Rick Anthony warned me when I took office. He was the Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks Director from 2010 to 2021. “There’s always opposition to new projects, and it can get pretty intense,” he said, “But you have to remember that you serve the whole county.”
Fortunately, we have this state-mandated thing called the Land Preservation, Parks, and Recreation Plan (LPPRP), and every five years we engage the public in prioritizing what land we acquire and what amenities we put on that land. The County Council approved our most recent LPPRP in June of 2022.
But community engagement doesn't stop there. We have County Council approval of land acquisitions, capital budgets, contracts for partnerships with park operators, independent Friends groups at some parks, and a whole lot of very engaged user groups. This is all as it should be. These parks are OUR lands, with improvements paid for with OUR money, contributing to OUR quality of life, and in many cases protecting OUR environment.
I say all of this because it’s budget season, we have lots of Rec and Parks capital projects being considered, and my hat is off to Jessica Leys, Erica Matthews, and their lean, talented, and committed team in that department. They are all about fun and games, but sometimes it feels like pinball, with the staff over there as the ball.
Last week I wrote about the neighborhood opposition to the Earl Conservation Center at Quiet Waters Retreat, but the day after I sent that letter out, I hosted our third of eight Budget Town Halls, and once again the primary topic was a park. I have to commend the neighbors of Provinces Park, current site of two baseball diamonds, and some multi-use fields used mostly for soccer. They turned out in force against a plan that the County Council approved unanimously last year to build the West County Swim Center on their park, just days before Rec and Parks will present the new site plan mandated by that Council action. Regardless of the eventual outcome on that one, the community is being heard, and alternative sites are being explored.
It’s curious, however, that one neighborhood can be so in love with their local ballfields while others are so opposed to having them nearby. Remember the Millersville Tennis Center? The only thing that the neighbors opposed more than that facility was sports fields. So we moved forward with a public-private partnership (P3) to do the Tennis Center, not long after the County Council passed a resolution calling on us to do more P3s, and low and behold four members of the Council voted against the deal. So now Rec and Parks is fulfilling their obligation to provide active recreation at the site with fields, but is committed to doing it in a way that also serves nearby residents.
The good news is that our Rec and Parks team builds good stuff, and generally the neighbors appreciate the increase in their property values that comes with a nearby park. But still, we must do better when we propose these parks, if for no other reason than that it costs taxpayers money when elected leaders change course after design dollars are spent. We must also do better at getting them built quickly and efficiently.
That’s why I convened last year an interagency work group to assess and improve the processes we use to propose, design, and build these public projects. I recently heard their preliminary conclusions, and among them will be earlier and more thorough community engagement. That doesn’t mean that neighbors will have veto power over public projects, but it means fewer surprises and more good ideas from the people nearby.
This is important, because thanks to our Permanent Public Improvements fund, a couple of years with budget surpluses, and significant federal and state support, we are investing in a lot of infrastructure right now. I’ve been saying that my second term is about “Finishing What We Started.” That means doing these projects.
Until next week,
Steuart Pittman
Anne Arundel County Executive