Out Of Control Sprawl Development has resulted in Prince George's County falling over $4 Billion behind in maintenance of our County's critical infrastructure. The dollars for your schools, fire stations, roads, libraries, and police stations are being diverted to fund infrastructure for sprawl development. Your family's quality of life, and safety, are at stake. Ask yourself, "Should I allow this to continue?"
A new Council Bill, CB-80-2008, is a key to halting Sprawl Development and wasteful spending.
CB-80-2008 implements a system of Transfer Of Development Rights (TDRs). TDRs are a proven tool to control unchecked development throughout Maryland and the US, and to preserve public capital and environmental resources. This bill will help to protect rural open space and urban green space in developed areas.
Dear Council Member,
I am writing to express my strong support for the proposed Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program, CB-80-2008, which has a hearing on Tuesday, November 18, 2008. I am writing to urge you to vote for this crucial piece of Smart Growth legislation.
TDRs are a proven tool to control unchecked development throughout Maryland and the US, and to preserve public capital and environmental resources. This bill will help to protect rural open space and urban green space in developed areas.
Prince George's County's remaining farmland is disappearing and turning into ill-conceived sprawl development, resulting in the County falling over $4 Billion behind in critical infrastructure maintenance. The dollars for our schools, fire stations, roads, libraries, and police stations are being diverted to fund infrastructure for sprawl development. Our quality of life and safety are at stake.
If this bill does not pass, our quality of life will continue to deteriorate as maintenance dollars are diverted to new construction in remote parts of the county.
I urge you to vote YES on CB-80-2008.
Click HERE to fill out a form and send message 1.
Dear Council Member,
I urge you to vote for CB-80-2008, the County's proposed Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program, which has a hearing on Tuesday, November 18, 2008. Family farms are disappearing at an alarming rate, taking away our last remaining green space and eroding our rural legacy. If we don't act now, Prince George's County's farmland and farming tradition will be gone forever.
TDRs are a proven tool to preserve farmland and urban green space, and to control unchecked development. TDR programs have been very successful throughout Maryland and the US. There is no reason why Prince George¹s County cannot do the same.
As farms vanish from our beautiful rural areas, ill-conceived sprawl development takes its place. This has a tremendous impact on the entire County's infrastructure. Dollars are being diverted away from existing schools, fire stations, roads, libraries, and police stations, all to support development in more remote parts of the County. As a result, the County is now billions of dollars behind in critical infrastructure maintenance. If this bill does not pass, our quality of life will continue to deteriorate as maintenance dollars are diverted to subsidize sprawl development. This will erode our ability to focus County resources on desirable revitalization projects.
It is time for Prince George's County to preserve its rural legacy and to embrace smart growth. I urge you to vote YES on CB-80-2008.
Click HERE to fill out a form and send message 2.
Dear Council Member,
My family owns property in the Rural Tier and we want the option to keep our property for farming by selling TDRs. The creation of a Rural Tier and preservation of farmland and environmentally sensitive land is absolutely critical and we must use all means available to protect the Rural Tier. I support TDRs and the current bill to enact the TDR program. Developers continue to eye the Rural Tier as the next frontier for development. They absolutely MUST BE SENT A CLEAR MESSAGE that Prince George's County values its remaining farmland and will work to protect it!
The 2002 General Plan contained numerous policies favoring developers but it also called for rural preservation to control sprawl and limit air and water pollution. The County has not implemented enough of the pro-environment policies proposed in the Plan, and it is time to balance what has happened with the General Plan and development.
The proposed TDR legislation exempts a lot of desired development from buying TDRs, and focuses on limiting sprawl development. It is time for density increases to support preservation of land so that we can control sprawl. In addition, imposing a 5% mandatory TDR requirement for existing density is a small cost to developers to offset their sprawl with preservation. This bill allows developers to add 5% extra units to make up for buying the TDRs so there is minimal impact to them. The remainder of the program is voluntary for developers so they should absolutely support this legislation.
Developers will always say that it's not the right time for TDR legislation. TDRs are needed so farmers can preserve their land without having to sell it for development. Now is the time to set the TDR policy and for this County to go on record as being pro-agriculture and pro-smart growth.
I urge you and the entire Council to support this legislation.
Click HERE to fill out a form and send message 3.
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