown U.S. 301. But whatever Maryland has done to create such a blight, we need to make sure we don’t copy it here in Virginia.

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19 responses to “Stupid Growth in Maryland”

  1. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    this is such an excellent editorial Mr. Bacon.

    and once again.. I want to point out that the U.S. Military is the villain here.

    You'll need a map.

    but the first question to ask is where do all of these folks who live along Rt. 301 come from to start with?

    Why is Waldorf and La Plata the shopping strip meccas that they are? Where do all of those folks who shop there come from in rural Md?

    so get your map, center it on La Plata and then look south, west, east and north.

    East is Patuxent River Naval station – 17000 employees.

    South is Dahlgren, Va – Naval Surface Warfare Center – 2400 on base DOD employees and probably an equal number of off-base contractor employees

    Then look west – Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center – another 4000 on-base employees.

    Now.. do a little math.. and you'll end up with somewhere around 30,000 employees in that region.

    that's 30,000 residences at about 2.5 per residence.

    Without the presence of the military, it's a safe bet that this part of Maryland would look more like the Eastern Shore in terms of commercial development and highways.

    Now the farthest distance is from La Plata to Patuxent River about and an hour and 15 minutes.

    Indian Head is about 25 minutes

    Dahlgren about 30 minutes.

    Now I blame this on the military – a bit tongue in cheek.

    but then again.. if one looks at the Military plans in the NoVa area where they plan to move more than 20 thousand jobs to two military bases also primarily accessed through the automobile… Fort Belvoir, on of the bases is not served by Metro or VRE and the other one Quantico while served by VRE – the direction is from the south to the north in the morning and north to south in the evening – a reverse commute for many of the employees being transfered from Crystal City in Alexandria to those bases.

    So, the evils of Rt 301 in Md accrue from TWO devils.

    The first as alluded to above is the tendency for the military to plop down an employment center without regard to how the people who work there will "settle".

    And the second has to do with the so-called Smart Growth Policies of Maryland which are exposed for their geographic hypocrisy.

    The counties along Rt. 301 have been allowed to do EXACTLY what the counties in Va have been allowed to do.

    and that is to take a perfectly good major connecting highway that had significant transportation utility and essentially destroy it for the lack of simple Access Management policies.

    What has happened to 301 is particularly ugly but really not much different than has happened to I-95 in NoVa except that is has interchanges and ramps … but in the end – the interstate is being used by local traffic despite the best efforts of the FHWA to preserve and protect it for Interstate travel.

    But Jim.. next time use GOGGLE MAPS which has a nifty feature where you plug in your origin and destination and it shows you the best (shortest time) route but it allows you to grab hold of the route and drag it to an alternate path.

    In the case of Annapolis to Richmond – it shows that it is at least one hour further – not even allowing for rush hour traffic.

  2. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Jim:

    I agree this is a great post.

    But you need not go all the way to US Route 301 to see the impact. Anne Arundel County was in the early and mid 60s a Mecca for 'planners.' Look at it now.

    There is a lot of truth in what Larry G has to say but he will be able to articulate it better when he has seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

    EMR

  3. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    One other note:

    In GM Owen does a very good job of skewering the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for moving from the Zentrum of Annapolis to a dysfunctional site to build a LEED building.

    EMR

  4. subpatre Avatar
    subpatre

    Larry G said “The counties along Rt. 301 have been allowed to do EXACTLY what the counties in Va have been allowed to do.”

    What a horrendous, false misrepresentation! The term “Smart Growth” was coined —at least popularized— by Glendenning. Probably because he couldn’t pronounce ‘Ahwahnee Principles’. Governor Glendenning . . . the executive of the state . . . a state that regulates land use.

    So no indeed, counties in Maryland are not allowed to do anything similar to what Virginia counties are allowed to do. Makes you wonder about people who —when faced with the stark reality that central planning fails— demand more and stronger central planning.

    __
    Incidentally, Annapolis and it’s layout precedes all zoning and use controls; that’s why it’s livable and walkable.

  5. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    well then.. are you saying that it was the State of Maryland that approved the commercial strips and subdivision entrances along 301 and not the counties?

