The
SSARPC is pleased to accept Delegate Herman Taylor's invitation to participate
in a Design Charrette! See
acceptance letter
below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sandy Spring Ashton Rural Preservation
Consortium
PreserveAshton.net
The
SSARPC (PreserveAshton.net) supports development in Ashton that conforms to our
Master Plan. We are pro-Master
Plan; not anti-development.
Tuesday 11 April
2006
The Honorable Herman L. Taylor,
Jr.
The
Maryland House of
Delegates
224 Lowe Office
Building
Annapolis, Maryland
21401.1991
District Office
P.O.
Box
185
Ashton, Maryland 20861
RE: Your
correspondence, dated 24 March
2006,
proposing a charrette for the Ashton Meeting
Place
Dear Mr. Taylor:
On behalf of the Sandy Spring Ashton Rural Preservation
Consortium (“the SSARPC”), thank you for your kind and thoughtful invitation to
participate in a design charrette for the property located at the southeast
corner of the Ashton crossroads (routes 108 and 650), where the Ashton Meeting
Place LLC (“the AMP”) has a proposed site plan pending before the Maryland
National Capital Park and Planning Commission (“the MNCPPC”). We accept
your invitation.
Our civic association, the SSARPC, also known as
PreserveAshton.net, wholeheartedly
supports any forum that would promote an honest and fair sharing of ideas among
all of the stakeholders of this precedent-setting project in the Sandy Spring
Ashton Rural Village Overlay Zone. As you know, the SSARPC initiated
and held two design meetings with the AMP developers in December 2005
and January 2006. At those meetings the SSARPC explained the
aspects of the developer's proposed layout that are in conflict with both
the Master Plan and the County-approved Rural Village Overlay Zone. We
suggested alternative layouts and design elements consistent with the Master
Plan and the Overlay Zone. Our expert architects and land use planners are
of the view that the only way to comply with the Master Plan and Overlay Zone is
to cut back somewhat on the density of the proposal. The developer was unwilling to do
so.
We applaud your initiative and are optimistic that a new
series of design meetings hosted by a neutral third party would be productive,
if it were carefully managed to allow an honest brokerage of ideas and a
truly proactive attitude toward problem-solving. Past experience has
shown that successful charrettes include the following ground rules in
order to conduct an honest and fair process with realistic results that all
stakeholders can support. In this
case, the list of stakeholders would include the SSARPC, the AMP developers, and
local area civic associations.
1.
The facilitator must be a professional designer/planner with experience
in organizing and executing charrettes;
2.
The facilitator must have no bias toward one position or another.
The facilitator must be a neutral third
party;
3.
The facilitator must be experienced in managing conflict in the context
of planning and design;
4.
All stakeholders must be allowed to participate equally;
and
5.
Representatives of planning and permitting agencies should be
present to offer technical expertise on such topics as zoning, approval
processes, and other regulations and guidelines in place for the site. In
this case, we suggest that staff from MNCPPC divisions of Development Review,
Community Based Planning, Environment, and Transportation be present, as well as
staff from the State Highway Administration.
We are confident that a charrette with these "ground
rules" in place would be a productive experience resulting in a much-improved
rural village center design for Ashton.
Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from
you.
Sincerely,
Paul David Mannina, Co-Chairperson
Beth Garrettson, Co-Chairperson
