A group of Gwynn’s Island residents who live near a county-owned parcel of waterfront land on South Bay Haven Drive are speaking out against the Mathews Board of Supervisors’ recent unanimous vote to begin developing the land for public use as a park.
Lisa Edwards, whose family has owned property adjacent to the park since the 1700s, said in an email to the Gazette-Journal that the neighbors who live on the road were unaware that a discussion of developing the site was going to be brought up at the May 15 board meeting. She said they had all vocally opposed various plans for development of the park in the past and had submitted a petition to the board with the names of around 40 neighbors who were against it.
In spite of comments by Mathews supervisors Mike Walls and Dave Jones during the May 15 meeting that the South Bay Haven neighbors had met with Mathews Parks and Recreation Commission members and that they were “all pretty much in agreement” and were now “okay” with the park plan,...