Forest Greens - Perryman Community Association

Minutes November 19, 2008

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Minutes from the Fall 2008 Forest Greens/Perryman Community Association

Harry Webster introduced the officers and Board of Directors:

The following guests and local representatives were in attendance.

• Billy Boniface – Harford County Council President
• Mary Ann Lisanti – Harford County Council District F
• Pete Gutwald - Harford County Director of Planning and Zoning
• Jeffrey M. Stratmeyer - Harford County Department of Public Works, Division of Highways and Water Resources
• Keith Kucharek - Maryland State Highway Administration
• Bonnie Johansen - Constellation Energy
• Bill G. Leedy – Constellation Energy

Treasurer’s Report

Paul Tracy gave the treasurer’s report for 2008. Income was $656.54 and expenditures were $736.01. The association has a balance of $5,023.77. Membership dues for 2009 are now being collected. If you have not paid your $10 yearly dues please send it to P.O. Box. 44, Perryman, MD 21130. 

Constellation Energy Expansion Project

Bonnie Johansen and Bill Leedy from Constellation Energy (CE) gave a presentation on the proposed power plant expansion project in Perryman. The demand for electricity in MD is increasing and CE is planning for the future demand by looking to upgrade the facility, which is on 700+ acres of land.

Their proposal is to put in 4 ‘peaking’ units which would be idle for the majority of the time but can come online within 15 minutes during peak demand. The plan would allow for up to 10 ‘peaking’ units if demand requires it in the future. Each unit will have a smoke stack with an approximate height of 200 feet.

The units would operate on natural gas most of the time, which provides the cleanest fuel available. Since natural gas use is limited in the area based on consumer demand, a backup fuel of oil would be required. 

If approved, construction is expected to take 9-12 months. Some construction traffic would be observed on roads in Perryman. Once complete there will be very little traffic added to the area. The majority of traffic would be oil trucks when the facility is running. CE supports the construction of an APG border road to help remove the traffic from the community.

CE has submitted permits to the State and County. A public meeting is required as part of the permitting and will be held on December 4, 2008.

Sal Maranto asked why CE was not using propane instead of oil as a backup.

CE replied that the facilities are already there for oil. Also the energy costs are lower and this plant has to be low cost.

Another member inquired about the noise impact.

CE replied the plant will meet the State requirements and will probably be lower. The state requirements do require a lower noise volume at night.

Brownie Pearce asked for a status on the oil plume from the 1994 oil spill. CE replied that it is nearly all cleaned up.

Development and Transportation

Mary Ann Lisanti gave an update on her understanding of the development and transportation issues in the Perryman area. She stated that the Well Head Protection legislature is one of the most important projects for this area. With help from people in community we have drafted some legislation for this project. 

The second most important issue that she is hearing from the community is the transportation issues. Opus East will be the biggest monetary contributor of the road. The county needs 1,000 feet of right-of-way from APG and it has been a slow process. The County Executive has been working to get this access which could result in moving the golf course into the public area or making significant changes to the entrance to APG. Mary Ann has had some conversations with Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger to help get this moving. Opus East is committed to building the entire border road if the first 1,000 feet can be completed.

Harry asked why our contacts at APG have said that they are not aware of the County’s desire to build the border road and Mary Ann suggested that the Army is not passing the information down since it is not a committed project.

Billy Boniface suggested that we continue to contact Dutch Ruppersberger as a community to help with the project with APG. He also suggested that we continue to engage APG as a neighbor but work with Dutch on this issue.

Mary Ann then discussed the zoning changes and said that the County Council put 176 amendments to legislation to put a community face on the zoning code. They tried to create a place where high tech jobs can be created on the route 40 corridor rather than other areas of the County. A lot was done in the code to allow for set backs and ‘neighborhood like’ development communities where housing is connected to business areas. An important part of the zoning code contained restrictions on what type of development is allowed in the well head protection areas.

Harry asked if Mary Ann knew of any new development planned for our area and Mary Ann stated that she was not aware of anything, but as legislators they do not receive any updates on development unless it goes through the DAC. While they try to keep informed of the issues going on, they don’t get those types of updates.

Harry thanked Mary Ann for all her work with the community over the last several years and the Association considers her a huge benefit for our community.

