Here's the link the the PDF proposal (you might have to copy and paste)

http://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/aacps/Board.nsf/files/8W2FRU406CE5/$file/4.08%
20Developer%20Provided%20Elementary%20School%20-%20Two%20Rivers%20Third%20Pa
rty%20Project%20Proposal%20-%20Presentation.pdf

John - thanks. The pdf is also uploaded above next to the article, but folks will want to download the whole thing to their desktop because it will be easier to read.

We'll be at the meeting Wednesday.

What is with a "team of developers" trying to ramrod this through? Who exactly is on this "team"? Why is every square inch of green in West County now have to have to be ripped out and paved over? Is there enough room in the middle school and high school for these kids? Won't a high school need to be built? Why does every project in this blessed state start out as one thing but because it is really bait and switch, it is something else? What about roads? Does Waugh Chapel need EVEN more cars on it? When is enough enough? Does building an elementary school mean that a developer can do whatever they want?

Per an email I received from Jeff Andrade (Piney Orcharge HOA prez) there's a proposed road that will run from Rt 3, cut through Gorc Park and connect with Strawberry Lake. If this is the case, everyone in Piney Orchard should be up in arms.

This would also likely lead to yet another redistricting for elementary school kids? Good Lord. Also, another huge housing community so close to Piney Orchard would likely devalue the homes here.

When will we learn that calling a housing development the "Preserve at ..." is a mockery?

....a road running from Rt 3 connecting to Strawberry Lake which cuts through GORC park? Seriously?

I'm wondering what's more troubling to people...the development, the school, or the extension of Evergreen Road?

^^ The road!

Just imagine that no one in our community uses Waugh Chapel and instead uses the cut-through. So there's cars driving through a split GORC Park? That's fantastic as soccer balls, lacrosse balls and baseballs whiz across the road.

You have to be dumber than a box of rocks to even suggest a cut-through that runs through a children's park. Of course - follow the money.

What about the impact on the middle and high schools?

It'll feed into Arundel Middle and High which just means those school will be more crammed with kids.

How can Arundel Middle and Arundel High School handle any more children? I know when my kids went there years ago it was full. We are building up all these new homes in Odenton, they are putting up the apartments right there on 170 where the plant used to be........Where are all the kids that move in these place going to go to school at? They need to stop!!!!! And why do we need all this shopping? I don't even have money to shop!!!! I don't need 7 pharmacies to choose from. One or two are just fine. All I thought we could use is a new grocery store and that's the one thing that isn't being built or even mentioned!!! We don't need any more stores, we don't need any more houses/apts/condos, we don't want anymore new roads and anymore new traffic. Enough is enough!!!!!!!

Looking at a map, Evergreen Rd extended would go between the end of the Capitol dragstrip and the proposed Tolson landfill. Where is the proposed Two Rivers development going to be in relation to the landfill and the dragstrip.

This is sickening. God forbid we leave a tree or two around here. When do we reach maximum density with regard to roads, schools, infrastructure, and quality of life.

Just disgusting.

Scott, a lot of water has gone under the bridge in the last 10 years. I've lived in the area for 22 years.

It isn't a rational plan. Not in the context of everything else that has been built, promised, destroyed, paved over, lied about, pushed on. Not in the context that this area is a doormat and that the local and not so local politicians don't give a fig about us. Not you. Not me. Pave it over and move on.

I don't live near GORC. So this isn't about NIMBY. This is about stopping the maddness. All of it. We may live in a suburban environment. But that suburban environment doesn't give license to just bulldose and knock down at will. Just because some previous County Exec was on the take back then does not mean we should just say "oh well, someone thought it was a great idea at the time." and go for it. Reasonable people can and should make reasonable re-evaluations. With proper thought and knowledge they should be able to look at a proposal,/plan/whatever and see it for exactly what it is. And in this case, it is a sham.

I'm more concerned by the fact that the proposal does not address the problem of how to fit the kids into AMS and AHS. I could live with the road and the houses(although I long to move back to the country). I just don't think this can move forward without the Board of Education committing to a new middle/high school.

Arundel High is not "closed" to new students like Meade and other facilities are. But we are hoping to get details this week on what it will mean for classroom sizes and the middle and high schools, and whether redistricting or other maneuvers will be necessary.

