Citizens representing various shoreline communities have completed their task of drafting recommendations for addressing erosion problems along the Chesapeake Bay. The Cliff Stabilization Advisory Committee (SCAC) formally submitted its final report to the Calvert County Commissioners Tuesday, May 13. The committee’s chairperson, Dr. Virginia Haskell gave the board an overview of the panel’s conclusions.
According to a memo from the Department of Community Planning and Building’s principal environmental planner, Dr. Dave Brownlee, SCAC held monthly meetings from early 2011 to last June. “In an effort to educate the community, the committee invited geologists, biologists, engineers, academics and government officials to give presentations at nine of their meetings,” Brownlee stated. “The committee’s final report has 17 recommendations.”
“We spent an extra year writing this report,” said Haskell.
The report indicated SCAC had support for the findings presented in 1993 by the Calvert County Cliffs Task Force. That panel requested county government staff assist property owners living in the affected communities with control methods, funding and the permit processes, establish shoreline erosion control districts, educate the public and encourage state funding.
The recommendations of SCAC also call for providing community education on the challenges of living in proximity to the shoreline. The committee is also calling for the simplification of the permit process, coordination with other government agencies, support for financing options and investment in long-range planning.
“The BOCC [board of county commissioners] should promulgate a policy that the commissioners and all county agencies are to encourage and facilitate the efforts of shoreline property owners and communities who want to develop and construct appropriate cliff stabilization measures,” the SCAC summary stated.
Haskell noted that Calvert’s Chesapeake Bay shoreline “is the most impacted [shoreline] by wave action on the bay.” She added that the delays caused by the permit process yield higher costs for the proactive measures taken by property owners. The permit process needs to be simplified with less complicated paperwork, reductions in the bonds needed for a shoreline protection project, joint review meetings with the involved agencies and changes in the tree removal ordinance.
“The Calvert County Department of Community Planning and Building
