Anne Arundel County, MD

Anne Arundel County Greenways Master Plan

The purpose of the Anne Arundel County Greenways Master Plan (adopted in October of 2002) is to provide an identification, decision making, implementation, and management tool for the County’s future greenways network. The Plan has a long range, 50 plus year time frame.

Anne Arundel County enjoys a very attractive location on the Chesapeake Bay close to Washington and Baltimore. This location continues to attract many people to live and work and enjoy the high quality of life that is available in the County. Future growth in Anne Arundel County threatens the loss of ecologically valuable land including unspoiled, high-quality landscapes and open space.

The scattered pattern of modern development tends to consume large amounts of land and fragments landscapes. Fragmentation has adverse ecological effects but also has negative effects on the quality of life through the loss of landscape character and scenic beauty, loss of open spaces for people to enjoy, loss of recreational opportunities, and reduced air and water quality. The most effective way to prevent these negative effects in a developed area such as Anne Arundel County is to create an interconnected network of protected open space corridors or greenways. Anne Arundel County’s goal for its greenways network, therefore, is to:

Create an interconnected network of greenways in Anne Arundel County that protects ecologically valuable lands for present and future generations and provides open space, recreational, and transportation benefits and opportunities for people.

The benefits of Anne Arundel County’s greenways network will be to:

• Enhance the beauty of the County’s landscape by reducing the fragmenting effects of development and preserving valuable open space
  
• Provide adequate habitat to support healthy populations of a diversity of naturally occurring plant and animal species
  
• Help guide the location of development so that negative effects on ecologically valuable lands are minimized
  
• Link communities to a countywide network of open space
  
• Provide off-road transportation opportunities
  
• Increase recreational opportunities
  
• Improve water and air quality
  
• Improve the economy by maintaining and increasing property values and by attracting visitors
  
• Encourage the ethic of stewardship of the land in the County
  
• Help achieve the recommendations of county, regional and state plans and programs including Anne Arundel County’s General Development Plan, Land Preservation and Recreation Plan, and Small Area Plans, the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, and Maryland’s Greenprint program.