HoCo Board of Appeal Hearing will affect bikers!

[B' Spokes: from our mail box:]
Hello,

My name is Sandy Lutes and I am representing The Friends Of Jennings Chapel Road.org. We are a community living on or near Jennings Chapel Road, Woodbine, MD. Jennings Chapel Road and several other nearby roads are designated as scenic roads by Howard County, MD. Many bikers travel on Jennings Chapel Road during the day, evenings and weekends.

A local neighbor on Jennings Chapel Road is trying to obtain a conditional use for his property. This conditional use would allow up to 25 large outdoor (tent) parties on his land during the growing season each year. This means a potential of a large gathering (up to 150 people) each weekend during the spring, summer and fall of each year.

Jennings Chapel Road and several others that link to it offer bikers, joggers and walkers a great trip through a very scenic area. The road is windy, with no shoulders and no passing areas. The road offers both flat riding surfaces as well as hills. If this conditional use is allowed, it will have an adverse impact on the biking community. Bikers will have to contend with many drivers searching for a party venue on an unfamiliar road.
After a party, bikers may have to contend with inebriated drivers coming up behind them or coming at them face on. Either of these scenarios could be potentially disastrous.

There is a Board of Appeals hearing on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the George Howard Building, 3430 Courthouse Drive, Ellicott City, MD 21043. The telephone number is: 410-313-2350.

Please come and testify. It would be helpful to us and YOU to stop this conditional use before the flood gates are open. This is the test case. If it is allowed, then anyone with five acres and a historic house in The Rural Conservation District of Howard County can apply to have 25 outdoor social events each year. Can you imagine what this could mean to bikers?

Thank you for your consideration.
Sandy Lutes

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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One of the impediments to safe cycling in the area of Jenning Chapel Rd is the lack of shoulders as stated in the original post. One of the barriers to shoulders being created *may* be local land owners not allowing the county dept. of transportation to create them due to where property lines and prescriptive-right-of-way are. I don't know if this is the case in this area, just that it is in general often the answer to 'why no shoulders?' on the county's rural roads in the west.
I know in Baltimore County there is probably a half a dozen ways road right-of-way is attained with no clear procedure on how to get (better) shoulders on those roads. This is certainly an issue that needs to be looked at but currently with the State's stance of not allowing Federal aid for on-road cycling accommodations, that to me is the first barrier we need to fix.
Two items IRT to this post from Ms Lutz from a rider who is often in this area - my main concern is not occasional Saturday weddings: - many of the signs protesting 'Tents' for weddings in the area are in front of McMansions or the homes of new residents trying to close the door after themselves (NIMBY). Personally I would rather see rural landowners put up cell towers, hold weddings, etc. to keep their farms financially viable and keep density down - the people protesting are the same ones that during our Howard County weekday rides are making our lives much more dangerous driving their SUVs over the speed limit and passing us too close on these narrow roads. On right-of-way -- according to Howard County Public Works ALL roads in this area and the entire Columbia Triathlon bike course are prescriptive right-of-way which means in English that road bed (~13 ft) is the County's for maintenance but County has no right to expand road or shoulders without condemnation (which they won't do due to fear of litigation costs). Many of these same homeowners threaten lawsuits or move mailboxes to the edge of their property lines if County encroaches a few inches on their property.