Local activist Stan Ruddie sent this account of a 3 year old battle with Wal-Mardt: “Once upon a nice spring day in April 1999 a sign popped up along Route 50 at the foot of the four mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge, linking Maryland’s Western shore including the Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington, DC metropolitan areas. The Eastern Shore, a rural and beautiful part of Maryland (and referred to by Maryland’s former governor Donald Schaffer as the s — t house side of Maryland) was soon to become the repository of yet another big box monstrosity.Citizens, organized initially by Stan Ruddie, united and began bombarding the elected officials with emails, phone messages and faxes. Thank Microsoft and mail merge. The Up Against the Wal was formed casually to coordinate these efforts. Early into the fray the local Planning and Zoning Commission granted the Walmart preliminary approval of the site to include a hotel and six pad sites to house among other things fast food burgher joints.The Queen Annes Commissioners as their role as Water Commissioners granted the sewer allocation. UATW appealed this ruling and lost at the bench of Judge Sause, our Circuit Court judge. In November of 2000 the commissioners reversed their permission to grant the water and sewer needed to issue building permits. The Walmart appealed and in December of 2000 in a verbal opinion Judge Sause ruled with the County. In his written decision published in April 2001 he reversed himself and ordered the commissioners to restore the water rights. The commissioners obeyed the ruling but appealed to Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals. On June 12, 2002 this court overruled Judge Sause and agreed that the commission has a right to deny any commercial project based upon public safety and need. The Wal may appeal to Maryland’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, but will prevail only for matters of state wide issues. In this unlikely event the last appeal for the citizens of this county will be the US Supreme Court.
For further information please contact Stan Ruddie, 410 643 0302 or at [email protected]
