Despite strong objections by Comptroller Peter Franchot over the price, the Board of Public Works agreed to pay almost $100,000 per acre for 73 acres on Kent Island for a future park that conservationists and state officials say will provide needed public access to the Chesapeake Bay.
“We don?t have a bottomless pit of money,” Franchot said, and a disproportionate share has recently gone for sites in Queen Anne?s County on the other side of the Bay Bridge.
“Is this project the best possible expenditure of open space funds?” he asked. “Isit part of an acquisition plan?
“I simply can?t vote for this project,” Franchot said.
Gov. Martin O?Malley and Treasurer Nancy Kopp voted for the purchase.
The site sits at the mouth of the Chester River and is the former terminus of a Chesapeake Bay ferry. Langenfelder Marine uses it for hauling and storing marine construction materials. The company would lease 12 acres back from the state for five years, and eventually move its operations elsewhere after cleaning up the area.
Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin said the state has signed Bay regional compacts that have put acquiring public access to the bay a priority. Griffin said the state owns only six such park sites with land and water access.
Richard Altman of the Queen Anne?s Conservation Association said the site is ideal for a public sailing center and regattas.
“There are so few opportunities on the Bay to acquire such public access,” Altman said.
William Denny, a 10th-generation farmer on Kent Island, said it was important to preserve whatever open land was left on the island.
“We don?t want to lose our identity,” Denny said.
He dismissed the notion that the state was paying to much for the property.
“He could get a lot more money for this,” Denny said, who farms 200 acres that he said would make him a rich man if he sold it to a developer.
