ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The quiet back street of Forest Hill Drive in Hillsmere leads to Joanne Brew’s longtime home on the South River, but she feared plans to build a conservation center and parking lot in nearby Quiet Waters Park would have brought undue traffic into the neighborhood, while undermining the very nature its trying to preserve.
“Someone accused us of NIMBY---Not In My Back Yard. Well, absolutely. I don’t want it in my back yard,” said Brew, “It’s an office building. It belongs in an office situation.”
Before abandoning its plan, the Chesapeake Conservancy had hoped that a new center would help bring all of the local environmental groups together for the betterment of the community.
Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman is still absorbing what he views as a loss for the community.
“What we had with the Chesapeake Conservancy was $10 million to build something that was going be a place for all these non-profit and small environmental organizations to collaborate and that would have been great,” said Pittman, “It may happen somewhere else. It’s still up in the air.”
But here on the ground in a park devoted to nature’s splendor, the environment will remain untouched for now, and that’s victory enough for Joanne Brew and hundreds of others just like her.
“If I say anything, I’m a bully or I’m another word that starts with a ‘b’, but I’m just a local citizen,” said Brew, “I’ve been next to that park for 60 years. I’ve walked through it. I’ve paddled around it. I’ve skied on the other side of it. This is my home.”
To learn more about Chesapeake Converancy's Chesapeake Conservation Partnership and their goals to preserve more land, check out their Atlas story here.
