Education center-resort rising quietly at Elk Neck

A sports complex, aquatic center with whirlpool tubs, and a pier for
powerboats and personal watercraft are under construction nearby.

As Maryland lawmakers and environmentalists fret over the Ehrlich
administration’s possible sale of protected land, a vivid example of a
large-scale project undertaken by a wealthy businessman is under way on
property that many thought would be preserved for future generations.

NorthBay center

On 98 acres of Elk Neck State Park in Cecil County, retirement home builder
John C. Erickson is constructing NorthBay, a $30 million education center,
camp and corporate retreat that is more resort than rustic. It is rising along
a half-mile stretch of North East River beach, on property leased from the
state for free.

The project, which broke ground in May, is being touted as a public-private
partnership between the Erickson Foundation, a nonprofit created in 1998, and
the state Department of Natural Resources. It is designed, in part, to teach
sixth-graders the value of the bay.

But corporations and other groups will be allowed to use it as well. The
foundation says it needs to collect $2 million to $3 million a year in fees to
cover operating costs, though the project is not described as a moneymaking
venture.

Planning has been in the works for years. The foundation searched for land
and signed a lease to build within the park borders in 2002, during the
Glendening administration. After Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was elected later
that year, the plans went forward, with high-level administration officials
supporting the project.

Detailed drawings for the upscale retreat, with dozens of buildings
covering 126,000 square feet, were unveiled after Ehrlich took office. Under
the current administration, the state granted permission for the Erickson
Foundation to put some of the buildings on sensitive waterfront land.

State officials say the project is of great benefit to Maryland.

“It’s a way for disadvantaged kids to learn about the Chesapeake Bay in a
way they otherwise might not have,” said Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell. “The
governor believes it was a great concept. He believes there’s a lot of credit
to go around, including to the Erickson Foundation and the previous
administration.”

Public policy issues

But the facility’s approval has drawn criticism from the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation, which says the state should adhere to the rules imposed on its
citizens.

“You’re talking about a permanent project that, once built, can’t be
changed. And once the infractions on Maryland’s environment are done, that
can’t be changed,” said Kim Coble, Maryland executive director of the Bay
Foundation. “This was a place where the state should be setting the example.
Our position was, if it had been private property, the project would not have
been allowed as designed.”

In the eyes of other critics, the project raises significant public policy
questions, especially in light of recent revelations that the Ehrlich
administration had prepared a list of land, including some in and around state
parks, that could be sold to local governments or private developers.

The state should be in the business of preserving parks, they say, rather
than allowing development in them.

“There should have been robust discussion with the public about whether
there should be development at the state park, and whether or not other
organizations should have the same opportunity to run a program at this park –
or any park,” said Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of 1000 Friends of
Maryland, a conservation group.

‘So much of a secret’

Neighbors of the park, at the end of a peninsula accessible by a narrow,
two-lane road, say they were blindsided by the project. Several said they see
parallels between NorthBay and the Ehrlich administration’s aborted plan to
sell 836 acres of protected forest in St. Mary’s County to construction
company owner Willard J. Hackerman.

In each case, they say, a wealthy businessman and regular campaign donor
negotiated in private to gain access to publicly owned land, with no
competitive bidding.

“It’s all kept so much of a secret,” said Billye Jo Jackson, a neighbor of
the park who worries that the camp’s plan to draw 50,000 gallons of water a
day will sap the well she uses for her home. She says the start of
construction seemed to be rushed this year, with drilling permits granted
before she could seek a delay so water concerns could be studied.

The mission of the camp is also troubling to some, with its apparent
emphasis on serving Christian and faith-based groups.

In promotional materials, NorthBay says that in addition to public school
students, the camp will be available during the summer and on weekends “to
various groups and organizations that serve young people – the YMCA, Young
Life, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, youth groups, etc.”

Young Life, according to the group’s Web site, “is a nondenominational
Christian organization” that for more than 60 years “has been introducing
adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them to grow in their faith.”

DNR officials said the state has been working with Erickson to develop the
curriculum and is confident that lessons will focus on the environment.

