To Friends and Supporters of Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir:

The Planning Board hearing for the proposed Pulte Development is now scheduled for December 3, 2020. This hearing will determine the development plans that Pulte has put forward. Your letters and support for the preservation of the Ten Mile Creek Watershed are truly needed if we have any chance of reducing this poorly conceived development.

A sample letter is provided to personalize as you wish and this link contains an informative fact sheet with detailed information that you may wish to consult. Letters should be sent to MCP-Chair@mncppc-mc.org  and marc.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov

We are so grateful for your continued advocacy for clean water!

Dear Chair Anderson and Members of the Planning Board:

    As an advocate for the high quality Ten Mile Creek watershed, which supports the cleanest tributary flowing into Little Seneca Reservoir, I request that you closely examine the impact the Pulte Development “Creekside at Cabin Branch” would have on our very unique Ten Mile Creek watershed.

    In its current configuration, Pulte’s proposed development poses risks of irreversible degradation to the two tributaries that the Master Plan recognizes as the most sensitive and high quality subwatersheds in the Ten Mile Creek watershed, LSTM 110 and 111. The Master Plan makes clear that to preserve the quality of these headwaters, imperviousness must be kept to 5%. However, an analysis of Pulte’s development plan shows that it would destroy these subwatersheds by adding a much higher level of imperviousness, from 1.6% to 7.3% and from 1.2% to 12.8% respectively. Impervious cover is widely accepted as the key indicator of the complex factors that affect stream condition. Simply put, higher impervious cover leads to higher amounts of stormwater runoff and urban pollutants that erode and degrade stream channels and habitat and the biologic communities they support, leading to degraded stream conditions.

    In Montgomery County, citizens care deeply about our water resources and recognize that Ten Mile Creek warrants extraordinary protection. Sadly, as development continues unabated in the upper county, preservation of our finite sources of clean water are not being adequately protected. We respectfully request that the Ten Mile Creek watershed be recognized for its unique qualities and that development conform to the Master Plan objective “…if imperviousness is kept to near to five percent as possible, stream conditions can be maintained in the good to excellent range.” To conform to the Master Plan and to achieve protection, the Pulte Development must be shrunk by at least 50% and most importantly, remove the two intrusive extensions of the development that plunge deeply into the watershed. Let’s not follow the path of Cabin Branch Creek, the sister tributary of Ten Mile Creek that flows into Little Seneca Reservoir, which has been severely degraded by an ongoing massive housing development. We know the importance of Little Seneca Reservoir to the future of our drinking water supply and the value of the Ten Mile Creek watershed to Montgomery County. It is our collective responsibility to protect them. 

Respectfully,