Responsible Growth, Rural Conservation, and Agricultural Preservation

District 4 encompasses some of the most productive agricultural soils and breathtaking open spaces in Maryland. Our agricultural heritage defines our community character, sustains local commerce, and protects our regional food security. Rapid, unchecked suburban sprawl threatens this landscape, overburdens our roadway networks, and strains public water, wastewater, and emergency response services. We cannot permit unrestrained development to erase the farms and open spaces that make Frederick County extraordinary. We must guide growth intentionally, using data-driven planning and smart growth principles rather than reacting unthinkingly to developer speculation.

I advocate for policies that direct new residential and commercial growth strictly into designated Priority Funding Areas and existing municipal corridors where transit and utility infrastructure already exist. We must preserve our working landscapes by aggressively funding and defending the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, Program Open Space, and rural legacy programs. When we invest in agricultural easements, we protect family farms from conversion, maintain contiguous blocks of farmland, and ensure that agriculture remains a profitable, sustainable industry. I reject the false choice between economic development and conservation. Sound planning balances sensible commercial investment with permanent land protection.

In the House of Delegates, I will partner with local farmers, county leaders, and conservation groups to establish statutory safeguards that prohibit heavy industrial developments on high-quality Class I and Class II agricultural soils. We must treat our soil and groundwater as finite, irreplaceable assets. Furthermore, I support imposing developer-funded impact fees that force large-scale projects to cover the full costs of the public road improvements, utility expansions, and school seats their developments necessitate. Growth must pay its own way rather than forcing existing county homeowners to subsidize corporate developers through property tax hikes.

Additionally, we must support local farmers by cutting bureaucratic red tape around agritourism, expanding regional processing infrastructure, and creating state incentives for regenerative farming practices that capture carbon and protect soil health. By connecting local producers directly to institutional buyers like schools and hospitals, we keep local food dollars in our county. We must also invest in expanding the MARC train Brunswick Line to ease commuter congestion on our regional highways. Responsible growth respects our heritage, protects working families from escalating infrastructure burdens, and preserves our natural environment for future generations.