The Planning and Zoning Commission is in the process of finalizing their recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners for the New Market Region Plan. There is a small but vocal group outside of our community lobbying county leaders to force the declarent (Land Stewards) to rebuild Eaglehead Drive as a four lane highway verses current plans for a two lane road.

The following is the LLA Board of Directors position on this issue as presented to the Planning and Zoning commission on February 25, 2004

Many concerned Eaglehead residents and leaders spent several months this past spring and summer working with county planning staff to formulate the Lake Linganore Small Area Plan. This plan addresses transportation issues and offers the following desired direction concerning future roads:

§ The small area plan calls for spreading traffic out over several connector areas (i.e. Eaglehead Drive, Quinn Road, and a connector from Boyers Mill Road to 75 through the Casey/Blentlinger properties which is called the Crickenburger bypass) all of which would prevent any particular area from being saturated with heavy traffic volume. This plan would help reduce the volume of traffic through the town of New Market and would provide Eaglehead residents with desperately needed alternative routes in and out of the community.

It is my understanding there is a group of people who participated in formulating the New Market Regional Plan who will argue in favor of changing Eaglehead Drive to a four lane road and who will ask this commission to prevent the Eaglehead community from having access to Quinn Road. I empathize with these people who live on or near Quinn Road and who do not desire additional traffic running past their homes. It is my hope that we can work together to solve traffic problems in this region.

So how can we reconcile these two differing points of view?

It is generally agreed that we need a better road system in place, but it is the position of the LLA Board of Directors on behalf of our residents that making Eaglehead Drive into a four lane road is not the answer to this problem. There are inherent flaws in the four lane road concept and we would like the commission to take the following into consideration:

§ Eaglehead Drive originates at a two lane road (which is Boyers Mill) and dumps onto a two lane road (which is 144).

§ It doesn’t make sense to force our community to build a four lane highway through residential areas, and there are no county departments that have justification for such a plan.

§ And the most important reason Eaglehead Drive should not become a four lane road is that the very steep slopes, substantial natural rock outcroppings, and the stream bed located throughout the washed out portion of Eaglehead Drive precludes the ability to build a four lane road without serious negative impact to our environment and potentially to our source of drinking water (and the county’s and city of Frederick’s source as well I might add). I believe members of the Lake Linganore Conservation Society will go into more detail later when it is their turn for public comment concerning this negative impact. I would like to personally invite each of you to physically go see the section of Eaglehead Drive that your decision will affect. This is a very unique area. Unless you actually see the topography of the land in person, you really can’t get a grasp of what the true impact of forcing Eaglehead Drive to change to a four lane road would be. Feel free to call the LLA Office to set up a tour of this area if you have not seen it already.

Concerning Quinn Road, it is the LLA’s position that it is imperative the Eaglehead community have, at the very least, temporary use of Quinn road once the Eaglehead Bridge is rebuilt. The long awaited and continually postponed Boyer’s Mill Road upgrade project will never become a reality unless we have alternative routes in and out of the community while Boyer’s Mill Road is shut down. As things stand now, safety conditions are at an unacceptable level because of only one access route (Boyer’s Mill Road) to much of the Eaglehead Community.

It is our desire that the Eaglehead Community be allowed access to Quinn Road so that the Boyer’s Mill Road upgrade project can be completed and emergency response vehicles will have better access to our area.

The 1993 Regional Plan and current staff draft have always projected an eventual tie in of Eaglehead Drive and Quinn Road. Both roads are listed as collector roads with a 60 foot right of way. A four lane road would require an 80 foot right of way. Therefore, neither road was ever projected to be four lanes. Furthermore, the state has set aside money from their budget to upgrade the state owned Quinn Road bridge preparatory for handling traffic after this tie in is complete. We would like the Planning and Zoning Commission to support the 1993 Regional Plan in regard to these two roads.

Results of a traffic study coordinated by county staff in cooperation with Land Stewards will be available in 30 – 45 days. I urge you to take the results of that study into consideration when making any decisions concerning future roads in this region. Initial indications seem to suggest that this data will support the Lake Linganore Small Area Plan’s suggested use of three connector roads (i.e. Eaglehead Drive, Quinn and Crickenburger bypass) to distribute traffic volume in different directions. It is possible this plan, based on the results of the traffic study, may have to be altered.

Perhaps instead of focusing on building Eaglehead Drive as a four lane road, it would make more sense for all of us to start thinking about putting the higher traffic burden on a four lane Crickenburger bypass. This solution has the potential to make many different groups of people happy. The town of New Market doesn’t want our traffic through their town. Commuters would have a quicker, more direct access route to I-70. Emergency Response vehicles would have better access to this area of the region. Homeowners living between the Oakdale school complex and Quinn Road would not have to deal with added traffic volume in their area. Eaglehead residents residing off of Eaglehead Drive would not have to have a four lane highway running past backyards where their children play. And most importantly to the LLA and Eaglehead residents, serious negative impact to an environmentally sensitive area which could potentially damage our supply of drinking water could be avoided.

Again, we hope to be able to work together with other residents in this region to plan intelligently for the future and look forward to continued discussion and sharing of ideas to find agreeable solutions.

Thank you for the opportunity to share the Lake Linganore Association’s desires for future plans in our region.