Even though this in happened in Maryland, the advice is good and can certainly work in NJ & the Bayshore.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/06_17-78/CKI
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"Growth is too often seen as inevitable, Mr. Etgen said, and he believes local governments have to step up to counter the traditional way of thinking."

KI residents holding off 1,350-home project

By LIAM FARRELL Staff Writer
They come from jobs as disparate as construction and the music business.
Some have been active in politics for years and others jumped into the political realm because they saw it as the only way to preserve their pastoral lifestyle.
And once engaged, they managed to bring to a screeching halt the ambitious development plans of a national builder with an army of lawyers.

They also convinced the most powerful officials in Maryland their cause is just.

State Comptroller Peter Franchot said the perseverance and passion of those residents was a deciding factor in the recent Board of Public Works' decision to reject a wetlands permit for K. Hovnanian Co.'s 1,350-unit Four Seasons development on Kent Island.

"The advocates against the project were well represented, well briefed, and impressive," he said. "Knowledge is power. And they had a lot of knowledge on their side."

Although faced with discouraging odds -"Discouraging is a mild word," said Burt Jamison, who has run the Kent Island Defense League's Web site since 2000 - some residents found the effort to be rejuvenating.

For Jack Broderick, a member of KIDL who was on the original board, the increasing development on the island makes him feel like the American Indian in the famous television commercial decrying the poor treatment of the environment.

"I've shed a couple tears like that," he said. "I feel a sense of possible sadness, but to me it just recharges my battery."

Despite the long hours of meetings and votes that didn't go their way, the large expanses of wetlands and creeks available for fishing and crabbing are worth fighting for, he said.

Mr. Broderick, 62, has spent the past 31 years living on Kent Island. Before retiring from the Defense Department in 2001, he would often bookend his work trips to states as far away as California and Alaska with meetings on the Four Seasons project.

Sitting in a boat and watching the sun set near his home was a "real blessing" that provided relief from his hectic life, Mr. Broderick said.

"This wonderful Eastern Shore, the quality of life, is worth my passion and my personal energy," he said. "There are constant challenges. But it's still a wonderful place to live."

Four Seasons is not the only problem on Kent Island, Mr. Broderick said, but it is a "big piece of a very large pie." K. Hovnanian's work is emblematic of the growth that endangers the pleasures of living near the Chesapeake Bay, he said.

The extent of that growth was revealed in a recent report by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, a nonprofit preservation group, which stated about 160,000 acres will be developed in the area by 2030.

That rate of growth would almost equal the amount of development that occurred between 1907 and 2007.

"We've decided we want to be a rural, maritime, agrarian economy and culture," said Rob Etgen, the conservancy's executive director. "How . we get there is the question."

Growth is too often seen as inevitable, Mr. Etgen said, and he believes local governments have to step up to counter the traditional way of thinking.

"I don't think anybody on the Eastern Shore accepts it," he said.

Four Seasons, and the development it represents, is one of the reasons Commissioner Gene Ransom III, D-Grasonville, ran for office.

Mr. Ransom, 35, has spent his entire life in Queen Anne's County, and recalls a time when a community of farmers and watermen knew everyone who lived around them.

"One of the fears is we are changing into a suburban county. The people here don't want that," he said. "There's something special about this place."

Speaking out

Concerned Kent Island residents, frustrated by the potential environmental and infrastructure impacts of Four Seasons, began to come together when public meetings were held about the project in 1999.

When plans were first floated for the property that takes up about 370 acres of Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, they were much smaller, Mr. Broderick said. Representatives of the site's original developer, Domain Builders, had presented concepts to community advocacy organizations before being absorbed by K. Hovnanian in 1999.

That outline showed only about 400 homes, a golf course and plenty of open space, said Mr. Broderick, who was a member of the Chester Citizen Advocacy Committee.

But once that company was taken in by K. Hovnanian, he said, the project exploded with plans for up to 1,500 homes.

"It just warranted a much different approach," Mr. Broderick said.

In 2000, two separate opposition groups, WeSayNo and Citizens Against Rezoning the Environment formed KIDL to lobby against the large development.

"This smelled bad from the beginning," said Mike Koval, an original member of KIDL. "We just couldn't believe the size, the scope."

Once formed, KIDL tried to bring the project to the eyes of Kent Island residents, using flyers, e-mails, and petition drives to reach thousands of people.

Members would huddle together at each other's homes, at the local library, and even in the back room of the Island Inn.

Focussed more on strategy than socialization, KIDL became a grassroots think tank aimed at turning away the blueprints and bulldozers.

The core mission was simply educating people about what was happening in their community, said Nancy Koval, who ran an e-mail list of about 600 people and is married to Mike.

"That was pretty much our whole goal," Mrs. Koval said. "(The project) was just so under the radar."

Several losses in court, a 2002 developer's agreement signed by several lame-duck county commissioners, and a 2003 settlement that amounted to a gag order preventing the current commissioners from speaking against the project have been tough for advocates to handle.

But Four Seasons and development in general were the biggest reasons Mr. Koval, who works in construction, became a county commissioner from 2002 to 2006.

The decision to run was sudden, he said.

"It just looked like a developer's ticket," Mr. Koval said.

Although he had never planned to become a politician and says he lost a lot of income by becoming a public servant, Mr. Koval said the sacrifices were worth it to make sure government dealt with development differently.

For some, however, the fight has been a reason to leave the community they loved.

"It was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Rick Moser, who moved to Caroline County two years ago.

An adjoining property owner to Four Seasons, Mr. Moser was president of KIDL from 2000 to 2004.

"It's been like a rollercoaster ride," he said. "We'd get one good thing and then (get) a slap in the face again."

The trials of Four Seasons should not be misconstrued as a story of residents fighting developers, Mr. Moser said. Rather, the project is indicative of how, even with small odds of success, residents have a duty to fight for their quality of life, he said.

"The government is supposed to do the right thing for us," he said. "(But) the cards were all stacked against the citizens."

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