“There is no religious segment to this,” said Arnold Norden, DNR’s central
region planner.

DNR officials said state law did not require them to seek bids before
leasing the property, and point out that Erickson approached them with the
project.

DNR sees big benefit

The foundation is sharing the costs to upgrade Elk Neck’s wastewater
treatment plant, officials say, and campers will do work in the state park
that the Department of Natural Resources could otherwise ill afford. And they
say that while Erickson is assuming most of the risks in the venture, the
state is getting a huge benefit.

“A $30 million investment doesn’t come across our desk every day,” said
Gene Piotrowski, the department’s director for resource planning.

But the state receives no money from the foundation in rent, and will not
share in any revenue that the camp generates from school groups, companies and
youth organizations.

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One of 14 children, Erickson, 61, made his fortune building retirement
homes. His properties include Charlestown in Catonsville and Oak Crest in
northern Baltimore County. His projects operate as nonprofits.

At the camp, Erickson Construction is building the air-conditioned cabins,
halls and other structures. The company is donating its services, said Kate
Newton, a spokeswoman for the foundation.

The foundation will control use of the buildings; already, a no trespassing
sign is posted by the entrance road to the camp.

Schoolchildren from Baltimore and elsewhere will pay a relatively low fee
to use the center on weekdays, said Bob Bingham, Erickson’s director for the
project. The children might be asked to contribute a few dollars, and the
school districts would also be charged, he said.

On weekends and in the summer, youth groups and corporations will pay a
higher fee, he said.

“The Maryland State Department of Education is working with us to identify
kids who don’t have access to a bay experience,” Bingham said.

“I’m told that this was the most highly scrutinized project, and
state-of-the-art design,” Bingham said. “It was about kids, and it was being
done in the right way for the environment.”

Groundbreaking took place in May, at a ceremony attended by Andrea Steele,
wife of Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who has been a leader and coordinator of
the Ehrlich administration’s faith-based policies.

A year earlier, John Erickson and his wife, Nancy, wrote two checks
totaling $8,000 to the Bob Ehrlich for Maryland Committee, the governor’s
campaign account, state records show. Since 1999, Erickson and members of his
family have contributed at least $12,000 to Ehrlich. He has also given to
Democrats in Maryland, including William Donald Schaefer and Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend.

Waterfront for free

From the beginning, it was clear that the Erickson Foundation’s deal with
the state was unprecedented. Under the agreement, Erickson pays nothing to
lease a waterfront area of Elk Neck State Park for the camp. In exchange, a
foundation will teach Maryland’s children about the Chesapeake Bay.

In 2000, Erickson staff members approached then-Natural Resources Secretary
J. Charles Fox with its idea. The foundation looked at several sites. In
testimony before the state’s Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission, Erickson
said the foundation chose Elk Neck because it was close to the water, had a
waste-water treatment facility and once housed a YMCA camp.

“It was a struggle for me,” Fox said. “We have a duty to protect open
space, and this was a clear tension between providing open space and providing
a rich opportunity for people that would involve development on a state park,”
Fox said. “I lost a lot of sleep on this because it was such a precedent in
providing this kind of use on state parkland.”

Much discussion ensued at the Department of Natural Resources, in part
because the agency had never leased public lands except for concession stands
and other small enterprises. Erickson initially chose a site in the footprint
of the old YMCA camp so buildings could be easily clustered near the water.
But the site nonetheless cut into the habitat of forest interior-dwelling
birds, protected under the critical area law.

For several months, the department tried to persuade the foundation to move
its site about 200 feet to an area that was already cleared. Erickson didn’t
like the idea because the camp would have had to be divided into two clusters.

Several times during the tense negotiations, Fox said, he was tempted to
call off the deal. But he kept working because of the camp’s mission.
Eventually, Erickson did move the site – a relocation that Norden said cost
the foundation several hundred thousand dollars.

Officials at the Critical Area Commission said that once Erickson moved its
site, they heard few complaints.

“Compared to other things that we see, the opposition was not really much
at all,” said Ren Serey, the commission’s executive director. “It took a long
time because it was a huge project, not because it was controversial.”

