WCD is oppressive legislation that will doom western Charles

I will be no more offensive to the planning commission, proponents of the watershed conservation district (WCD) and the county commissioners than this plan is to me and 6,000 other residents who will potentially find ourselves trapped within the WCD and once again disenfranchised from the prosperity, economic growth and quality of life that the rest of Charles County enjoys.

Along with State Sen. Thomas “Mac” Middleton (D-Charles), State Dels. Sally Jameson (D-Charles) and Edith Patterson (D-Charles), and the vast majority of county residents, I, too, am vehemently opposed to the WCD and the enormous overreach of power being displayed by our county government.

As it stands, this is the most arbitrary, capricious and oppressive legislation to come out of Charles County in its 359-year history. This is not a plan for smart growth but an agenda for systematic economic genocide to be levied on Indian Head, Bryans Road and all of western Charles County by the dictation of draconian terms of land usage and development with no regard for property owner rights.

Four of seven planning commissioners embrace the belief that we citizens within the WCD cannot co-exist with our natural environment, nor do they trust us to do so. Therefore, we are being legislated out of the equation.

In my observation, I find this plan to be 10 percent based on fact and 90 percent propagated by environmental rhetoric and political ideology — all while hiding behind the skirt of ecology.

As proposed, the plan will, in short order, result in the death of Indian Head, Bryans Road and Maryland Airport as property tax revenue is forever lost in these key areas and that loss is shifted to the other 146,000 county citizens.

Along with dwindling school populations within the WCD, and the plausibility of cross-county bussing to fill ever growing numbers of empty school seats within the WCD, all county residents can expect to see the introduction of fractional percentage local sales taxes in the 1/8th to 1/4 percentage range since piggyback taxes are tapped out and additional property tax increases cannot make up the gap.

Everyone in this room [the WCD hearing of May 24], the planning commission, and all five commissioners know this is a fatally flawed plan long on promises of an eternally pastoral western Charles County, but abysmally shortsighted and overly simplified for ease of digestion by Charles County’s citizens.

Commissioner [Amanda] Stewart (D), you hold the crucial vote that will determine where Charles County will go tomorrow and in years to come. Your allegiance should be reserved for all Charles County citizens and to no other particular persons or entities.

I implore every Charles County resident to call their state legislators today to help us level the playing field in this effort to defeat the WCD and adopt politically transparent smart growth policies. Our state delegation is already with us. Gary Hancock, Indian Head