A stretch of Daisy Road a mile off of Route 144 is being considered for “scenic road” status in Howard County. (Staff photo by Drew Anthony Smith)
In an effort to protect these roads and what they call "the heart of the rural west," a group of local residents is pushing the County Council to add five west county roads to Howard's scenic road inventory.
At a hearing Nov. 17, the council heard testimony from about a dozen residents -- all of whom favored adding the roads. The council is scheduled to vote on the proposal Dec. 1.
"These roads are in danger of disappearing and their rustic beauty along with them," said Brenda Stewart, president of the Concerned Citizens of Western Howard County, which represents about 200 families.
The proposal seeks to add Daisy Road, Duvall Road, Jennings Chapel Road, A.E. Mullinix Road and Ed Warfield Road to about 50 other roads already on the scenic inventory. Scenic roads are defined as places with outstanding visual or historic value that pass through parts of the county with forest, farmland or historic structures.
"There's no better combination of these features than the area now being considered," said Ted Mariani, a resident of Ed Warfield Road.
County Council member Greg Fox, a Republican who represents western Howard County and is the sponsor of the bill, said Richard Tufts, a west county resident, brought the idea of expanding the list to his attention.
The two looked at where the county's current scenic roads are located and came up with a list of nearby roads that should be added, Fox said.
"These seemed to fit with the character of other roads that were already on the inventory," Fox said.
The county has non-binding guidelines addressing the type of development allowed along scenic roads. Those guidelines include minimizing the loss of scenic views, trees and vegetation; orienting buildings so they do not back up to roads; and having utilities, storm water facilities, fences and lighting be as unobtrusive as possible.
Some residents said they want to see the guidelines strengthened so they would be required of the developers. Their concern stems in part from a proposal to build a used car lot at the intersection of Daisy and Union Chapel roads, which has angered many western residents.
Fox said he is not aware of any effort on the council to strengthen the guidelines.
He also said that while the guidelines are not binding, they still serve a purpose.
"At least it has people thinking a little bit about how they develop a piece of property," Fox said.
The last road to join the inventory was Gov. Warfield Parkway, between Windstream Drive and Twin Rivers Road, in Columbia which was added in 2006.
user comments (12)
user lisbonite says...
I hope this recommendation is as transparent as it is to other resident of Western Howard county.
To have the CCFWHC go to extraordinary effort to block a proposed car dealership suddenly recommend that the 3 roads that intersect to form the intersection at which the dealership would be located is beyond self-serving. Those roads are no more "scenic" than any other once-rural stretch of road in Western HoCo. Further, to then have CCFWHC push to make the non-binding guidelines strenghtened so as to inhibit development rights is absolutely ridiculous.
Posted 1:59 PM, 11.20.08
user longtimelisbon says...
Hogwash to lisbonite’s comments. These roads border farms from historic Howard County families. Their generations grew our county, and it took generations to grow the trees and landscape bordering these roads. Their heritage should be preserved while we still can. No Car Max belongs in Daisy or we will have more HAZMAT situations such as last weekend and potential ground contamination. Business – yes – blacksmith, feed store, rural businesses. There is more to life than money from developing land.
Posted 9:45 PM, 11.20.08
user milton says...
Lontimelisbon- perhaps you should seriously consider moving to Columbia. I have lived in the Lisbon area for 30+ years, and one of the greatest things about it is being relatively free to do what you want. No one can tell you what color to paint your front door, for example, unless you voluntarily purchased a home with an HOA. Mind your own business and let your neighbors do with their property whatever they see fit. Don't be so arrogant to think that you know what is best for everyone else.
Who are the CCFWHC? They don’t even have a website for crying out loud. They are a fly by night anti-growth activist group that is trying to ram their agenda down our throats.
Posted 11:22 AM, 11.21.08
user daisy says...
CCWHC is an entirely volunteer non-profit corporation with the purpose of making certain the policy adopted by our County's government to keep the rural character of the Rural West is kept. That policy is: "Our rural lands will be conserved...in rural areas growth is directed to existing population centers and resource areas protected. Outside of five named growth centers, other commercial development is deemed "impractical and undesireable." Protecting scenic roads is part of fufilling the General Plan. It's not our agenda, it's the agenda of the people of Howard County that was democratically adopted in 2000. If Lisbonite thinks that's ramming an agenda down his or her throat, then he or she needs to take Democracy 101. By the way, we're not flying by night but growing by our grassroots.
Posted 3:28 PM, 11.21.08
user milton says...
Daisy- perhaps you should learn to read before you try to write. It was not Lisbonite who said that you were trying to ram your agenda down our throats. It was me.
My tolerance for boredom is not high enough nor do I have the free time to read the intricacies of DPZ documents. What I do know is the car dealership has the proper zoning, and the CCWHC is lobbying to block them. I for one do not have a problem with a car dealership in the west at that intersection (near other commercial businesses) and I bet there are people who would love to work there.
CCWHC needs to get a website if they are going to run their mouths in the papers. It is extremely cowardly of them to go around saying that they have membership of 200 families and yet they are in the shadows. My group has a membership of 10,000 families and we think that the CCWHC should move to Columbia where people love to be told what to do.
Posted 5:31 PM, 11.21.08
user suburban says...