‘One of those deals’

But some neighbors were concerned about the NorthBay plan, especially when
they learned that the camp was exempt from local planning and zoning
approvals. When residents learned that the camp would be building in the
critical area, some called Ehrlich’s office and their legislators. But by
then, the project was well under way.

“It became clear that this deal was well-greased before anyone knew about
it,” said George Lutz, a North East real estate appraiser who said he learned
of the camp through a friend on the Critical Area Commission. “It was kind of
one of those deals that was like a stealth bomber.”

Lutz and others wanted to know why the state was allowing a private entity
to build within critical-area buffers on state land when private citizens got
fined for much smaller infractions. Mimi Szep, who has sold waterfront land in
Cecil County for decades, asked that question at the Critical Area
Commission’s public hearing, but said she never got an answer.

“I simply wanted an explanation as to why they were permitting Erickson to
do it when they would not let a private citizen do that on his or her
property,” she said.

While Szep likes the camp’s mission, she said she wishes that neighbors had
been notified before the deal was completed. The narrow road leading to the
camp needs improvements, she said, and neighbors are concerned about traffic
because there are several other camps in the area.

The camp plan might have been invisible to neighbors, but officials at high
levels of the Ehrlich administration knew of it.

In January, Martin G. Madden, the former Republican state senator who
chairs the Critical Area Commission, wrote a letter to Ehrlich’s chief of
staff, Steven L. Kreseski, indicating that Ken Usab of the Erickson Foundation
was awaiting final approval from the Maryland Department of the Environment
for permits relating to storm water management and impact to wetlands.

“We are prepared, as Mr. Usab has requested, to move forward at our March
3rd meeting if MDE issues the permits or assures us that all outstanding
matters relating to stormwater management and wetlands have been resolved,”
Madden wrote.

Madden called his letter a “status report,” and said it is not uncommon for
agency personnel to inquire about projects.

Concerns for the bay

Madden and other high-level Ehrlich administration officials also got
involved when the Chesapeake Bay Foundation – acting on tips from anonymous
callers – checked NorthBay’s site plan and learned that the camp would affect
several acres of the critical area buffer.

On April 1, a conference call was set up with Bay Foundation staff, state
officials and Erickson representatives. Among those participating were Madden,
state Secretary of the Environment Kendl P. Philbrick and Natural Resources
Secretary C. Ronald Franks.

The Bay Foundation’s director had already written to Madden expressing
concern that an environmental center on state property was not being built in
an environmentally sensitive way. Coble said she offered Erickson suggestions
on how it could change its site plan so as not to harm the environment.

“We weren’t just naysayers,” Coble said. “We were trying to build
solutions. Our recommendations and suggestions fell on deaf ears.”

Though Erickson hadn’t broken ground, Coble said its officials said they
could not change plans at such a late date. And, Coble said, state officials
did not push them to do so.

Madden said the Bay Foundation raised its concerns too late – after
approval had been granted and the public meeting process had ended. Coble’s
letter was dated April 7, the day the Critical Area Commission granted final
approval for the camp.

“I am sorry that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation did not get a chance to
express its concerns in the appropriate manner,” Madden responded to Coble. “I
want you to know, however, that your concerns are similar to those discussed
at great length by the commission during the review process over the last
three years.”

Madden and Serey said the incursions into the critical area buffers were
necessary, temporary and minor – and that NorthBay would be a worthwhile
return for the disturbances.

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“We believe this project is going to be a model,” Madden said. “It’s a very
compelling need in a time of budget crisis. We have a chance to have state
land improved.”

As questions continue to emerge about how the NorthBay project received
approval, some of the state’s leading environmentalists wonder how it could
have gotten so far without their knowledge.

“It’s the first I’m hearing about it,” said Del. Maggie L. McIntosh,
chairman of the House Environmental Matters Committee.

“I’m not going to leap to, `This is criminal,'” she said. But “when it’s
parkland, when something is designated and preserved as open space and
parkland, it’s for a reason.”