Transportation plan gets OK from commission

Friday, June 19, 2009

The plan, which was last updated in 1997, is out of date and will undergo a "full overhaul," said Pat Haddon, the commission's principal transportation planner.

"There is very little to the [1997] plan that is current," Haddon said.

Haddon also recommended the commission adopt the "The Southern Maryland Transportation Needs Assessment," which was issued in June 2008 by the Commission to Study Southern Maryland Transportation Needs and incorporated the goals of all three southern Maryland counties into its own objectives.

Since traffic congestion has not escalated as expected, many of the changes intended for Route 2-4 in the 1997 plan may no longer be needed, Haddon said.

"That depends on what St. Mary's does," commission Vice Chairman Michael Phipps said, a reference to the exhaustive rush-hour traffic that crosses the Thomas Johnson Bridge from St. Mary's County into Calvert every day.

Commission Chairman Maurice Lusby was also concerned about any potential impact the proposed third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs will have on evacuation scenarios and Route 2-4, the main thoroughfare in and out of the county. Lusby began to say a second bridge across the Patuxent River would never be built, before catching himself as fellow commissioner RoxAnne Cumberland cautioned, "never say never."

The commissioners ultimately set aside their concerns and voted unanimously to allow staff to begin the updating process.

Commission staff plans to next seek the same approval from the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners to begin updates to the plan. A commission timeline calls for all updates to be finished by the summer of 2010.

In other business, the commission also approved, on a 4-1 vote, with Cumberland dissenting, the revised site plan of Calvary Bible Church in Lusby.

The church, originally 7,416 square feet, was approved for a 17,824-square-foot extension in 1994. But the subsequent construction, which has been completed, exceeded the approved amount by 4,008 square feet and altered the layout of the church's parking lot.

Minor alterations to the approved site plan included a retaining wall and two-story breezeway, but no significant changes beyond the square footage were made.

In January 2008, commission administrator David Humphreys found that the extension exceeded the parameters of the originally-approved site plan and ordered a review by the Planning Commission, according to documents. The church filed suit, alleging that Humphreys had made an error. The church eventually withdrew the case and decided to go before the commission.

The first floor of the extension already had approval and has been in use, leaving only the second floor and basement needing approval, according to Dudley McCready, who was representing the church.

jnewman@somdnews.com