SHA Preparing for Major Upgrade

By Mark R. Smith, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The State Highway Administration (SHA) recently began gearing up for a formal meeting set for June 25 to present its potential upgrades for Route 175 with a series of discussions at the West County Library in Odenton in early April.
But if those involved were aware of the gatherings, to hear some observers tell it, they were lucky.
The first gathering was held on Monday morning, April 7, at the West County Library in Odenton. And Claire Louder, executive director of the West Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce, was among those who felt shut out of the meeting.
While an SHA representative says that letters did go out via U.S. Mail and that flyers were issued merely to follow up, Louder and other local landowners and businesspeople felt shut out the event(s).
"My understanding is that the flyers were not distributed until just prior to the event," Louder said, "and my understanding is that the only people present were property owners who physically inhabit their properties."

Did You Hear?
Louder went on to say that, to her knowledge, the landlords who own properties but do not actually work on those sites (like those who own empty lots or condemned buildings) were not informed of the meeting at all. "I thought it was irresponsible of the SHA to not make a more concerted effort to notify all of the concerned property owners," she said.
That was key, because she feels that the properties that are sitting vacant "will have a higher value within the next few years after redevelopment," she said, "so at that point the SHA will have to pay more for any land they acquire to widen Route 175."
Among those echoing her observations was Brett Griffith, principal with Fortis Development of Alexandria, Va., which owns the land and the condemned McDonald's that sits on it at Route 175 and Berger Road.
"I didn't get a notice from SHA for the April 7 meeting," said Griffith. "I wasn't invited and my feeling is that, since I own a major property [a 2.2-acre site in the proposed] in Odenton Town Center, I should have been."
Griffith said that he was also at an economic development committee meeting for the project this past winter "and there were two people there from the SHA who told me that they would contact me regarding my project," which is the Meade Center, a mixed-use development consisting of 25,000 square feet of office space, 18,000 square feet of retail space and 15 apartments.
"I have no idea why they didn't call me about the meeting(s)," he said. "The only reason I found out that they had occurred was that someone from the county called and told me after the fact."
Noting that the design of the future highway does not match today's plans for Odenton Town Center, he stressed that getting what is needed in the way of enhancements for the failing state artery is imperative.
"If [the SHA] doesn't widen the road on the Fort Meade side, it's going to kill every project that is proposed for that section of Odenton Town Center," Griffith said. "My lot (on the north side, across from the post) is fairly deep, but most of what is available on the side of the road isn't."
Also less than impressed with the SHA's effort to contact the Route 175 landowners was Mike Livingston, CEO of The Bank of Glen Burnie. He learned of the meeting through one of the tellers at the bank's Odenton branch - who received the flyer through the drive-thru window.
Livingston did make the first meeting, which he said "was not well attended." There, he suggested to Assistant Division Chief Nicole Washington and the other SHA representatives that they mail informational letters directly to the landowners in the future (which the SHA maintains that it did), rather than dropping off flyers that may not reach the appropriate contact.
That's because some of the landowners like Fortis Development and The Bank of Glen Burnie, among others, "are not based in Odenton, but elsewhere," so he requested that future correspondence be mailed directly to him at the bank's Glen Burnie headquarters.

The Big Event
Charlie Gischler, spokesperson for the SHA, offered his views on the overall effort and also spoke about the formal hearing that is set for Wednesday, June 25, at 6 p.m. at Meade Middle School, where the SHA will offer and discuss various alternatives.
Gischler said that the public will be invited to register their comments for the record that evening and that the SHA will conduct a mass mailing beforehand to targeted zip codes, as well as advertising via local media.
As for those two April 7 meetings and three that ensued on April 8, 9 and 21, he said that the idea was to designate the meetings for different businesses at the different times based on their locations along the highway.
For instance, the first April 7 meeting was targeted toward businesses located on 175 between routes 170 and 32; the second for businesses between Route 32 and Charter Oaks Boulevard in Seven Oaks, etc.
"We just want to take an extra step for the business owners before the formal meeting," Gischler said, adding that "We did do a mailing to the business owners before April 7 and the flyers were meant as a follow up. We tried to contact everyone involved and want to offer our apologies if some people were not notified."
As for the small attendance that Livingston referred to, Gischler said the first two meetings were "attended adequately" (13 people for both); followed by smaller groups on April 8 (6) and 9 (5); and seven on the 21st, after the SHA mailed "approximately 100 invitation letters."

Fair Deal?
While the state is trying to reach out to property and building owners, since that may not always be the same person, "outreach can be a complicated process," said George Cardwell, planning administrator for transportation for the Anne Arundel County Office of Planning & Zoning.
It can be complicated and nerve-wracking, as "[the SHA] is trying to sit down with the business owners and get them to understand that their property may by taken from them - meaning bought for a fair price - based on federal requirements" for the right of way needed to widen Route 175, he said.
Much of Route 175, from Route 32 to the intersection of Ridge (north) and Rockenbach (south) roads is what is known in the real estate business as a prescribed easement. That means that the Department of the Army owns the right of way/land under the road, and the SHA owns the "improvement," or the actual road and the traffic signs and signals.
"And anything less than a federal agency cannot take land from a federal agency," Cardwell said.
To date, the Army has been working with the SHA to determine how much right of way it can provide to the SHA, "and that comes at a cost," he said, noting that the post will be using some of what appears to the public to be excess land for a new barrier.
If a property owner wants more information, Cardwell said just what to do. "They should contact the SHA," he said.