It is time to provide an important development stemming from a citizens’ appeal challenging the HDC’s decision to demolish the historic Chestertown Armory.

In response to the appeal filed in Circuit Court, Washington College now claims the citizen petitioners do not have legal “standing” despite being property owners and residents of our Historic District. The College argues, with a series of court filings, that some Historic District residents are more equal than others by virtue of geography. If this argument prevails, then only those Historic District residents who live within 1000 feet of an applicant property will be permitted to be heard at HDC meetings. This precedent will mean that decisions can be made that impact your property for which you may have no say. To the contrary, we believe that all Historic District residents have unlimited standing by virtue of living within the District – we are all united and should not be divided by an attempt to justify demolition of the Armory. A hearing is scheduled for September 4th at the Kent County Court House and your interests are also at stake.

Myself, with others, have long supported a boutique hotel project but preferred that the Armory, listed on the National Register, be reused in the design. It is structurally sound and ALL challenges, due to 12 years of neglect by Washington College, can be corrected using industry-proven protocols. Repurposing is financially viable, achievable and Green. I know firsthand because I have done it before on hallmark projects. Perhaps no one else on the front lines of the matter can make this statement and with a willingness to address it openly with interested parties. Visit the armories in Easton and Centreville to see what a successful new-life looks like.

You should also know that the College’s stated hope to save the Armory’s front façade, called FACADOMY, is NOT preservation in the industry. It is regarded as a preservation fig leaf. The HDC pinned its decision on saving the front façade, but preservation architects and engineers alike acknowledge facadomy to be very complicated, structurally challenging and very expensive. It is relevant to note that NO study has been submitted by the College to the HDC to prove saving just the front façade is viable, which makes this a completely tentative proposal that merely SOUNDS good. By reusing the 1931 building, there is no doubt of keeping the entire historic structure for posterity.

Demolition is not the historically or environmentally responsible option and, quite frankly, is a huge MISS to promote and market the uniqueness of Historic Chestertown. As Richard Moe, renown preservationist, attorney and past president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said upon his visit to town years ago, “Chestertown had the good sense to preserve its historic district.” I add that this “good sense” is needed today along with vision and united commitment to what indeed makes us so special.

For more information or to support this effort to defend the integrity of our Historic District, go to Facebook Repurpose the Chestertown Armory and the links.

Thomas Kocubinski, AIA

Preservation Architect, Chestertown, MD

The Chestertown landscape is rapidly changing. Fabulous pieces of public art are popping up and old buildings are flopping down. And while the preservationist fuddy-duddies were wringing their hands and filing objections about The Armory, 98 Cannon and the poor soul who got run out of town just because he wanted to build a home on an abandoned coal yard — a pretty looking house, mind you — while all this purposeless flailing and wailing was underway, two of the town’s architectural treasures were lost to the wrecking machines.

First to go: the darling little muffin of a structure on Washington Avenue we knew as Rita’s. Once touted by Southern Living magazine as “the most relevant art deco ice cream shop in the mid-Atlantic states,” Rita’s was a priceless piece of the town. Architectural Digest called it “the jewel box of The Chesapeake Region.” Southern Living went on to list it among its “10 Most Charming Roadside Attractions in Delmarva.” Or was it Garden and Gun? I don’t remember, but it was one of those high-brow influencers.

And now Ritas’s has been replaced by the House of Tyvek. I heard it was going to be a Starbuck’s. Wow. In this forgotten crevice of the Shore? Starbucks and the seventeen-dollar tall latte? What’s next? Nordstrom’s?

Then we have No. 2 on my list of toppled historic treasures, the biggie on High: The Pickle Factory.

Most recently housing Dixon Valve, the Pickle Factory, unlike the more recently  constructed Armory, had stood for centuries, once brining billions of cucumbers and canning tons of herring and employing generations of diligent Chestertonians. If you didn’t work at Vita Foods or Dixon at one point in your life, you were nobody.

