The Cambridge City Commissioners will vote tonight on the final master development plan for the massive Blackwater Resort Communities, a project that will practically double the population of the Eastern Shore city and put a golf course in a Chesapeake critical area. The meeting is at 6 pm at the Dorchester Community Services Building, - 2450 Cambridge Beltway. (Near intersection of Rt. 16 & Egypt Rd.) Check out the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Blackwater blog.

The CBF says its petition drive against the 2,700-home project has passed 25,000 signatures. Next up: the State Critical Area Commission must vote on the project, and the commission has been urged by federal officials to delay the project at least a year. (See my earlier post on this.) Part of this project will be built in a designated critical area, and the whole project defies Maryland's progressive Smart Growth principles.

Governor Ehrlich has taken a walk on it, saying it's a local matter. Martin O'Malley's position appears to have shifted.

The mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate seemed initially supportive of the plan when he made a campaign visit in June. At the time, O'Malley praised the Cambridge planning commission for reworking the development plan by pushing homes away from the Little Blackwater River, though a golf course, hotel and conference center would still be built in that critical area.

However, Sun reporter Tim Wheeler learned that, in July, after heavy rains caused flooding in the Blackwater area, the mayor said more needed to be done to curb what he called overdevelopment. He called on Ehrlich to use the state's open-space funds to buy up much of the former farm fields where Blackwater Resort would be built. O'Malley also said that if he were governor, he would use the state's funding and clout to push the development closer to Cambridge, in line with Smart Growth guidelines.