Most of the 14 people who spoke Monday night about a sports complex proposed for 50 acres in Mount Airy were against the project, and the town’s planning commission says the proposal from Elite Baseball is still in very early stages.
Elite Baseball has asked the town to annex the Watersville Road site, where it hopes to build the facility. Mount Airy’s town council must still review the proposal, get public comment on it and then vote on whether to annex the land before the sports complex can be built.
Fourteen people spoke for 40 minutes during the public comment period at the start of Monday’s planning commission meeting, with many of them concerned about the volume of traffic such a facility could produce.
Matt Cougle, who said he moved to the town’s Nottingham community four years ago and whose backyard would overlook the sportsplex property, said he thinks “sports are great.” Still, the road could not handle the traffic the facility would generate, and it would not help the local economy.
, but that’s about it,” he said.”]Cougle referenced the “horrible” Oct. 14 tractor-trailer strike that damaged the Interstate 70 overpass above Mount Airy’s Route 27, which tied up traffic for many hours.
“How many accidents have we had on [I-]70 in the last six months” Cougle said. “That’s going to be every single weekend for a baseball tournament, from May until October.”
Echoing the concerns of many speakers, Cougle said he believes the sports complex should be built in an area that has a nearby hotel.
Planning commission chairperson Ralph Ghent said town officials would need to review the whole plan, and no official concept has been submitted.
Heather Wallace, an alternate board member, said: “I agree that traffic is an issue on that road, but I also think it’s really, really early in the process, and a lot could change. There could be more traffic between now and whenever a site plan would come in for approval. So, there’s so many things to consider that I think to disqualify an annexation based on something like that doesn’t make sense to me.”
Ghent noted Carroll County Commissioner Michael Guerin, who represents the area, is helping push state leaders to install a dedicated left-turn signal onto southbound Route 27/Ridge Road from Watersville Road, and an additional loading lane or lane extension.
Elite Baseball representatives also tried to reassure the public that the property would definitely be made available for use by local sports teams and the general public.
“It was never our intent to come in here and shut out the town. it was actually the complete opposite,” said Brian McKenna, explaining that youth sports will have initial access to the facility and Mount Airy residents are welcome to come over to the park, if there isn’t a large tournament going on, for example.
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