How can Arundel Middle and High schools possibly accomodate more students? We've got new apartments going up at the Waugh Chapel center and at the corner of Route 173 and 170 in Odenton. HUGE apartment complexes.

The lack of planning by the county to provide proper school accomodations is ridiculous. Now another 2,060 single family homes with let's say 2.5 children each? Where will we put these 5,000 or so children?

Next thing you know Anne Arundel will be renting out huge churches and using them as High School and Middle Schools because there is know way that these two schools could accommodate the influx of kids. Besides the fact that were would all the extra buses and cars go. Another bright idea focused on revenue and not the people

I didn't grow up in Odenton but a lot of parents in this area attended Arundel Middle and High. The parents have told me that back in the day there were two school sessions for Arundel High because there were so many student back then. Is this going to happen again! SMH!!!!

The main point of contention with everyone I have spoken to seems to be the road that would cut through GORC.

On 04/19 the BOE approved a change from a 55 or older community resulting in more children going to AMS and AHS:

"" Changes in the school boundaries that will apply to The Enclave at Reidel Pond, a 182-unit planned residential subdivision to be located in Crofton, move the community from Nantucket Elementary to Crofton Meadows Elementary and from Crofton Middle to Arundel Middle. The Board’s action, approved by a 5-2 vote with Board members Teresa Milio Birge and Jillian Buck opposing, shifted the school attendance areas from schools considered “closed” pursuant to the County’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance to schools considered “open,” thus allowing the development to go forward as non-age restricted.
Board members Kevin Jackson and Solon Webb were absent from the meeting.""
The Enclave at Reidel Pond is a 182-unit planned residential subdivision located in Crofton. As currently designed, the project calls for age-restricted (55 and older) homes, but the developer is pursuing converting it to non-age restricted. The requested redistricting action will shift the school attendance areas from schools considered “closed” pursuant to the County’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance to schools considered “open,” thus allowing the development to go forward as non-age restricted.

It appears AMS and AHS are going to get even more children

And just where are our elected officials on all of this? Just who is keeping track of how many developments are going up? And where these kids are going to school? And where the traffic is going to go? The only thing green about this part of West County is the money that is lining someone(s) wallets.

Thank you Mr Andrade for always having your finger on the pulse of the community. Advocating for the residents of POCA must take up so much time that you could spend with family or on your career. I applaude your extraordinary efforts!

Now a question: Where are these proposed homes and school in relation to the proposed landfill?

How about put an addition on Arundel High School and let the Crofton/Gambrills children back in. They got pushed into South River which is over a 30 minute ride to school on the bus!!!!!!!!

I think we should create a drinking game: Every time Scott lashes out at Jeff Andrade and POCA, take a shot. Two shots, every time he links to POCA By-laws. Three shots, every time he is contrary just for the sake of being contrary.

On topic - every time ground is broken on a new development in our immediate area, we all should be concerned. Period.

Great idea TJ! Let's all schlep over to Hops N Vines and stock up on libations. I'm sure Scott will be ELATED knowing he's bringing them extra business!

@David, thanks for the kind words, but the folks in Piney Orchard are always there to back me up with letters and calls, which helps a lot. The proposed homes are south of Conway Road on about 1500 acres near the old Campbell Sand and Gravel pit all the way down to the Patuxent River border with Prince Georges (see http://www.thepreserveattworivers.com/community-sit.html). The school on the other hand appears to be on a polygon shaped lot parallel to Route 3 off an extension of Evergreen Rd that is between the new Waugh Chapel Shopping Center and Capitol Raceway directly behind the current go-kart track. As noted earlier, since the school buses cannot be on Route 3, they have to a long cut through road to Strawberry Lake Way and bus the students up Patuxent and through PO and across this road, I suspect the longer term plan would be redistrict this community into PO Elementary (the closest school) and redistrict the rest of Piney Orchard over to the new school, Four Seasons, and/or Waugh Chapel Elementary.

How does 2,060 homes translate to 373 students? That makes absolutely no sense at all. Even if half of the homes (doubtful) had no kids, and half of the homes with kids sent their kids to private school (again, doubtful), that's still 500 homes that you'd have to assume would only have 1 kid (and again, doubtful). That's way more than the "projected" 373 new students. Someone needs to get out of the projecting business.

