FAQS: Annapolis Environmental Tragedy - A Failure of Government

These are answers to questions that have come up as a result of my original post on August 31, 2018, “An Annapolis Environmental Tragedy: A Failure of Government”. That post was about my view of the lack of government action on the Key School Fusco Athletic field construction environmental destruction.

The day after the original post on the morning of September 1, 2018, we had another rain event with 3.5" recorded. Video and media from that event is being logged with the relevant agencies again.

FAQs

1. Isn’t some of the drainage issue coming from the assisted living complex construction behind the CVS on Bay Ridge road?

Answer: Yes, and the Annapolis Roads team is monitoring and documenting that run off, which has been recorded entering Lake Ogleton from a different area in the community and is limited in scope. The focus of my post is the directly attributable year-long recurring large scale runoff from the @Keyschool Fusco complex construction site for which we have documentation logged with AA County and the State of Maryland.

2. Have you talked to Key School about this?

Answer: Yes. We proactively set up a liaison committee to communicate our concerns in monthly meetings about all aspects of their development with little success of reigning in this, or any other environmental damage. We also sent a letter to the #Keyschool Board of Trustees asking them to survey and remediate the damage their runoff has done to our 33 acre Ogleton Woods conservation easement. They responded on May 7, 2018 by saying they had no responsibility beyond following County statutes and that no government agency has directed them to do so. Their refusal to take action stems from their refusal to take responsibility for the wide-ranging negative effects of a development that they see as a source of pride.

3. “Clearly you have a problem with Key School, what is it?”

Answer: I have no issue with the Key School as an institution. Many of my friend’s children have and do attend the school. I have a big issue with the Key School’s Board of Trustee's assault on our historic and environmentally sensitive community, while claiming that the athletic complex would have little or no impact (see #6 answer below also). We live in a time where precious environmental parcels are struggling under the strain of pollution, rampant development and rapacious consumption of resources. Annapolis Roads for over 70 years has been guarding against this environmental degradation in our community and will continue to do so.

4. How do you know the soils in the Key School site are laden with heavy metals?

Answer: We do not know for sure, as Key School never supplied soil test results despite our requests, and we were not given access to the property to test it ourselves. But an internet search on “golf course soil heavy metals” will bring endless research papers and articles on this subject. An academia sample here and a 2007 Maryland legislative bill to put controls on redevelopment of golf courses and soil disturbance here.

5. Wasn’t the Key School just building to current County code?

Answer: We have been told the drainage system was built to the code but we have no way to know. What we do know is that construction disturbed approximately 27 acres of land that was previously vegetated stable land with no runoff issues. Construction industry best practices recommend disturbing no more than 7 acres at a time. At the time of this writing, large swaths of #KeySchool Fusco Athletic complex are still not stabilized which resulted in yet another large runoff event September 1, 2018 after 3.5” rain the day after I posted the original piece.

6. Key School claims that Annapolis Roads is not cooperating and has been overly difficult to work with. Why has the community been so difficult?

Answer: Key School lost our trust immediately after they purchased the land. Existing open space laws prevented the type of development they were proposing.

At an open meeting with 100+ residents of our community, Key School board leadership stated publicly that they would only build the athletic complex development if it fit into existing zoning and other laws. We found out shortly thereafter that 3 weeks prior to that meeting they were already communicating with AA County on changing open space laws that affected the entire county so they could have their athletic complex built.

They went before the County council in a series of hearings to support a proposal made by a councilman with unknown motives from another County district to change the law. Thirty or more organizations from the Sierra Club to the Growth Action Network to the Severn River Association testified that the current open space laws should not be changed for one private school with significant financial resources. They argued that the new law was written in haste, and did not consider unintended consequences for the 14,000 acres of County land that would be affected by it.

Subsequent to the open space law change, the Key School’s plans presented a potential challenge to lon held Annapolis Roads covenants on the golf course property that limited use to certain activities. These covenants were challenged previously by another developer and their validity was upheld in Maryland District Court in 2007.

Residents were concerned that a private school athletic complex did not fit the covenants’ restrictions, which allowed the land to be used only for “passive recreation,” certain agricultural uses, or a golf course. Residents worried that Key School’s intensive use as a physical and environmental education complex was not “passive” and included educational uses that would violate and therefore invalidate the covenants. Residents took the case to court, where the court interpreted that school’s manner of use was consistent with the covenants’ passive recreation provision.

According to prior case law, had the community not gotten a ruling on this, the covenants could have been deemed invalid, opening the land up for commercial use and increasing its value significantly. The residents had good reason to address this potential outcome, based on earlier contracts on the land that were contingent on the developer’s ability to break the covenants.

For me personally, this is an example of how a small resource limited residential community has been unable to make a private school with a $12.5 million endowment accountable for their actions, and how their political connections have been complicit in allowing them to avoid it and continue to maraud over our community.