“…The non-compliance seems obvious---90,000-plus square feet on five commercial acres versus only 20,000 square feet on two acres in the Village Center strip diagonally across. It strikes me that this problem, and that of the supermarket wall, could be solved by paring down the size of the supermarket. I know this raises anchor problems for the developer. But the problem is of his own creation, and its resolution should not be at the cost of irreparably altering Ashton’s semi-rural character. If the supermarket problem were resolved, I think a lot of objection to the proposal would fade.”

“…Please don’t add to the feeling that the only way we can save the rural feeling and nature of Ashton is through a Museum with lovely photographs and memorandum of the “way it used to be” before the building and construction started to get out of control…Put yourself in our shoes, and insist on something smaller, and more intimate, if anything at all.”

“…The proposed shopping complex is too large for our area. At this time our roads cannot handle all the new development of new homes in the area. This new center will bring with it even more traffic including the additional large trucks to support the center…I own one of the largest Real Estate Appraisal Companies (we just completed the new DC Baseball Stadium for the city) in the Metro DC area and I can tell you from past experience that roads that cannot handle “too much traffic” from over development has a negative effect on property values for surrounding community housing…”

“…We would hope that in bringing development to Ashton, the wishes of the community to abide by the Master Plan would be honored. We look for an architectural proposal that is in line with the existing historic, traditional small town feel of Ashton…”

“…The proposed development is simply too vast and out of proportion to the setting. It projects more than four times the commercial space of the existing Ashton Village Center, four times the parking. It clearly violates the word and the spirit of the Master Plan and is totally inappropriate for a crossroads gateway to the semi-rural Sandy Spring Historic District…We realize that commercial development of the south-east corner is coming; our wish is to work with the developer for a mutually acceptable plan.”

“…The guiding principal of the recently-adopted Ashton-Sandy Spring Master Plan was the rural character of the area. It is now proposed to install a large shopping mall, complete with underground parking, which has nothing rural about it…It is not designed to serve the local community; a mall at this location will turn a (quasi) rural crossroads into a commercial center. The local citizenry does not need it and does not want it…If we cannot escape it, it should at least be reduced to something like the intensity of its counterpart on the northwest quadrant…”

“…It is much too big for the site and will bring too many people in their cars to a difficult intersection in a small town that serves a community of only 10 to 20,000 people…There have been two pedestrian deaths on the intersection in the past two years. Increasing traffic flow by orders of magnitude will make the roadways in the small town of Ashton even less safe…”

“…Ashton and Sandy Spring were specifically broken out of the Olney Planning Area to reflect the fact that the County and the Community have a different vision for Sandy Spring and Ashton… The Master Plan states that the purpose of the Rural Village Overlay is to facilitate the enhancement of the rural village character (see page 80). Yet placing a shopping center of the proposed scale and of the proposed design does not promote the rural village character, but accelerates our loss of rural village character…”