Dear Honorable Members of the County Council:
We respectfully request that you reunify Accokeek in the Rural Tier as a part of the Rural Tier Sectional Map Amendment process that is underway at this time. As it stands, Accokeek is sliced right down the middle by a swath of Developing Tier land so designated in 1992 when the most recent version of the Subregion V Master Plan was approved.
This division has taken a heavy toll on Accokeek � rending our community into two rural tier regions with a historically strong connection that is rapidly dissolving, and a floating middle ground � the Developing Tier along Route 210 � that many of us forget is Accokeek at all because it is so totally out of step with the rest of the area.
As it stands, our children don�t even go to the same elementary and middle schools anymore; the effort to decrease crowding means that our elementary-aged children on the east side are bussed out of our neighborhood, while those on the west side stay in the perpetually overcrowded neighborhood school. Middle school boundaries fall along different lines altogether.
The division is taking a street-level toll as well. The Developing Tier is designated in such a way that its tributaries flow up several streets for a number of lots before turning tide at a neighbor�s house right next door. Some of our most cherished rural-in-character areas are in fact not designated as rural at all, and the specter of these locales being super-developed in a way that will not only contribute to our diminishing rural identity, but will be totally incongruous with their immediate surroundings is a threat that distresses us daily.
Accokeek does not have the infrastructure, schools, or protection to support the kind of development that is designated for the Developing Tier. However, it does boast an abundance of the characteristics that the General Plan, Master Plan, and Rural Tier Sectional Map Amendment process name as priorities for preservation. New development is better suited to areas that are not so rural in character, where financial and environmental impacts to the county and state will be far more manageable.
Of course, there are several development projects which have already been approved and platted for Accokeek�s current Developing Tier, but we ask that you please consider halting the approval of any further projects until such time as Accokeek has been reunified in the Rural Tier, and its zoning adjusted accordingly.
We thank you for your kind consideration and support. Please contact us at anytime to discuss this process.
Most sincerely yours,
Richard Fortgang, Director of Community Redevelopment for Sprawled-Out Accokeek
Cc: Congressman Steny Hoyer
President of the Senate Thomas V. �Mike� Miller
Delegate James Proctor
Delegate Joseph Vallario
Congressman Albert Wynn
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