October 27, 1999

HAROLD W. DRAPER

9241 CHAPEL ROAD

EASTON, MD 21601-6363

Town of Easton

14 S. Harrison Street

Easton, MD. 21601

To Whom It May Concern:

The purpose of this letter is to express opposition to Big Box development in Easton because of the resulting disastrous impact traffic and urban sprawl will have on the community. This past October Tuesday evening I monitored traffic in front of my house at Black Dog and Chapel roads and counted 258 vehicles in thirty minutes. (5:25 till 5:55 PM; 81 on Chapel mad, 177 on Black Dog Alley). I measured noise levels which frequently attained levels of 74-76 db (A weighted; slow response}

PDK suggested that their proposed development of Easton Commons would (only) add 80 cars per hour to Chapel Road but last Monday evening's video stated that one Big Box store would generate 10,000 car trips per day???! If we have one of those at Chapel Road and route 50 what do you suppose will happen to local traffic patterns? High traffic counts, pressure to widen roads for miles around, shifting traffic to the periphery and feeding on farmland-this is exactly what has developed in Montgomery county where I worked for 31 years and lived for 25.

In the early days of my career Rockville Md. Was declared one of America's best small towns. Just like Easton, this attracted many people including the developers. Sprawl resulted and soon the sign proclaiming best small town disappeared while traffic and development continued. The central part of town languished (particularly Rockville Mall) and Rockville Pike with stop lights every two blocks became a rolling traffic jam. Now, too many years later, guess who has declared a six month moratorium on Big Boxes? Rockville, Maryland! (See enclosure). You don't have to go to Fort Collins , Colorado to see where development can lead you-cross the bridge to Montgomery County and look at Rockville and Silver Spring.

Four years ago we purchased a house built by Sheriff Duncan's son Brad after carefully evaluating the neighborhood and traffic. I considered traffic patterns marginal then but I didn't have a clue as to how much traffic would increase in just four years. The fact that zoning classifications can be changed at will for Big Boxes and malls next to residential areas makes it impossible for a retiree like myself to find a secure place to live-with open spaces and freedom from traffic jams and its pollution. When you are retired and carrying a mortgage its not easy to move any old time either.

Enclosed are various articles (including mine) marked to show relevance to the subject at hand. "Easton-Or Like Everywhere Else USA?" Is particularly well written and meaningful.

Sincerely,

Harold W. Draper M.D.

Bonnie J. Draper

The Star Democrat

29088 Airpark Drive

Easton, MD 21601

Dear Editor:

I oppose the proposed Rt5O/Chapel Road shopping mall because of increased residential traffic problems that surely will result. I have lived here 2½ years and observe ever increasing traffic congestion on Black Dog Alley/Chapel Rds. I regularly remove fast food litter from my yard and have dealt with toilet paper and condoms. Sometimes smashed beer bottles prevent driveway usage until the glass is swept up. Daily, motorist ignore the 4-way stop signs at Black Dog/Chapel roads. One collision sent a vehicle into the yard ; a neighborhood blackout resulted another time after a pole was hit. Others stop, then roar away screeching tires, and on wet days some slide into the ditch leaving ruts on property. Day and night thumping auto sound Systems are audible inside the house 100 yds. away; meanwhile large trucks roar down Black Dog Alley-no wonder pedestrians die on these roads. ( Elsewhere trucks are limited by weight and usage hours to keep residential areas safe and quiet.)

Taxpayer money spent widening these roads will generate more traffic to further pollute our "clean and quiet" neighborhoods. Development frequently overrides the concerns of ordinary taxpayers and property owners - a mall can generate lots of tax dollars for governments. If in doubt tour Montgomery County where I worked and resided the previous 25 years.

I can assure you that Easton and environs are now caught up in this same mentality that generates never-ending traffic congestion problems.

Put Easton Commons where it can be accessed from main roads without inundating residential areas with increased traffic pollution. "You can run but you cannot hide" (in Easton).

Sincerely,

Harold W. Draper M.D.

9241 Chapel Road

Easton, MD 21601

410-763-8037

My name is Harold Draper. My wife and I live at the intersection of Black Dog Alley chapel Road in a visible house we bought from Brad Duncan 3 years ago.

Our position on current traffic problems at this intersection is already a matter of public record since my "Letter To The Editor" was published in the "Star Democrat" 8/2/98. 1 noted the increase in traffic congestion, fast food litter, beer bottles, screeching tires, noisy exhausts and auto sound systems as well as day and night large trucks roaring up and down Black Dog Alley. I commented that I could see why a number of traffic deaths occurred on these roads.

The "Star Democrat" failed to publish the last sentence of my letter however and I think it is relevant to tonight's discussion: " You can run but you cannot hide-in Easton."

