Abingdon Business Park Opposition Mounts Over Wetland Destruction

EDGEWOOD, MD — The Maryland Department of the Environment is giving community members more time to submit comments about the proposed Abingdon Business Park development after calls from citizens. At a recent public hearing about the project's environmental impact, several alleged there was a lack of transparency about the process, prompting the state agency to pledge it would put the developer's application to alter wetlands and waterways on the website by Nov. 8, which it has done.

The project calls for a series of warehouses and other commercial spaces on 326.47 acres between Abingdon Road and Van Bibber Road. The proposed Abingdon Business Park would consist of three e-commerce/warehouse facilities, four restaurants, two flex retail spaces, one hotel, one convenience store and additional flex spaces.

Due to the impact it would have on nontidal wetlands and waterways — including more than 17,000 square feet of permanent impact to wetlands and nearly 33,000 square feet of buffer as well as permanent impacts to streams and the floodplain — the project triggered a public hearing through the Maryland Department of the Environment.

More than 30 community members spoke out at the Nov. 6 hearing. All stated they were against the project in this location.

The Gunpowder Riverkeeper, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Edgewood Middle School Ecology Club and Harford Climate Action were among the groups concerned over the Abingdon Business Park's potential impact to the Haha Branch and connected waterways. Residents also said they were worried about flooding, traffic, property values, public health, wildlife and pollution.

Matthew Jennette of consulting firm Geo-Technology Associates in Abingdon, who is working on the wetland part of the project for developer CRG Westport I LLC, said to make up for the impacts to the environment, the developer plans to restore 570 linear feet of the Haha Branch and pay into the state's nontidal wetland fund as compensation.

Theaux Le Gardeur, speaking on behalf of the Gunpowder Riverkeeper, said his organization was opposed in part because the plan would "pay into the non tidal wetlands mitigation fund rather than mitigate impacts within the same watershed."

Abingdon Business Park would exacerbate problems in the Bush River watershed, which has already been identified as impaired by the state, he said. Le Gardeur was concerned about fish spawning and habitat in the upper Chesapeake, and wanted to ensure all required reviews were being done, including an anti degradation analysis.

Tracey Waite, who created the Stop Abingdon Business Park petition and was representing Harford County Climate Action, said the developer "has not done due diligence in preventing runoff at a time when state funds are already being used" in the Bush River and Otter Point Creek. She suggested the state might purchase the land for a passive park and said she had been in contact with the property owner about possibly conducting an appraisal. The Haha Branch, Waite said, had more fish than in the Bynum Run where she lives, and is home to the black-crowned night heron.

Beth Shepard, who lives in Autumn Run within 0.25 mile of the project, said she has standing water in her backyard and sinkholes in both her front lawn and backyard when it rains. She mentioned trees as vital to stormwater control, with their leaves creating a buffer and catching some of the rainfall.

"If you think we have problems now," Shepard said, "I can only imagine what it will be like...sitting at the bottom of the barrel so to speak" when the trees are gone.

Aravinda Pillalamarri, who said she was speaking on behalf of a Hindu collective in Harford County, echoed the concern.

"It is well established that the conversion of forest to developed land carries an increased pollution load," Pillalamarri said. Reducing the forest canopy would lead to a rise in stream temperature in the Haha Branch, she said. She also noted the developer planned to remove trees with a diameter of 30 inches or 75 percent of the diameter of a state or locally designated champion tree of that species, which she said was not in compliance with state and local forest conservation standards.

How To Weigh In: Public Comment

Initially, the public comment period on the project's impact to nontidal wetlands and waterways was to end Nov. 20.

Community members said they wanted time to review materials about the proposal, which they said had not been made available for review in a timely fashion. Among those who asked the state to extend the public comment period were the Gunpowder Riverkeeper and its attorney; Harford Climate Action; Together We Will; and residents of Philadephia Station and Abingdon Reserve.

It is not unusual for the agency to issue extensions to comment periods, according to Maryland Department of the Environment.

Comments may be submitted through email until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

Amanda Sigillito, the chief of the department's nontidal wetlands division, said if there were any further extension to the comment period, it would be posted on the website.

"Public input is not only part of the administrative process for permitting, it is also essential to making well-informed, thoughtful decisions," Sigillito said at the nearly two-hour hearing, over which she presided. She thanked everyone for their "very well-thought-out comments."

Send comments on the proposal by Dec. 4 in these ways:

• Maryland Department of the Environment, Attn: Louis Parnes, 1800 Washington Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21230
• Email Louis Parnes at Louis.Parnes@maryland.gov.
• Call Louis Parnes at 410-537-3786.