Opponents of a recently passed Big Box law in Queen Anne’s County are in a race to get 3,000 signatures to stop the law from taking effect. The new law strikes down the 65,000-square-foot floor area limit established eight years ago under the Queen Anne’s County Comprehensive Plan and would allow commercial development of “unlimited” size in areas zoned Suburban Commercial.
Stan Ruddie of Up Against the Wall has been scrambling to get enough signatures to stop the law from taking effect until it can be put to a referendum in the 2012 general election. Ruddie and several dozen volunteers need to collect only half the required signatures by next Wednesday in order to be granted a 40-day extension by the QAC Board of Elections in order to collect the remaining signatures. The 3,000 signatures needed represent 10 percent of QAC registered voters, which is the legal litmus test to challenge the law.
“We’re looking to get 1,500 signatures by the September 14 deadline,” Ruddie said, as he collected signatures at the Safeway on Kent Island. “People have been very enthusiastic to sign; I’m very optimistic even though we’ve had some really big setbacks, with the earthquake, hurricane and now all the rain, but now we are really rolling. We really want to put in at least 2,000 signatures because some will not be accepted. The signatures will be submitted to the Board of Elections in Centreville so its staff can go through and make sure the signators are bona fide QAC voters…and on the current voter rolls.”
The effort to strike down size limitations has pit pro-growth developers who see large retail stores as job creators and new revenue streams for QAC, against a coalition of citizens, nonprofits, and small businesses who believe large retailers are big corporations that siphon local dollars out of circulation, undercut small businesses, and blight the rural landscape and increased traffic congestion.
Queen Anne’s Conservation Executive Director Jay Falstad said the Comprehensive Plan is a citizen-based plan and any changes to the plan should allow citizens to vote on the new law.
“In the end, there is no reason for not allowing this matter to be decided by the people,” Falstad said. “It was the people, after all, who determined the language in Comprehensive Plan, and the three Pro-Box Commissioners are ignoring the citizen’s Comp Plan. If the petition effort is successful in getting this matter on the ballot, it’s simply providing citizens with the opportunity to decide what they want for their county…and that’s the way it ought to be.”
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