I am a retired physician who practiced medicine in Montgomery county and lived in that county 25 years before coming to Easton. Originally Rockville, the county seat, had a billboard outside town proclaiming most desirable small town etc. similar to Easton now. We lived in a pleasant subdivision 10 minutes from Montgomery Mall with a wooded back yard and some park-land which increased our property taxes because it was a "special area." 250 yards in back of our property was a curving road about Black Dog’s Alley size. As time went by Rockville and Potomac became "Boom Town USA" and taxes and congestion etc. kept increasing. ultimately we were informed the road behind us was to be widened to exit close to Montgomery Mall. After homeowner association meetings and lawyer's fees we wound up with an Easton Bypass type road 250 yards from the back of our house , less woods, much more traffic and noise, increased speed limits and neighborhood crime. At that time our property taxes cost almost as much as our mortgage payment and yes-we still were assessed for living in a special area.

Finally, I had enough of living and working in most favored status Montgomery county and I decided to retire and move to the Eastern Shore. I owned recreational property in a nearby county and figured a decent quality of life could be lived here in retirement.

I left a dangerously congested capital Beltway for Rt. 50.

I left exorbitant property taxes and moved to a house where my property taxes doubled in one year.

I left local traffic and road humps for a busy intersection with increasing traffic congestion and roadside trash and vandalism

(along Black Dog Alley) which in 3 years has progressed far more rapidly than I envisioned. If I had known a Mall was

proposed one mile away I would never have bought the house and I now understand what was meant when I was told I bought my retirement home on the wrong side of Rt. 50. Its a little hard to change my mind now-banks don't like to give mortgages to retirees. Our Potomac house finally sold, but only after considerable time and for considerably less than its assessed value. The feedback from the realtors was always the same-no potential buyer wanted that noisy road in view.

A lot of these matters center around attitudes-as far as I am concerned every piece of trash wantonly thrown on our property is an obscene gesture indicating a lack of respect for persons or property and I suspect a lot of this comes from outside Talbot county.)The proverbial gold standard-he who has the gold calls the is often sponsored by those who neither live in or deal with the side effects of moneyed decisions. Malls make money drawing in lots of people to shop at stores paying employees a minimum wage. The more people drawn in, the more problems created from crime to congestion and increased taxes to maintain the changing infrastructure. Certainly in Montgomery county our taxes went up and quality of life went down despite the "successful" malls. I fear I may join those who have failed to learn from history and therefore will be forced to repeat it.

A well known politician has described the Eastern Shore as the out-house of Maryland as far as the rest of the state going to the beaches is concerned. You are expressing the same attitude to homeowners living along Chapel and Black Dog Alley roads if you build this shopping mall and allow entry or egress via Chapel road. People will still try to avoid Rt. 50 by cutting through on Black Dog Alley and the call will go out to widen this road to accommodate increased traffic with no consideration of the local homeowners quality of life issues. If the roads are not widened we may start seeing traffic patterns similar to October 11 PM when Rt. 50 was detoured through these same roads because of the multiple fatility accident thereon.

For us it is deja vu all over again. Welcome to Easton, Md. the eighth best small community in . . . . .

Harold W. Draper, M.D.

10/19/98

Christopher B. Kehoe

Town Attorney

P.O. Box 1146

Easton Md. 21601-1146

 Dear Mr. Kehoe:

Your letter (12/22/98) asks if I object to the upcoming appeal of the town council's decision not to go forward with plans for Easton Commons. Naturally I object to this appeal but I also recognize everyone is entitled to due process. In this situation I see a classic demonstration of big money attempting to trample the rights of local landowners in pursuit of this project and I applaud the council taking a stand against development of Easton Commons. Most of the clamor favoring this project comes from persons who do not live near this proposed mall or it¹s travel routes.

At the public hearing Petrie et al had much to say about Chapel road and it’s route 50 intersection but ignored Chapel Road and Black Dog Alley routes until council brought this up. In their presentation (which to me showed much bias in traffic matters) we are not told how they derived the numbers of 30,000 + cars per day visiting the mall or-the not worth mentioning-80 cars per hour additional using the Black Dog Alley end of Chapel Road. Another one or two (?) cars per minute added to those already using these roads could make it hard to get out of our driveways to go shopping at times. I can show you rutted easements, automobile pieces as well as all the bottles and trash that accumulate on our property now-I hate to think what would happen with a mall down the street. Another matter is the noise of trucks awakening us at night as they roar down Black Dog Alley. Passing reference was made at the hearing to limiting truck traffic in these neighborhoods at night which is something whose time has come NOW.

If there is anything I (or my neighbors) can do to assist you in opposition to Easton Commons please feel free to call on me. Let's leave the western shore "conveniences with all it's attendant problems on the western side of the Bay Bridge.

Sincerely,

Harold W. Draper, M.D.

9241 Chapel Road

Easton, MD. 21601