How is another Dunkin Donuts smart growth?

All you donut-deprived folks will be glad to know there is a plan for a new

Dunkin Donuts on Generals Highway— at the intersection with Herald Harbor Road (Dorr’s Corner).

This Dunkin Donuts is designed for commuters heading north to Interstate

97.

It will be difficult, but possible, to access for commuters traveling south.

The property is zoned C1, local commercial. There is a large old yellowhouse and a barn on the property now. The proposal is to leave the house (for now) and replace the barn with a building with three commercial spaces, parking lot and drive through. The Dunkin Donuts is planned to use a thirdof thenewbuilding. No tenants are identified for remaining two-thirds of the space. There is no public infrastructure, this development would require increasing capacity of thewell and septic system.

So is this smart growth? There are nine Dunkin Donuts within about a 10-mile radius, so the dire need for a10th is not obvious. Dowe need over a thousand square feet of new commercial space in Crownsville? There are about 3,000 square feet available at the Crownsville Town Station on Generals Highway less than half a mile from the proposed new space; the new Severn Village and the Orion Business Park, about 7 miles away, have almost 10,000 square feet of unoccupied commercial space.

Commercial real estate in Crownsville wasn’t hot before this recession. TheWaWa on Generals Highway has been empty for years. The former High’s and empty storefront adjoining the Crownsville Town Station were slowto re-open, recently a hair salon and tattoo parlor have opened. Not tomention the empty space at the close byWestfield Annapolis mall and surrounding plazas.

Given the havoc the pandemic has wrecked on the economy, we don’t have an urgent need for more unoccupied buildings. So even if we must have another Dunkin Donuts to serve the commuters using Generals Highway, we certainly don’t need the additional proposed commercial space. Smart growthwould utilize already built space rather than buildnewspace.

A practical issue for locals is traffic. Traffic and inadequate intersections on Generals Highway pose safety and quality of life concerns now. Much of Generals Highway is in gridlock because there is only one way in and out for residents who live along it. The Herald Harbor Road intersection has its own challenges; returning to Herald Harbor after transporting children to South Shore Elementary takes nerves of steel, the left hand turn onto Generals is an act of courage.

Continuing the status quo of relentless development is not going to preserve seriously impaired streams, like the Maynadier Creek system the property drains into. Allowingmore development on Generals Highway will only increase the rate, volume and pollutant load of stormwater that flows into Little Round Bay, the Severn River and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.

As important are long term issues. One of the reasons County Executive Steuart Pittmanwas electedwas to bring some balance and vision to development in the county. The draft General Development Plan 2040 intended to guide Anne Arundel County zoning will be released this year.

Redevelopment is a key county policy goal, focusing growth to “designated activity centers”. Notably, Dorr’s Corner is not designated as a town center, village center or historic town center — it is not designated as a center at all. Although zoned local commercial, it is surrounded by land zoned as rural and agricultural.

We must find ways to cease our sprawl and stop adding impervious surfaces. Future development needs to be concentrated where current infrastructure, including water and sewer, exists. Redevelopment of unoccupied commercial space needs to be more profitable than new development. Think globally, act locally.