A Great Resource for Rural Issues
The Center for Rural Affairs has some fantastic articles on the issues facing Rural America and farmers.
For instance, some great articles on Rural Schools and resources for beginning farmers.
Sustainable Ag and Food Safety, 16 Tenets for Food Safety
“Everyone who lifts a fork has a right to safe and healthy food”
So begins the first Food Safety Tenet laid out by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in a new report on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Safety. The Coalition released this report to in anticipation of the debate and vote on SB510, the Food Safety and Modernization Act.
The Tenets address a few of the provisions in the bill that would impact small scale sustainable farmers. Taken together, the report advocates for safety as the prime goal at every step of the food system but advocates against a one-size fits all approach that puts inordinate burdens on small scale farms.
MCA is working to support a more vibrant local food system and get more farmers on the ground in our region. When there are fewer barriers (and miles) between you and the origins of your food, it is easier to ensure you are getting the best food available.While tighter government regulations are certainly necessary to keep our food system safe, when you know your Farmer, it is easier to know your food is safe.
Recently there have been a number of food safety scares involving food production at large companies that seem to have outgrown their ability to properly ensure food safety. In each of these instances we have pointed to how small scale farmers in and surrounding the Ag Reserve have been farming with the consumer’s safety in mind even when these giants of food production fumble. Read on..
Know your Farmer, Know your Eggs are Safe
Monocacy Elementary Will Stay Open…the Fight for Reserve Schools Continues
Breaking News: Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Weast has released a recommendation that Monocacy Elementary, a popular school within the Reserve threatened with closure, should stay open.
While this news causes relief across the Reserve community, it does not go far enough. Monocacy was slated for closure because it had fewer students than non-Reserve schools. This policy ignores the fact that the rural area feeding the school has limited development and population by design. There is no way for these rural cluster schools to keep up with enrollment standards that govern the rest of the County. More than a resource for students and parents, in the County’s rural areas schools are often the only public meeting areas, hosting meetings, events and generally serving as a community center. Having these buildings serve double-duty this way saves the County money.
While Monocacy is off the chopping block, a formal rural schools policy is necessary to make sure that the entire Reserve cluster of schools is not faced with closure as a result of incongruous enrollment standards. We will be pushing this issue with the School Board as public hearings on this recommendation take place next month. Stay Tuned!
MCA Files Petition for Reconsideration on Barnesville Oaks
MCA is challenging the Planning Board’s approval of a large suburban-style development on the last largest remaining farm in the Reserve,MCA filed a petition asserting error in the Board’s decision and respectfully asking them to revisit the matter. MCA challenges conformity with the Master Plan citing State legislation passed in 2009 that strengthens the requirement that land use decisions support and do not conflict with governing Master plans.
Breaking News: Developer has filed opposition to sending (remanding) the case back to Planning Board for their review and decision on MCA’s Petition for Reconsideration! Unbelievably, their filing claims that because the developer quickly filed their notice of appeal of the condition regarding tenant houses and density first…MCA’s petition for reconsideration should not be addressed. In other words, they are trying to prevent the process that allows for the Board to exercise their authority to reconsider matters when properly petitioned. This move is a real slap in the face to the community who merely seeks to ensure that the Board has fully evaluated the subdivision in light of the Master Plan and existing law.
Stay tuned…
PATH Update: BOCC Supports Denial, Accounting Shenanigans Found
Update~ January 26, 2011
Frederick County’s BOCC has unanimously decided to send a strongly worded letter to the MD Public Service Commission backing up the Frederick BOA denial of PATH’s massive substation proposed for a site surrounded by 1300 houses in Mt. Airy. The BOCCs supportive letter states that the substation, “may not be built in its proposed location.”
In other PATH news, two West Virgina residents have filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Showing just how much time and energy regular people have invested in fighting this proposal, the pair was reviewing 2009 project costs for PATH and have found “a pattern of misleading marketing efforts using funds inappropriately charged to ratepayers and a range of accounting efforts.” In other words, this duo may have uncovered that the same people who are fighting PATH are paying for the massive marketing campaign directly through their energy bills. Read more on both the BOCC letter and this new troubling situation here.
Read on for older PATH updates.
Frederick County Board of Appeals denied application for PATH Substation. Residents rightly questioned the need for the project and the effect it would have on their community. Allegeny should work to address future energy demands by employing means that are mindful of the finite nature and environmental degredation of coal based power. Effort should be made to form a multiple stakeholder group to evaluate how best to address the region’s current and future energy needs with technology from this century.
This is by no means the end of the process, Allegheny Power will almost certainly appeal this decision in appeals court and the powerline itself will still need to come before the BOA. The state Public Service Commissions of WV, VA and MD must also decide on the line.
But for today, this is one for the win column. The members of Sugarloaf Conservancy and Citizens Against Kemptown Electric Substation (CAKES) deserve hearty congratulations for their tireless work.
Read the Frederick News Post article here.
Background including previous MCA testimony here.
Frederick Court decision regarding Global Mission Church
Frederick Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Frederick County Planning Commission’s (FCPC)decision to deny GMC’s Water and Sewer (W+S) Plan Amendment. Full court decision here.
Why does this Matter?
This case affirms that GMC must work within the 5,000 gpd septic capacity. With the size of their buildings and congregation, this seems impossible without seriously scaling down their proposed footprint and programming, no such backtracking has happened in the 2+ years of hearings on this issue. With this decision it seems more likely than ever that the site plan will be denied.
