Politics & Government

Carroll Citizens Group: 'Carroll County Commissioners Embrace Extreme Political Views'

Citizens United for Carroll County reaches out to leadership in other counties.

The following letter was sent to the leadership of other counties in Maryland by  a newly formed organization in Carroll County, Citizens United for Carroll County.

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We are writing to you because we have learned that a few Maryland counties have expressed solidarity with the Carroll County Commissioners on the issue of PlanMaryland. These counties have joined in Carroll’s request for an extension of the comment period to consider Maryland 's first-ever master plan governing growth and sustainability.

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We wish to inform you, however, that Carroll County 's objections to PlanMaryland have nothing to do with clarification of language or other rational considerations. Carroll’s request instead emanates from extreme viewpoints which your county would likely be embarrassed to be associated with.

Simply put, the Carroll County Commissioners embrace extreme political views. They reject the science behind climate change and deny factual indicators of sea level rise. They believe that SmartGrowth and sustainability are part of a planning conspiracy organized by the United Nations, through an obscure document called Agenda 21, designed to take away American property rights. This is not a fear of Annapolis or of Democrats, but instead a belief that the UN is somehow taking over local planning authority. This may sound crazy, but it is absolutely verifiable.

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The following link is to the Carroll County Commissioners’ recommendations for the county’s master plan, as sent to the Planning & Zoning Commission a few weeks ago. The Planning and Zoning Commission has been instructed to include these 14 politically-charged, totally irrelevant strategic goals in Carroll's plan. One need only refer to page 7 to see firsthand how the Carroll County Commissioners attempt to highlight their fears of UN takeover (Agenda 21) of planning by insisting that this bizarre concept be included in the master plan.

http://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/compplan/masterplan2011/bccrec.pdf

For further evidence, follow this link to the first of a three-part video series in which Carroll County Commissioner Richard Rothschild, the most vocal of the anti-PlanMaryland opponents, speaks to a group called the Cecil County Patriots. You will hear Rothschild refer to environmentalists as the “useful idiots of the Marxist sustainability movement,” and to sustainability as a massive green Trojan horse - 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaiwEohrEXU&feature=related.

Perhaps most disturbing, is that an ultra-conservative blogger named James Simpson was recently hired by the Carroll Board of Commissioners as their paid media consultant to promote their views concerning Property Rights, climate change, and UN takeovers of planning. This particular blogger is known to spread political hate speech and examples may be found on his blog linked below. Mr. Simpson's opinions are openly partisan and clearly do not represent the views of all citizens whom the Carroll Commissioners are sworn to serve, particularly those of Democrats, whom he refers to as cockroaches, among other things.

http://truthandcons.blogspot.com/

It is for these reasons that the Carroll County Commissioners are attempting to persuade other Maryland counties to join them in their fight against PlanMaryland. It's one thing to want more time to evaluate PlanMaryland, but it's completely another to reject the state's expressed planning guidelines and directly promote policies which support residential development sprawl as an alternative to accepted SmartGrowth principles. Publicly embracing UN conspiracy theories and substituting junk science for acknowledged truths, in order to make a case for the elimination of sustainability practices and 30 years of responsible land use and planning, would also likely be unacceptable to you and your constituents.

Carroll County citizens respectfully request that you inform the Carroll County Commissioners of the differences in your respective positions. It is further asked that you consider stating publicly your desire not to have your concerns with PlanMaryland equated with Carroll County 's, so as to not risk being held accountable for supporting extreme positions which you do not condone.

We thank you for your time and consideration. Please feel free to contact us with questions or if you would like additional information.

Cornelius M. Ridgely
for Citizens United for Carroll County
a non partisan organization of concerned citizens


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