    So.. while the Gov was promoting Smart Growth in Montgomery County he was promoting something else along 301?

  6. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    just to be clear here Maryland is a Dillon Rule State with Centrally-managed Land Use so subpatre does have the facts of how Maryland land-use "works" on his side.

    So, at least in theory, every one of those traffic signals, and strip malls and subdivision entrances on 301 had to have some level of support from the State and the State Department of Transportation.

    Also keep in mind that Glendenning opposed the ICC but if I recall correctly, when Elhrich succeeded him, he signed off on the ICC.

    My point is that even though Maryland, "in theory" centrally manages land use – that …clearly … has failed to preserve it's transportation infrastructure on 301 and as the WaPo reported recently, has also failed to have much of an effect on Smart Growth – because of leapfrogging – which if you think about it in a Centrally managed land-use State – would not be possible since they would be able to enact policies across jurisdictional boundaries thus preventing the leapfrogging…

    One would think – if any state was able to put in place Smart Growth policies that actually worked – a Dillon-Rule State that centrally manages land-use would have the best chance.

    Virginia, on the other hand, while it is a Dillon Rule State delegates most land-use decisions to the local level (though VDOT has strong influence).

    VDOT actually has much stronger influence on land use in Va since the 3202 legislation which requires VDOT reviews of larger projects and also grants them much stronger access management authority (which allows them to decide where new traffic signals go or not and also allows them to close cross-over median cuts on roads whose flow is adversely affected.

    leapfrogging over jurisdictions with Smart Growth rules to reach to jurisdictions with less restrictions though – ONLY WORKS if there is a major limited access highway or toll road that preserves the utility of the road.

    What has happened to 301 is not in dispute.

    There are as Jim B described dozens of traffic signals and strip malls that render 301 not a viable longer distance highway and it has essentially been turned into a local road – an auto dependent local road.

    How it got that way I strongly suspect involved the wishes of the local counties…that somehow convinced the state to allow it..

  7. Gooze Views Avatar
    Gooze Views

    Jim,
    It isn't fair r accurate to take bnad planning in Charles and Prince Georges County Maryland and blame the entire state.

    Montgomery County, for instance has far stricter land use and planning rules that, for instance, greatly limit big box development.

    What's more, traditional Virginia planning is more aimed at allowing property owners to make all the money they can rather than pushing good planning for all.

    Also, the U.S. 301 mess in Waldorf and LaPlata is replicated in plenty of places in Virginia, notably Route 3 in Fredericksrbug, Military Highway in Norfolk, and West Broad Street and Midlothian Turnpike and Hull Street in suburban Richmond.

    Virginia has just as many, if not more, problems than Maryland. Who says so? I do and I have lived in both states.

    Peter Galuszka

  8. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    All the intersecting primary roads to I-95 in Stafford, Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania look the same way as Route 301 in Md – and for the same reason.

    In each case, the locality with encouragement from business owners saw those roads as excellent business locations.

    but the irony is that Maryland – with State control of land-use and actual Smart Growth laws on it's books was/is promoted as having figured out a better way of growing.

    The WaPo article exposed it as a myth because apparently even in Maryland one locality can have Smart Growth land-use but the next one not.

    And what Jim Bacon ran into on 301, was/is years in the making with much of it probably pre-dating the current Smart Growth laws in Md.

    But if you want a similar example, try Route 1,( a similar era road I believe), the original East Coast north-south highway that in many places is virtually indistinguishable from 301.

    My county, in recent years, has attempted to deal with some of these issues by requiring intra-parcel connections and shared curb-cuts but they have been threatened with lawsuits at times from the businesses, each one wanting their own curb cut – and their own median-cross over or traffic signal.

  9. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    301 is evn worse than that. I tis one of the few places that even has strip malls in the median strip.

    RH

  10. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    At one time, Ananopis and Eastport were in danger of being taken over by condominiums and the like. A zoning ordinance was passed to protect the waterfront businesses such as crab shacks, sailmakers, small marinas, waterfront restaurants, sailing schools, and the like.