And now that handsome monument to Chestertown’s enterprising past is just rubble, being pulverized into pea-size bits of concrete. The once bustling property looks like a Bakhmut apartment block after a Russian drone strike.

To become what? Who knows. I heard the Ravens are eyeing the site as a summer training campus. And Wawa is coming somewhere. So maybe we’ll finally get a decent hoagie.

But here is our legacy under assault., the destruction of heritage. It’s a sad story, and apparently Chestertown sees this as progress. Sadder still.

Oh well, I’m sure to find comfort admiring the statuary along Spring Street paying tribute to human genitalia and that magnificent blue head that just landed in Fountain Park. Oh, the blue head, peering out at the folks lounging on the sidewalk at Bad Alfred’s. The mysterious blue head. Someone should write an ode to that thing.

J. Taylor Buckley

Broadneck

Lead photo is 1950 plan for Vita Foods, the “Pickle Factory.”

The gateway to Chestertown is about to be permanently impacted.   On July 11th, Kent County’s Planning Commission will be asked to approve the site plan for Morgnec Road Solar.  It is imperative that this governing body be informed about the importance of installing landscaping that will enhance the critical entrance to Chestertown on Route 291 hiding a visually intrusive industrial solar plant blanketing 245 acres of rolling farmland with over 140,000 solar panels.   Please read further, and plan to attend the hearing at 1:30 pm at the county’s hearing room at 400 High Street. The Planning Commission will meet on July 11^th at 1:30 PM to determine the severity of the scar that will be inflicted on this historic landscape.

The first landscaping plan proposed by Urban Grid for Morgnec Road Solar, before obtaining their Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC), was in 2017. The initial plan featured attractive recreational additions for residents; 4.12 miles of trails, some offering views of Morgnec Creek, along with proposed meadows, a nature playground with two pavilions, and a boardwalk for kayak access to the creek.

The PSC exercised their authority to preempt Kent County’s zoning ordinance and ignored Chestertown’s designation of the property as a growth area for the town. Despite objections from Kent County, Chestertown, and Kent Conservation and Preservation Alliance, Morgnec Solar was approved.

At each juncture in the process Urban Grid has whittled away the landscaping for the project. Today, Urban Grid’s  revised current site plan eliminates all public amenities, offering only a one-mile-long barrier of trees broken by entrances exposing the energy generation plant at these visual breach points. Furthermore, the proposed tree screen is not a ‘fail-safe’ option. It takes a tree many years to attain the size needed to be effective and a weather calamity can remove the screen barrier in mere minutes. With the increase in extreme weather events, this poses a serious concern regarding the proposed design.

Urban Grid Proposed Landscape. Perspective approaching Chestertown between David A. Bramble and Atlantic Tractor-Lane Engineering, LLC

Given the experiences of both Kent and Queen Anne’s counties with similar solar projects, the effectiveness of this landscaping in shielding views of the energy generation plant over the next 5, 10, or 20 years remains speculative. There is little doubt that this project will mar the rural landscape, part of Chestertown’s greenbelt, for the foreseeable future compounded by the developers’ reluctance to install an irrigation system.

Furthermore, there has not been a professional line-of-sight graphic prepared to address the 65-foot elevation change on the northwest portion of the property.  This ridge is conspicuous when approaching Chestertown on Route 291. Would row upon row of solar collectors be seen blanketing the hill from the road?

While Kent County’s influence over hosting the project was preempted, one crucial condition imposed by the PSC mandates a site plan approval from the Kent County Planning Commission, and acquisition of all necessary local permits before construction commences. This condition empowers the Planning Commission to enforce the county’s screening  provision for solar projects in the Land Use Ordinance (LUO).

The impact of Morgnec Road Solar on Kent County will be both significant and enduring. Gail Owings, Executive Director of Eastern Shore Heritage Area, emphasized in a letter to the PSC that the project site is situated “in one of the most significant cultural landscapes in the Heritage Area and serves as a gateway to the Town of Chestertown.”  Now is the time, as concerned citizens, we must impress upon the Planning Commission the importance of requiring the strictest landscaping standards to limit the negative impacts.   This is our last opportunity to protect this landscape and preserve the gateway into Historic Chestertown.