Milton - you need to wake up. The zoning is in place for a car dealership because the government we elected to protect us fell asleep at the wheel. CCWHC is a group of your neighbors that are fighting to protect the very thing that you say you have had for the last 30+ years. Families who live in Lisbon, Woodbine or Daisy are not trying to take any of your rights away from you, they are trying to fight to keep you from loosing them. If you think that comercial growth into a residential community is a good thing, your crazy. The people who want to work at a car dealership can drive to Columbia; it's not that far. We will have no control over our roads, intersections, traffic, safety, security, and worst of all, future sprawl. We don't need to move to Columbia, Columbia is coming to us. And when it happens, I'm sure you will be the first one to complain about it.
If your so critical of CCWHC, maybe you should stop being so lazy and find out what this is all about. Your extremely misinformed and your writing nonsense that has no factual base. An orginization doesn't need to have a website to be legitimate. Does your 10,000 family "group" have a website? If your 10,000 family strong you would think that maybe we would have heard about you. Are you in the shadows? Get a grip Milton; people who sit back and do nothing, get run over!!
Posted 8:13 PM, 11.21.08
user milton says...
Suburban- I don’t even have a group, I said that I represented 10,000 families to show how easy it is to lie or exaggerate about the membership levels of an organization.
Commercial growth in the rural west is bad? Really? Should Food Lion pack up and move to Columbia? Should I have to get my groceries in Ellicott City or pay the inflated prices at Super Fresh in Mount Airy? Should I stop getting my coffee from Dunkin Donuts in Lisbon? Should the rural west just be a museum of the past?
Your statement that an organization does not need to have a website to be legitimate is interesting and very telling. How many leaders of your organization are under 50 years old?
Posted 9:58 AM, 11.22.08
user westcounty says...
Milton, respectfully, in the 3:28 PM, 11.21.08 posting by Daisy it says: "in rural areas growth is directed to existing population centers and resource areas protected" therefore it is OK to have a Food Lion and the other businesses you mention in the designated area where they exist and where they serve a useful and convenient service. I am sorry that I don't pass your litmus test for age - I exceed by less than the digits on one hand. What should the country do with our generation? Should we be limited to visiting the museums and traveling the scenic routes that you have no time to see? Should we be prevented from surfing the web or commenting using blogs? Are we interfering with the American right to make money at the expense of the environment and at the expense of our history and heritage? I think not.
Posted 3:41 PM, 11.22.08
user milton says...
Westcounty- Then basically, all the so-called “plan” for the western part of the county says is that we don’t want any more commercial development. That is most ignorant and absurd excuse for a “plan” that I have ever heard. This “plan” does not protect progress, it impedes progress. Besides, if this “plan” had any teeth, the CCWHC would not feel the need to change any part of the zoning process. No one is telling the old people what to do. I am just a little tired of the old people in this county hijacking the zoning process with their “citizen activist” groups. I hope that the county council is smart enough to realize that all these groups represent probably less than 1% of the county’s total population.
Suburban- you told me to “stop being so lazy and find out what this [CCWHC] is all about”. How am I supposed to find out anything about CCWHC when their lazy asses don’t even have a website?
Posted 4:59 PM, 11.22.08
user westcounty says...
Milton - here is a link to a report on the elderly in Maryland - study it and weep - your 1% figure is way off.
http://www.mdp.state.md.us/msdc/ElderlyMigration_2006.pdf
Posted 6:31 PM, 11.22.08
user milton says...
Are you stoned? I never said that the elderly represent 1% of the population. I said that anti-growth citizen activist groups like CCWCH, HCCA etc. represent 1% (probably way less than that) of the population. The leadership of those groups is of the older generation, but I was not suggesting that older folks are, in total, only 1% of the population.
Do you think that I don't go outside and see people in the community or something? Geez.
Posted 7:02 PM, 11.22.08
user says...
Milton - I'm not sure what "Plan" your referring to. Your basing this discussion purely on the speculation that CCWHC is trying to impede progress. Like I said, your extremely misinformed. There is a big difference between having grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, gas stations, etc. located in the commercial zones of our community with direct access to state highways (Rt.'s 94, 144, and 97) and an interstate (I-70) than there is having a used car lot tucked within residential communities and farmland with no access to the highways or interstate. No matter what age group your in, you don't have to be a rocket scientist (or be over 50) to figure out that having a used car lot in the proposed locaton is a bad idea. As Daisy has developed over the past 100 years, it became more of a residential community than a commercial zone and the zoning should have been changed to reflect that many years ago, but it wasn't. Now we have a problem that needs to be fixed.
To respond to your earlier comment, I'm not a leader of CCWHC or an activist, I'm just a citizen of our community, just like you. I attended a few of the meetings at the Lisbon Fire Hall that I heard about from my nieghbors and they were very informative. I signed the registration form and now I'm one of the 200+ families that signed up as well. CCWHC has our names and addresses; They're not just pulling their membership numbers out of the air. If your interested, and it sounds like you are, you should attend the next meeting. At least then you could base your opinions on fact instead of your speculation that these people are a bunch of liberal activists trying to block all progress. Not that I think it makes much difference, but a whole lot of the people there are over 50.
We can all agree that not all change is bad, but some is. We as citizens need to stay informed and if it takes organizing a group of us together to keep things in check, then that's what we need to do.
Posted 7:54 AM, 11.23.08
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