    On a strict commercial basis none of these businesses could compete with new devlopment. I have not spoken to actual waterfront land owners in the area to hear what they think, but despite my usual animus toward stupid zoning laws designed to prevent change, this strikes me as a reasonable attempt to use truly uninque and valuable real estate for purposes that are uniquely suited to it.

    This is a lot different, it seems to me, than blindly trying to preserve hundreds of thousands of acres of more or less similar farmland, just because it feels good.

    Now, maybe we believe that we will (soon or eventually) face a crisis in farm production, when every grain of wheat is needed to prevent starvation.

    But if that is the case, the we shoud treat farmland the same as we treat money in any other savings account: you put your land in the account, and we pay you interest on it, until you take it out and use it.

    RH

  11. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Subpatre:

    What happened to 301 happened a long time before Gendenning was Governor.

    And talk about dumb growth, Maryland despite its tremendous waterfront attributes, has just about the WORST public access to waterfront in the U.S. Wyoming has more public waterfront access than Maryland.

    RH

  12. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Look in todays paper for an interesting set of letters to the editor concerning this topic.

    The first letter is from Glendening himself. He makes thepoint that the article did not say that smart grwth was a failure, but that Maryland's smart growth policies were a failure — primarily because they were not strong enough, and they were undermined by subsequent administrations.

    The article that spawned these letters made the point that the planned failed because there was not nearly enough carrot, and no stick.

    But, letters subsequent to Glendenning tended to focus on single issues: Silver Spring s a congestion disaster, whether you travel on Metro or not; Smart Growth has preserved 400,000 acres (whether it is cost effective or not); county planning has gentrified the entire county, kicking poor people out, the planning has done nothing to relieve congestion, etc. etc. etc.

    We are going to have to build real centers of smart growth and maintain them for long perieods of time, before we collect enough data to decide if it as smart growth, or not.

    Annapolis has unique geographic advantages. To ignore those and conclude that Annapolis got the way it is because of planning or preservation is probably a mistake.

    Most likely,the property in Annapolis was inherently valuable to begin with and was subdivided as much as made sense decades, or generations, ago.

    We frequently make the argument that if we allow our farms to be subdivided, we will lose them forever: we will never be able to undo the efforts that made them more valuable to begins with.

    I suspect the same issue is the case with Annapolis, except it happened hundreds of years ago. Once subdivided, the parcels were too valuable to reassemble, except by the government.

    Now, if you want to compare Annapolis to La Plata, first you need to consider that La Plata was a tobacco center, and Annapolis was a major trade center (including slave trading), and the center of government.

    It may very well be that La Plata is a smart growth disaster (although they do have a venerable roundabout), but you have to consider what it is a disaster compared to. That is to say what it developed FROM.

    It is a pretty good bet, that bad as La Plata is, it is still a lot better than what is WAS, or what it WOULD BE NOW, had it never been allowed to change.

    I'm pretty sure, that if you look far enough back, you would find that Annapolis would have been someone's salt water farm. If we had todays "smart grwoth zoning" then, Annapolis would never have happened, and La Plata would be(bankrupt) tobacco farms.

    RH

    RH

  13. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    2.5 is an old figur. A better figure is 2.3, and it has most likely gone down since then.

    RH

  14. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    'So.. while the Gov was promoting Smart Growth in Montgomery County he was promoting something else along 301?"

    301 happened a long time before Glendenning. Even I can remember whe 301 was mostly little more than a long string of farmers markets. When the biggest event in Waldorf was the tobacco auctions.

    Over decades it got to where it is today (the disaster it is today) because it was a long string of incremental improvements.

    It is all well and good to look back with 20-EMR-20 hindsight and declare that, gee, if we had only known about global warming, if gasoline had not been $0.25 per gallon, and if we knew what the area would look like today, then we could have planned with "smart grwoth" for Waldorf to be Annapolis II. We could have saved another 400,000 acres.

    But we conveniently omit the fact that people did the best they could with what they had at he time. Our little smart growth plan conveniently omits the fact that it would have made hundreds of farmers destitute.

