We return to our regular school year schedules in a few days. Below left is the future of the MD Route 4 at Cox Rd intersection. This intersection has some of the highest average daily traffic counts in all of Calvert County.  Do you drive through this intersection?  

Above is pg 27 of the Transportation Plan update Power point presentation from 08/14. Black arrows at the light show current lanes. Red arrows show proposed lanes. This shows 11 lanes across MD4.

The County is currently updating the Transportation Plan. Did you know that the Cox Rd intersection currently gets a failing “F” grade in the afternoon? With historical growth in population, it will get an “F” grade in both the AM & PM rush, even with some improvements. And it will still get a failing “F” in the PM, with even greater and more costly road improvements. (Review the Transportation Plan power point for more info.)

You have until 6 September 2019 to submit comments on the Transportation Plan to pz@calvertcountymd.gov with “Transportation Plan Comments” in the subject line. (Note that neither the Powerpoint nor the county website seem to welcome your comments, as they don’t tell you where to send them.) There is also a Facebook video recording of the presentation.

History: The area to the east of the Cox Rd intersection was just added to the Town Center of Huntingtown by the Board of County Commissioners when they adopted the Comprehensive Plan on 08/06/2019.  Before that, the area to the east of MD4 was zoned Rural Community District and Rural Residential, with one teeny tiny lot less than 1 acre zoned Rural Commercial. (The Commissioners also removed the “Minor” designation of Huntingtown.) How will those changes affect traffic at this intersection?

Bonus:  Are you good with numbers? This presentation on page 6 says that 22,697 county residents commute to other counties for work. If the population is about 91K people, that equates to about 25%. But the chart on the same page does not seem to jive. Also, the Comprehensive Plan on page 4-14 says that about 60% of residents commute to areas outside of Calvert for work. Even if we use different population numbers, there is a big difference between 23% and 60%.

Here is a Calvert Recorder article about this Plan.

As usual, please talk about this with your neighbors and friends in Calvert county. Tell them to pay attention, attend meetings and workshops, send in comments and speak up to tell our County government what we want to see in Our Calvert from now until 2040. As soon as more information is available on the Town Center Master Plan process, we will have a Huntingtown Citizens Association meeting for all members.