The Webb Tract issues have advanced along several dimensions

1. The County has accepted the Route Protocol, and the County Executive has made a commitment to its implementation.
2. The County has compiled extensive traffic flow data for each of the four occupants of the Webb Tract.
a. The PSTA accounts for 57% of the traffic load and determines the shape of the time of day traffic flow curve.
b. The MNCPPC Central Maintenance dominates the three remaining occupants.
3. Lot 7 of the Webb Tract sized at 8 acres will become a park. The County Executive has made a commitment to this transfer to Park and Planning and it has been discussed with Royce Hanson.
4. No commitment to a sound wall has been made. Instead the County strategy is to mitigate noise at its source wherever possible before considering a sound wall which must be justified on the basis of engineering data.
5. The County has reneged on its commitment to confine siren noise to inside the vehicle as once promised. The County Executive’s representative says that the technology is not there.
6. The Mandatory Referral on the Webb Tract Site Selection Public meeting on July 27 was a sham. I wrote a strong letter to Royce Hanson objecting to the disingenuous tactics the County used and demanded a do over. The letter appeared in the Planning Report which highlighted the citizen concern over the correspondence among site layout diagrams.
7. The Howard County PSTA was identified to the County Council as the “state of the art” in PSTA’s. I visited the James N. Robey Public Safety Training Center last week to see for myself what was so special at this facility.
a. This project on 38 acres bordering a landfill is being accomplished on a 10 year $35M CIP.
b. It is served by a superior road system [I-70 and Route 32].
c. However, there serious limitations:
i. There is no flashover training capability, Furthermore, Howard County fire and safety personnel travel to Montgomery County PSTA to receive flashover training. The Webb Tract PSTA will also not have flashover training capability, which Chief Bowers considers essential.
ii. The burn building is just 3 stories. The Webb Tract plan is for 4 stories and the proposed 6 stories met airport resistance by the FAA.
iii. There was no driving track in evidence. Capt. Foss of the Montgomery County PSTA confirmed that there is no high speed driving track at the Howard County PSTC.
d. A great many homes are for sale at the Sand Hill Estates community bordering the site. I have requested the County Executive’s representative to conduct an economic study to determine what impact this PSTA has had on house prices, and she agreed to do this.