Rob Savidge
Candidate in Nov. 4 general election Democratic Georgetown Grove (Annapolis)
Age: 46 on day of General Election (Nov. 4)
Occupation: Environmental Scientist
Education: Bachelors degree in Environmental Studies, minor in Business management, from Washington College
Previous political experience: I have been Annapolis Alderman for Ward 7 for the past 8 years (since 2017)
Why are you running for office?
I’ve been a public servant for most of my professional career; I enjoy serving the public and building a better community for all. As an environmental scientist and advocate my primary policy goal is to improve our environmental health. My secondary and related goal is to transition to a sustainable mobility model. If we want to meet our climate targets to reduce the 30% of emissions from our transportation sector, if we want to achieve our affordable housing goal and reduce the cost of living, if we want to make our streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as drivers, and if we want to ensure our communities are connected with clean and quite areas to gather, we must break free from our overreliance to automobiles.
What issues are important to your ward? How do you plan on addressing them?
Mobility concerns are really top of mind to people in my Ward. We are on the edge of town, and have a high concentration of seniors, and residents want to be able to easily stay connected to downtown and their friends and services elsewhere in the City. This means addressing the traffic and safety issues on our roads. Forest Drive is the most dangerous road in the County. That is not acceptable to me. On top of that, we have the highest concentrations of schools along this roadway. We need an alternative and way forward. Sustainable mobility and associated high value transit is the solution to these woes.
How do you see housing and public transportation development progressing in the next four years?
We need more affordable housing options. But we cannot absorb such growth and density unless we adopt a strategy and plan to move towards sustainable mobility. We need transit oriented development (meaning transit and transportation being improved with development), not density driven development (where density happens first and then government responds, hopefully). I am working on policies that emphasize establishing community benefit agreements and transit oriented development tax incremental financing districts to be requirements with density increases. Additionally, we can’t have affordable housing without free and sustainable mobility options. Having to pay for a $40,000 car and associated insurance is not affordable. People must be able to get around without a car in a reliable and safe manner. I’ve secured record amounts of funding to address safety issues on our roadways including redesigns, road diets, traffic circles, and expanding transit options.
Are there decisions/legislation from the previous council that you want to readdress?
I was on the previous council, so no. I want to build off of the accomplishments we’ve enacted and fully implement our Plan 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
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