Gov. Martin O?Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot voted Wednesday to reject a wetlands permit that will stop one of the largest developments planned in decades on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay ? the 562-acre, 1,350-unit Four Seasons project near the Bay Bridge on Kent Island.
The project took years to gain approval of zoning and permits, survived several lawsuits, and helped seal the election defeat of the Queen Anne?s County commissioners who first approved it. The wetlands permit covering less than an acre was needed to allow construction of a pier and a bridge.
“This is a very difficult decision,” O?Malley said at a Board of Public Works meeting. “At the end of the day, it is a judgment call,” he said. “The mission of the state is to preserve those wetlands and preserve that estuary.”
It was Franchot who had flagged the item several weeks ago, and he was most outraged by a court settlement that essentially imposed a gag order on members of the Queen Anne?s County government. Even after an attorney general?s opinion said the commissioners could testify, the officials refused to testify or speak to Franchot, who said they had been “intimidated” and “bullied.”
“It?s a sad day in Maryland,” Franchot said.
O?Malley?s environment and planning departments both testified that while they would have preferred the Four Seasons project in a different spot, it met all the state requirements and that?s why they approved it.