The court case challenging the FredCo Board of Appeals ruling is still pending, we can expect it to begin in earnest in September. The full Petition for Judicial Review of the BOA decision can be found here..
To read all past posts on the GMC issue, click here and scroll down.
Background
The court decision is from a case filed in Circuit Court by GMC way back in the fall of 2008, with amendments in February of 2009.
Most Churches that apply for permits to build in FredCo’s Ag zone are small enough that normal well and septic, allowing 5000 gallons/day, are enough to support the size of their congregation. The plans for the GMC property would need far more than 5000 gpd to accommodate the many thousands of congregants attending services, Church estimates went as high as 11,600 gpd! (see p. 14 of Court Decision)
To increase the available water and septic on their site above the 5,000 gpd cap, GMC applied for a “multi-use” system designation, requiring an amendment to the County Wide Water and Sewer Plan. In deciding whether such a system should be allowed, the FCPC took the following into account:
- The Frederick County Comprehensive Plan seeks to limit development west of 270, “for conservation and rural/Ag uses to protect Sugarloaf Mountain, the Bennett Creek Corridor and other Natural Resources in the area.” The Urbana region section of the Comp Plan also specifically seeks to limit development in stream valleys, particularly along Little Bennett Creek.
- A large increase in available water and septic means more density is possible on that site, meaning more people, more buildings and more traffic, in opposition to the Comp Plan guidelines.
- Access to this site is not ideal; a 300 ft bridge (think of a football field) would have to be built over Little Bennett Creek, again in opposition to the Comp Plan.
In other words, FCPC members looked at all the pertinent factors and denied the Church’s plan because it was inconsistent with a number of Master Plans. We believe they acted in a logical, responsible fashion.
GMC, however, brought suit claiming that none of the previously mentioned factors should have any bearing on the FCPC’s decision, that the FCPC should have only looked at the septic capacity guidelines.
The Court’s decision upheld the FCPC’s decision, noting that the FCPC was duty bound to consider both consistency with Comprehensive Plans and the impact of higher density on the surrounding areas.
To read all past posts on Global Mission Church, click here and scroll down.
Frederick Planners Seek to Preserve Sugarloaf Region
The Frederick County Planning Commission is moving forward with plans to establish a special protection area in the Sugarloaf Mountain region in the southern portion of the county. This will greatly add to the benefits already achieved with Montgomery’s Ag Reserve. See Gazette coverage.
MCA has been happy to provide information to assist this initiative and will support this effort as it moves to Frederick’s Board of County Commissioners.
Ten Mile Creek Deserves Protection
MCA Partner, Audubon Naturalist Society, has been working hard to ensure that future land use does not jeopardize the quality of County treasure Ten Mile Creek. MCA was alerted this spring that Brown Trout were spotted by an ANS member near a Reserve rustic road. Armed with video camera, staff and volunteer Global Ecology students set out to document the species. The stream was clear and cold on the overcast afternoon. First, nothing and then…in shallow fast running water…there they were: 8-10 beautiful Brown Trout. As quickly as we spotted them, they shot upstream and were gone. No time to even attempt to film. A local wildlife biologist explained that the trout are very wary of people. No kidding. We will keep trying to capture them – just a bit more stealthily. Their presence in the stream says much about the quality of the water and why it is crucial to protect it. The County should not develop its huge bus depot near this stream. The County should re-evaluate Clarksburg Stage 4 buildout and trim the density back. For actions needed see this Audubon fact sheet authored by Diane Camerson.
Understanding and Protecting Ag Reserve’s Groundwater!
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Map of Piedmont Aquifer
Montgomery County’s Ag/Openspace Reserve is, by design, wholly outside the WSSC service area. Reserve residents, farms and businesses rely on ground water from the federally protected Piedmont Sole Source Aquifer. Whether you reside, work or play in the Reserve, understanding the finite and fragile nature of this high quality resource is important. We can all work to protect it and continue to enjoy it’s high quality sustainably. See these links for more information.Top 10 ways to protect groundwater
US EPA Site
Poolesville Area Aquifer System
Montgomery County’s Special Protection Areas
USGA Water Science Center
Who’s Who of Source Water Protection
Reserve’s Schools: Time for a County policy!
MCA has been serving on the “Poolesville-Monocacy Roundtable“ which has finished a several month period of meeting and conferring to address Mr. Weast’s determination that Monocacy Elementary School be closed because, though at 86% capacity, it fell under a newish criteria that no school have less than 300 pupils. Moreover, Mr. Weast indicated that both Poolesville Elementary and John Poole Middle School could follow suit under his enrollment guidelines. Poolesville, Clarksburg, Northwest, Darnestown clusters, the Ag Reserve and others schools were represented during this collegial process. In the end, their was consensus (unanimous) that the BOE and the County should issue a policy that Montgomery County’s rural schools be afforded a special status due to the fact that they are wholly located in and serve community within the Ag Reserve, which is by design low in population. The group felt that it would be discriminatory to hold Reserve community schools to the same standards as those schools located in densely developed portions of the County. Such a policy would support the existing legislation, zoning and policies that seek to protect the Reserve and promote continued, and expanding, local farming. Mr. Weast’s notion that there is a problem was disputed. It seems, with this closure proposal, as if the Reserve, a nationally recognized model for farmland/openspace preservation, is being penalized for its success!
Follow the links for MCA’s Letter to the Montgomery County Board of Ed, and Position Paper written for the Monocacy Roundtable (both pdf).
Update: The 15th District Representatives have shown solidarity for this policy by sending this letter to the Board of Ed.
See groups list of options to address the issue.