But the apple here is the new school. Give us approval to build whatever the heck we want. We said it was for a 55+ community. We said we'd be good. Let us build what we want, where we want. And we'll appease you and build you a brand shiny new school. To heck with the rest of it. We'll cut through whatever we want. The BOE is going to be so caught up in the new shiny school building that they won't notice how they were caught - hook, line and sinker.

Has every house, townhouse and condo in the Odenton/Gambrills/Waugh Chapel/Crofton area been sold such that all this development is necessary? Am I missing out on the bidding wars?

Missy - keep in mind, you're talking about only the kids aged K-5 in that 373 total. According to page 3 of the presentation, you'd also have 185 middle-schoolers and 229 high-schoolers in year 2023.

I don't know enough about this issue yet to say whether or not that projection is sound, but will find out.

What about a new high school ?

Take the new homes and school. It's more ammo to fight the landfill.

There will be change.

There is already a housing development being built on a Superfund site. Not near it. But on it.

What makes you think that having a new homes and a school nearby a landfill is going to make that landfill project go away? You let this go ahead and you already show the county, why not, add a landfill to the mix. These people are easily bought.

Where the heck is Benoit in all of this?

This development will wipe out over 1000 acres of forest and wildlife habitat along a river wetland area. Also forget the golf course, that was scratched from the plans when they dropped the 55+ group. Just more houses and more traffic, and of course, more tax revenue for the County.

"This development will wipe out over 1000 acres of forest and wildlife habitat along a river wetland area..."
How in the heck can something like that be approved? I know, I know, it is all about $$$$$$$$$$$. Makes me sick.
And people are upset when deer eat their gardens and run in the street. Not just deer, but all the other wildlife too, have no place else to go.
WHY is all of this being built when there are existing properties that aren't selling?
I cannot understand it, except for pure GREED.

Perhaps the last two commenters are unaware that a development was already approved. It will be developed, the only question is will it be 55+ or can they open it to everyone by building the school.

If you take the WB&A trail west until it stops at Conway road, you will see the first stage of the development. Over 100 acres of land cleared of all trees, plants, etc
Everything stripped to bare ground for "development". Lots more "development" to come.

What medication are you taking, Ron? I want to make sure to avoid it since it's obviously not effective.

Wow it is amazing to me how many people complain about the building of new homes. For those living in PO, how do you think the people who lived in Odenton felt when all your houses were built? They felt the same way you do now. But now you have a place to call home and we have new neighbors and friends. It amazes me how those who are complaining about the new development didnt seem to care about what impact the building of their homes had on the area. If there is land, man will try to build something there. Stop the complaining and embrace the fact that you will have new neighbors and the county should have more money so that YOU can still enjoy the luxuries of living in this area.

What you think I should have known about or anticipated when I moved to Odenton 22 years ago is neither here nor there. The idea that I should have expected that the town of Odenton or Crofton or Gambrills should become the next urban center is just plain crazy. That I should not speak up when I see something wrong is also just plain crazy. When I moved here, there was a plan for the Odenton Town Center. That sign is still up at the intersection of 32 and 175. What you call NIMBY is simply saying no. Roads? Schools? Who the heck runs this ship? We have empty buldings already - look at that eyesore of an Odenton Shopping Center. We have thousands of houses/condos/townhomes already in the planning stages and already "approved." We have empty houses and townhomes already. And we need more? If you want this in your backyard, that is fine with you. But I don't want this in my back or side or front yard. I don't want this with a fox, in a box or with lox. Baltimore already has plenty of paved over wide open space for you. So go north. The rest of us will make sure with what little control we do have that this madness stops. We don't have public transportation. No real bus system. Not even sidewalks. This area is a disorganized mess. Go back to your home building industry and build somewhere else. Leave my town alone. I am not in PO. I would no more let Jeff speak for me than I would let you. It doesn't matter what you knew and when you knew it. I say no. Hell no.

The real fun begins when Piney Orchard owners try to sell their old home for $300K while nice, pretty, shiny new homes are a stone's throw away. Happy selling.

It's not that home values in P.O. would go down - just that a flood of new homes in the area would make it extremely difficult to sell here. That said, P.O. does have some fantastic amenities that the new community might not have.

What is the current status? Can anyone update?