We must demand better than what Urban Grid is currently offering.

KCPA has worked with Tom Kocubinski, AIA, Architect and Planner, to create a schematic landscape design that is both resilient and complementary to the historic context. Instead of a predictable, monotonous, and vulnerable tree barrier which provides minimal return for the loss of the historic landscape, he has proposed an effective alternative using earthen berms. The LUO favors berms for screening.

The design relies on an interlocking composition of berms to provide an indestructible barrier that can withstand weather calamities. It creates a human scale with visual interest for both walkers and drivers alike while paying homage to the quintessential “rollies” found throughout Kent County.

According to Tom, “When we assessed the real concerns and purpose of a screening device within the site context, we looked for a creative option and the nestled berm solution emerged effortlessly.”

The result is an organic and playful composition juxtaposed against the long linear roadway and natural landscape. “It is a sinuous greenbelt that complements the context. It provides an interesting walking experience offering a variety of vistas on a level and gently sloped pathway with seating areas. It is the polar opposite of Urban Grid’s one-mile-long visual dog run. Combined with a modest parking area and intended to connect to the proposed public amenities of the original plan, it gives residents another walking destination with a nature experience. A pleasant community amenity making the best of a very unfortunate development,” he added.

The rolling berms and pedestrian amenities design option would enhance the visual experience leading to Historic Chestertown gateway.

A recent ruling by the Kent County Appeals Board gave conditional approval to Pivot Solar for a 5-acre community solar array, Mason Solar, at the gateway to Fairlee directly opposite the Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church, a listed historic African American church.  Conditions were attached to that approval.  One of the conditions was a requirement for 5-foot earthen berms to screen the project.  The precedent has been set.

It falls within the purview of the Planning Commission to enforce the landscaping standard that calls for berms. We encourage everyone to attend the hearing on Morgnec Solar Site Plan Approval to voice opposition to the developer’s unimaginative rote landscape plan and support  an inspired alternative berm plan like the one we are proposing.

The meeting will be held at 1:30 pm at the Commissioners Hearing Room, 400 Hight Street, Chestertown.

Janet Christensen-Lewis

Chair, Board of Directors

Kent Conservation and Preservation Alliance (KCPA)

Prince Charles had the vision of creating a beautiful and thriving town, Poundbury, and empowered an architect to guide the development. The town was all new, built with stone and brick, and looks like it is hundreds of years old. All the necessities are within a 10-minute walk. There is housing for all income levels and family sizes. There are shop spaces for folks to start businesses in. People there love it because it is beautiful.

Chestertown has a lot of these characteristics, and this is the reason why I moved here. Part of why Chestertown is so attractive is because organizations such as Main Street, the Historic District Commission, Downtown Chestertown Association, the Town of Chestertown (management, zoning, town yard, etc.), and community leaders are forming Chestertown into the place that people want to live. And, Washington College and the Sultana bring youthful energy, intelligence, and the drive to learn.

We need to recognize that Chestertown’s greatest strength is in its peaceful beauty. This makes Chestertown a refuge, surrounded by a world that is hectic, crowded, filled with
anxiety, and just plain ugly.

It would be a big mistake to allow Chestertown to develop into yet another clogged-up suburban wasteland like the DC-Manhattan corridor.

Free markets are great, but they require regulation to guide their power into best serving the people. Left unchecked, growth will narrowly benefit individual builders and homeowners, while damaging the continuity of the whole community. This is why guidance from Zoning and HDC is beneficial.

So, Chestertown needs to understand why it is such a great place and must be vigilant in preserving and nurturing its character. We must ensure that our growth does not destroy our Garden of Eden but rather nourishes it so it can bloom into an even more wonderful place.

Dave Hoatson