Red and white signs were hard to miss Saturday afternoon along MD Route 924 in Bel Air.
At one point 82 people held signs expressing opposition to Walmart's proposed move to the area of MD Route 924 and Plumtree Road, event organizer Steve Tobia wrote in an email to Patch. The demonstration was part of a rally organized by the Bel Air South Community Foundation.
Tobia said more than 100 people stopped by the rally Saturday, and 95 people signed a petition through a drive-thru sign up service.
"Passing motorist[s] enthusiastically responded with near non-stop honking of horns," Tobia wrote.
Find more coverage of the Walmart issue here.
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A new county prison, how about a seedy motel and adult novelty shops? Garbage transfer station with landfill? How about a 24 hour truck stop? Mobil home park? What should we let in there and who do we keep out? We need a list, this is something steve and the BASCF should be all over before it's too late.
At least 85% of the surrounding community is against Walmart building there. This is shown by the overcrowded CIM, overcrowded DAC, community rallies and canvassing, petitions, and even the beeps and waves during roadside rallies. Yet, Walmart continues to push forward. Why? For profit. Someone above discussed zoning. One purpose of zoning is to maintain quality of life for the surrounding community. We know others will build there, but they should be in keeping with the community. Walmart is not a good fit here for MANY reasons. And they say they will help traffic? Picture a 6-lane road for a small part of 924 up to Plumtree and then suddenly you are back to 3. McDonald's and Walgreens are not going to move. There is talk of Plumtree limiting access to 24 too. How is widening part of 924 going to mitigate traffic? Add 10,000 cars from Walmart.It's just going to cause a bottleneck. Bright Oaks and other communities will be a miserable place to live.
As a matter of fact we need to stop everyone in this county who isn't exactly like me and doesn't have the same values and morals. That is the foundation this great country was built on, so all you people who are different and I don't like, go back to where you came from you are not wanted here and I can round up a couple a hundred people that will agree with me.....
http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/walmart-and-workers/
As far as the road re narrowing that happens on 24 off of APG are we going to demand APG widden it too? BTW it is not 10,000 cars it is 5,000 cars!
I will explain my position rationally. 1) we have laws and in accordance with those laws Walmart wants to move. If we start cherrypicking who can and can not move with no legal basis (which is what SOME here want) no one is safe. Next we can decide we don't like certian neighbors and refuse to sell houses to them. There was not a time to long ago that was legal!!!!! 2) If the real arguement was simply traffic alone and there was no way for Walmart to mitigate the problem I would agree they should not move there. That is what all these hearings are about is Walmart coming up with a workable plan for that site. There is a large portion (not all) of the anti-walmart group who is against the move because of the clientel and no other reason. If Shop rite was going to do the same thing they would be OK with that. I know this because when Wegman's looked at the sight they didn't seem to object too much. There is also a group who would like nothing to change and that too is not fair to the land owner. I will say that if the traffic problems can not be fixed Walmart should not move there but much of the objection is coming from people who are emotionally attached and refuse to objectively look at it. Based on your comments above you seem to be emotionally attatched to one outcome.
Wegmans is not plunk in the middle of residential developments or a school or a firehouse. Moving Walmart to Plumtree would be like putting another Harford Mall right next to Festival. The few people from Abingdon who support the move have been direct and said they want to relieve the traffic in Abingdon, so you may be one of those who just wants to move the traffic mess.
To be fair you moved into the development envelope. Did you all not understand what that meant and what would happen? Abingdon is very large. The Constant Friendship folks are the ones who are in it for the traffic relief. The Abingdon Post office is located on the otherside of 24 and 924!