Exasperated Perryman residents express concerns about warehouse project during Harford development committee meeting

Jan. 20—Harford County's Development Advisory Committee discussed the status of the Mitchell property development in Perryman Wednesday morning and heard from residents who feel the project would have a negative impact on their neighborhood.

Several Perryman residents posed questions to committee members in their continued opposition to the five-warehouse project proposed by the Chesapeake Real Estate Group. Many felt their questions weren't answered by the committee.

"I kind of feel everybody in the county feels for us but doesn't necessarily want to do anything for us," Perryman resident Chip Riley said.

Residents raised concerns such as how the project might damage their drinking water and how increased traffic could pose a danger to a neighborhood without many connecting roads.

One of the main concerns is that more traffic would lengthen response times for fire or emergency medical services. Bill Snyder, of the county's emergency services department, said the Aberdeen Fire Department had "great concerns about the overall road system infrastructure to and from this site and other sites in the Perryman area."

"Because of our infrastructure down there, there's only one way in and one way out," Riley said. "If you get a high volume of any kind of traffic, that hampers response time for emergency vehicles. With the almost doubling up on trucking and worker employee traffic in an area that's already high traffic, it's going to cause a problem."

The county is currently reviewing the developer's traffic impact analysis and expects to make its comments public next month, said county spokesperson Cindy Mumby. The county expects the developer to build an additional connector road in the Perryman neighborhood. One possibility discussed at the meeting would connect Canning House Road to Route 40. Easements would be required to build such a road.

The 3P Coalition, made up of Perryman residents opposed to this project, also delivered a nine-page environmental report to the committee, detailing how the project would impact water, wildlife, and air quality, along with recommendations on how to mediate these issues.

"The current property owners could not care less about the community," Perryman resident Justin Pickering said. "They're here for the money and the development, and there is no care and concern for any of the current or future residents."

Although not everyone left with their questions answered, Pickering found solace in the sense of community demonstrated by fellow residents, saying, "Enough is enough."

"I feel very grateful that so many members of the community came out and voiced their opposition," he said. "We're inundated with trucks and traffic safety issues as it is, and adding 5.2 million more square feet of warehouse is not going to make any of those concerns better. It's going to make them that much worse."