Mary Ann also suggested that we get any recreation needs of the community into the CE expansion project. She suggested that these plans get formalized with CE.

Transportation Issues

Harry started the discussion with a brief summary of transportation issues facing the peninsula and stated that the community was promised that no additional building would be done before building additional access road to the area.

Jeff Stratmeyer from the Harford County Department of Public Works, Division of Highways and Water Resources, gave a presentation on the latest transportation projects in the local area.  He summarized the various road options from the Perryman Area Traffic Study done in 2000. The study provided 3 road options. The County wanted option “C” for access to 95 but due to restrictions to I-95 access and additional reasons the option would not work.

In anticipation of Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) 23 intersections throughout the County were studied. The study showed that in 2015 many intersections would fail due to BRAC. There was not enough money to address all the intersections so 8 intersections were selected for upgrades including Rt. 715 and Rt. 40 intersection. Only these intersections have funding for the design phase.

Keith Kucharek from Maryland State Highway Administration said there will be a public meeting on the 8 intersections once design is complete, estimated to be in late February or early March.

In regards to the APG border road to Rt. 715, Opus has agreed to build much of the new road but the County is building the first 1000 feet. The problem is the County has to go through APG who has security issues and possible traffic concerns due to BRAC. With 3,000 additional cars on Rt. 715, APG believes that breaking the traffic on Rt. 715 would cause problems.

The County feels the Mitchell road extension to Canning House is a good option. The road design is about 30% complete and Jeff estimated that construction would not start until 2014 if it is approved.

The County is also working on a Multimodal Transportation center to support BRAC.  There are a lot of discussions centering on locating this near the Aberdeen train station or near Rt. 715 and Amtrak.

A community member asked about the status of the Rt. 7 and Rt. 159 roundabout. Keith from the State Highway Administration said that the original plan of a dual lane roundabout was reduced to a single lane roundabout. They are attempting to get developer funding at this time since there is no funding at the State.  Keith and Jeff were asked if the roundabout could be moved back into the farm land so the impact to home owners would be lessened. They thought it was a good idea and would look into it.

Additional project information can be found at: http://www.sha.state.md.us/WebProjectLifeCycle/ProjectInformation.asp?projectno=HA2052112

Billy Boniface reiterated that there is only money for planning and design at this time. The County needs help from the State to get these projects done and right now the concentration is on getting people off APG.

Elections

Mike Carr read a proposed change to the FGPCA bylaws to increase the Board of Directors from 3 to 5 members. The 2 additional members could be elected this year with the first being a three (3) year term and the second a two (2) year or 1 additional member elected this year and another additional member next year. Vicky Carr made a motion to change the bylaws and it was seconded by Sandy Tracy. The motion was carried.

Sandy Tracy headed the nomination committee which has agreed to return the 4 same officers: Harry Webster as President, Debbie Diering as Vice President, Paul Tracy as Treasurer and Chuck Mezan as Secretary. A motion to keep the officers was made by Ron Roz and Richard Dixon seconded. All members were in favor.

A motion to re-elect Mike Carr for 3 more years on the Board was made by Vicky Carr and Andy Powell seconded. All members were in favor. A motion to fill one of the newly created Board Member positions for 3 years by Andy Powell was made by Brownie Pearce and Vicky Carr seconded the motion. All members were in favor.

Old Business

Andy Powell gave a brief update on the community crime program. This is the third year that the community participated in the County’s Neighborhood Watch program. There was a community picnic on September 13 at Andy’s house in which the people involved in the crime prevention program got together to hear a report by the County Sheiff’s office followed by a cook-out. Andy informed the community about www.crimereports.com which is a website where you can receive crime reports for our area.

Chuck Mezan gave an update on the Bush River dredging project. Arden McClune from Harford County Parks and Recreation said that the contractor bids for the Bush River/Otter Point Creek dredging project were due on November 12. However, they are still waiting for the permits to be approved by the Army Corp of Engineers. Until the permits are approved they can not start the project. Arden felt that there was still the potential for work to start this winter if they received the permits soon.

Mike Carr stated that there has been no progress on the 42 lot sub division on Mitchell Dr.

Andy Powell informed the members that the Aberdeen police would like to hear from the community when tractor-trailers are blocking route 7 at the C&S facility.

New Business

No new business was discussed.

9:05pm meeting adjourned.