    The problem with "Smart Growth" is that it conveniently omits compensation for the people that stuck with dumb growth, or no growth. Indeed, EMR's plans pretty much call for explicitly screwing them: make their land worthless.

    RH

  15. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    Annapolis, Savannah, most of these places were originally subdivided and the streets laid out before the automobile.

    And to point out the modern day equivalent in terms of functionality – the reason why these two places existed – now days, you're looking at a massive rail and intermodal shore-based yard and warehouses to stage the thousands of containers that being crane-lifted off of ships a 100 times or more the size of the original ships that brought goods to Annapolis and Savannah.

    EMR referred to them as historical artifacts….

    more than that – all Annapolis and Savannahs more than likely have on their outskirts modern-day big box stores where most folks will buy their fruit-of-the-looms and furnace filters.

    there are other historical artifacts –

    "company towns" which were designed from the ground up as ..no get this – places where you COULD ACTUALLY.. in act were supposed to – live, work, shop and play.

    Ironically, many of our military bases – especially the ones located out in the middle of nowhere – have their own explicitly-designed places to – live, work, shop and play.

    but the modern versions – the Smart Growth versions are truly replicas and not actual functioning versions.

    because.. the only jobs in modern mixed-use developments are service jobs… just jobs to serve residential.

    You need a GOOGLE or a Northrup-Grumman or a Toyota Plant as the first ingredient – jobs –

    THEN you could build the rest of the live, play and shop around it.

    but building a place where you live, shop and play – but you commute on massive highway infrastructure to a job some distance away is NOT .. Smart Growth no matter how many times or different ways the developers of it say it is nor the State of Maryland for that matter.

    I keep going back to NoVa and the BRAC to point this out.

    When the military moves 20,000 jobs from one part of NoVa to another – away from where there is existing METRO and transit to a location where this is no METRO and much less transit..

    this proves that whatever was "smart" about the previous settlement pattern – is rendered moot when the jobs goes somewhere else.

    In time.. Fort Belvoir will more than likely get METRO and other transit but it's also likely in the interim that all those folks that lived elsewhere will commute in a car to the new location of their jobs and not move there – especially with the loss of value in their existing homes.

    but the biggest problem with trying to build NEW .. truly "Smart Growth" or Functional Settlement patterns is that if they are built NOT where the jobs are – then there WILL BE commuting.

    In my county, they are all atwitter with the prospect of the building of a VRE station in an area of the county currently served by an I-95 interchange and we are being told that the fact that VRE will serve that area – that it makes it an exactly place to build "Smart Growth" development.

    Mind you.. the folks who would live there – would still commute 50 miles to their jobs (subsidized to the tune of $20 per day each) in NoVa so they would live, play and shop locally but work elsewhere – the same that all that Smart Growth up in Maryland was doing.

    Meanwhile the folks who actually to work locally in the Fredericksburg Area would pay a gas tax to fund the VRE rides for those who work in NoVa for twice the salaries of the local workers.

  16. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    "Annapolis, Savannah, most of these places were originally subdivided and the streets laid out before the automobile."

    Consequently, they are probably no longer optimized for todays transportation.

    RH

  17. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    "When the military moves 20,000 jobs from one part of NoVa to another – away from where there is existing METRO and transit to a location where this is no METRO and much less transit.."

    Its because the place they were no longer worked, – METRO or no.

    You cannot reconcile a quarter mile development circle around a Metor station with a requirement for a quarter mile blast zone.

    RH

  18. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    "Meanwhile the folks who actually to work locally in the Fredericksburg Area would pay a gas tax to fund the VRE rides for those who work in NoVa for twice the salaries of the local workers."

    Like I said,

    The problem with "Smart Growth" is that it conveniently omits compensation for the people that get stuck with dumb growth, or no growth. Indeed, EMR's plans pretty much call for explicitly screwing them: make their land worthless.

    RH

  19. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Humans can now officially be called an urban species. More than half of the global population now live in cities and the United Nations says that by 2030, 60 percent of us will live in them.

    Yet according to U.N. Habitat, the world's cities emit almost 80 percent of global carbon dioxide as well as "significant amounts of other greenhouse gases."

    CNN

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