Waldorf, MD – A proposed Walmart planned for northern Waldorf has consumed the Charles County Board of Appeals for the better part of a year and a half, but it all came to an abrupt halt July 21 when the project was withdrawn.
“We’ve had a tremendous victory,” Environmentalist Bonnie Bick said, adding there is still a lot of work to do.
“There’s a lot more to Waldorf Crossing than a super Walmart,” she said. “The current proposal is right in the stream valley of Mattwoman Creek. This whole other side of Waldorf Station is still in danger. The plans are to take the whole forest down next to Pinefield.”
What really caused the greatest cause for concern, according to Dr. Jim Long of Accokeek, was not only the impervious surface that would be generated by such a large facility but the road structure developers envisioned to go along with it.
Long explained that the Walmart project would alter the alignment of the Western Parkway.
“The way the project was structured, it would cause the Western Parkway to push closer to Mattawoman Creek,” Long said. “It carries a lot of wetland damage.
“County staff came up with a much less harmful alternative,” he asserted, stating that the new proposal would be shorter, would be less expensive to construct, and “isn’t so close to Mattawoman Creek.”
Both Long and Bick claimed that Charles County Planning Commission violated their own zoning when they approved the project, claiming the area was in a transit oriented PUD, when it is in fact, it is in a resource protected zone.
“It’s the tail wagging the dog,” Long said.
“If you follow the plan recommended by county staff, you move the road away from the resource and make it a more appealing gateway,” he added. “There is so much stream valley. What we would like to see is, as county staff suggests, move the Western Parkway. Get it done, but move it to an area which is less damaging.”
“It just made no sense to us to put a Walmart in the middle of a resource protection zone,” Bick said. “What happens there has an enormous impact on the gateway to Charles County. Every decision made should be to make Waldorf better.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com