7583 Tred Avon Circle

Easton, MD 21601

Mayor Eugene Butler

and Easton Town Council

Dear Mayor Butler and Council Members:

I have lived in Talbot County for 8 years. When I moved here, it was with the knowledge

that I was accepting a trade-off between the convenience of many types of retail shops (and restaurants) and the peace and serenity of a rural environment. I have never regretted my decision and seldom leave the area to shop. I would be happy if the entire Eastern Shore never saw another big box or tacky strip development like Easton’s Route 50 corridor and many of the shopping centers on Marlboro Road. I would much rather see farmland and natural areas preserved than welcome any new shopping opportunity.

I will quickly give my answers to some of the questions you have posed for the public because I am up against your deadline. But first I would like to say that I strongly disagree with the statement by Robert Higgins, Talbot County Council President, that you can’t "go in and change the rules", (referring to prohibiting ‘big box’ retail stores on commercial property). You can change those rules. Communities all over the country are doing it all the time. You aren’t preventing commercial development on the site, you are restricting the type of development which can occur. That is completely appropriate when a community decides what it wants to look like. And it is very clear to me that other than the developers, landowners of potential big box sites and their attorneys, no one in this community wants it to be the retail shopping center of the Eastern Shore.

Quick answers to your questions:

We do not need additional big box retailing for the town’s present and future needs.

Who defines our needs? The residents should. And we do not want Easton to become the regional marketing center for the Mid-Shore.

New design and landscape standards are better than before but will not change the environmental impact of runoff, traffic, etc. Traffic has increased dramatically in the last 5 years. This will become intolerable with more development. Please refer to Star Democrat front page article dated 10/12/99 regarding DNR reports of sick streams due to urbanization.

Any number of additional big box developments will detract from Easton’s quality of life.

Easton would receive no fiscal benefits and would, in fact, acquire large fiscal liabilities.

Many other studies have been done as referred to in the video by the American Planning Association. I hope you will become familiar with these.

Big boxes would have a severely negative impact on existing small businesses in the area.

Effects on employment - some new minimum wage jobs without benefits will be created. One example of the effect on the community is the woman who was displaced by Hurricane Floyd. When she moved to a more affordable area, she had to commute quite a distance to work for K-Mart in Delaware because after her many years of hard work, K-Mart would not transfer her benefits to another store. Do we want that type of attitude towards employees in our region?

When the big box is vacated who will use the space? Will it leave us with a wasteland of paving and unusable construction? Very likely.

I would like to suggest that any impact studies such as traffic or environmental impacts be done by an independent consultant, hired by the Town or County, at the expense of the developer. Developer-hired consultants simply can’t be trusted.

We must be innovative in our search for the balance required to meet the needs of an already thriving community without losing our rural character. We are already a successful town and region. We don’t need new large-scale development in order to "improve" our quality of life.

Thank you for your consideration of my views.

Sincerely,

Catherine L. Hunt

/clh