MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
REZONING HEARING
July 13, 2004
The Board of County Commissioners of Cecil County met in regular session at the County Administrative Building 107 North Street, Elkton, MD on Tuesday, July 13, 2004. The following members were present:
Nelson K. Bolender, President
Phyllis Kilby, Vice President
Harry A. Hepbron, Commissioner
William C. Manlove, Commissioner
Mark H. Gun, Commissioner
Constituting a full Board.
The meeting was called to order by President Bolender at 5:00 p.m. and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Carol Beresh, Circuit Court Reporter, 129 East Main Street, Elkton, Maryland 21921, recorded a verbatim transcript of this public hearing.
- FILE NO. 2004-11 – APPLICANT: Meadows Materials and Trucking, LLC. PROPERTY LOCATION: 260 Calvary Lane, Rising Sun, MD. Election District: 5, Tax Map: 24, Parcel: 33. PRESENTLY ZONED: Northern Agricultural Residential, (NAR). REQUEST: amend the Cecil County Comprehensive Land Use Map by changing approximately 3.9 Acres from Resource Conservation District, (RCD) to Mineral Extraction District, (MED) and to Extend the MED Zoning Overlay over the same area, which would encompass the entirety of Parcel 33; Property Owner, Deborah L. Meadows.
Administrator Wein swore in all witnesses.
Joseph and Deborah Meadows appeared with their attorney, H. Norman Wilson, to seek the rezoning of approximately 3.9 acres located at 260 Calvary Lane from Resource Conservation District under the Comprehensive Plane to Mineral Extraction District B, so as to permit expansion of existing sand and gravel mining business of the remainder of parcel 33.
Mr. Wilson presented a plat prepared by McCrone in 2003 and Mr. Meadows described the plat and the portion of the property in the MEB Overlay. An additional parcel was purchased; parcel 33 was purchased to extend the mining line of the property. Upon application to extend their mining permit, it was discovered that a portion of the parcel 33 was not in the MEB Overlay, approximately 6 acres. Mr. Wilson explained that, if the property were rezoned, they still would be required to obtain a special exception before mining the additional property. Mr. Meadows stated that a portion of the property has been reclaimed at this time. In addition, the mining permit will require that they submit a plan to reclaim the property at no greater than a 3 to 1 slope and the plan will be required to be bonded. The property was purchased from Montgomery and is adjacent to a larger parcel owned by the Applicants recently, which had been owned and mined previously by the Russell family. Access to the property is through a private easement off of Goosemar Road. Houses have been constructed in recent years also using this private lane as access. They claim it was a mistake not to zone a parcel containing valuable minerals adjacent to an existing mining operation MEB.
David H. Parrack, Attorney, appeared on behalf of several residents who oppose the rezoning: Paul and Voreice Schauman, Kevin and Debbie Curry, Rob and Barbara McNight, Bob & Susan Dubuque, Anthone E. Weymouth, and Daniel Scholtz.
Mr. Parrack referenced a Deed between Montgomery Brothers, Inc., and Meadow Materials and Trucking LLC, dated July 20, 2000, and offered it as Opposition’s Exhibit #1. Mr. Parrack offered as Opposition’s Exhibit #2 excerpts from the Minor Subdivision Plat 2969 from the Office of Planning & Zoning.
Mr. Russell appeared and testified that he owned adjoining properties, and stated this and surrounding properties were used for mining purposes from the 1970’s until purchased by Mr. Montgomery for building purposes. However, the subject property, Parcel 33, he did not own. McCrone Plat dated, September 2003 was offered as Applicant’s Exhibit #1.
There was discussion relating to the map and correct zoning, representation of opponents and their respective property ownership in relation to this request.
Dwight Thomey, Counsel to the Board inquired about additional acreage as a result of an add-on plat that was done for parcel 33. Mr. Parrack explained that the original parcel 33 in 1996 was reconfigured a minor subdivision 2937, this parcel was reconfigured again in 1997. The plat was offered as Opposition’s Exhibit #3.
COMMENTS IN SUPPORT: None
COMMENTS IN OPPOSITION:
Kevin Curry – disputed whether neighboring properties, other than the currently mined Meadows property, have been mined. Mr. Curry provided at Tax Map with shaded areas & blue lines representing the existing property lines. The Tax Map was introduced as Opposition’s Exhibit #4. An additional copy of a County Tax Map representing the MEB overlay was introduced as Opposition’s Exhibit #5.
Anthony Weiman – owner of parcel 201 spoke relative to his property not being mined out within any recent period of time. He did state that parcel 41 has been mined and there was evidence of mining in the area. Mr. Weiman is concerned relating to the impact a mining operation would have on this property.
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Parrack made closing remarks on behalf of their respective clients.
Eric Sennstrom, the Director of Planning and Zoning, testified that both the Planning Staff and the Planning Commission recommended disapproval of the zoning change as required due to failure to establish a mistake in the Comprehensive Rezoning of 1993 affecting this property or a change in the character of the neighborhood since then.
Clifford Houston, Zoning Administrator presented the Department’s finds of facts.
Commission Guns moved to disapprove the rezoning request based upon a failure to establish a mistake in the Comprehensive Rezoning of 1993 or a change in the character of the neighborhood. Commissioner Kilby seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 3 votes in favor of the motion to deny the rezoning and 2 votes opposed. As a result, the request to rezone wad denied.
VOTE: Bolender – Y Kilby – Y Hepbron – N Manlove – N Guns – Y