The developers of a proposed Wal-Mart have run out of ways to legally push their way onto Kent Island. 

The state's highest court ruled on Sept. 12 that the Queen Anne's Board of County Commissioners was within its rights to deny sewer service to Petrie Dierman Kughn of McLean, Va. 

The Court of Appeals' decision blocks plans for a 285,000-square-foot shopping center called Kent Commons in a field on the south side of Route 50. 

"That's certainly good news for the county that we don't have to further litigate the case," said board President George O'Donnell, D-Queenstown. 

Joseph Stevens, the developer's attorney in Centreville, could not be reached for comment yesterday. 

Residents who had been fighting the project for more than two years were elated by the news. 

"The wicked Wal is dead," said Stan Ruddie, founder of the Kent Island-based Up Against the Wal group. "It is really refreshing to know individuals can have some effect on the quality of life in our own small towns." 

He thanked the three county commissioners -- who were voted out of office last week for not taking a fast or strong enough stand against development -- for listening to the residents and assisting in the fight to stop this project. 

The discount chain had invested more than $1 million in the project, which would include a 154,000-square-foot Wal-Mart, a 123-room hotel, a conference center and a sports bar. 

In November 1999, the commissioners, acting as the Sanitary Commission, approved sewer and water service for the project. But they reversed themselves under public pressure in May 2000, saying the store would use too much of local wastewater treatment capacity. 

In September 2000, county Circuit Court Judge John Sause sided with the commissioners but later changed his ruling. He found the Sanitary Commission had no legal authority to "pick and choose" application for sewer service. 

The county appealed to the Court of Special Appeals in Annapolis and won on June 12 in a ruling that said the county commissioners' reasons for denying Wal-Mart were more than enough to justify their decision. Their reasons touched on limited sewer capacity, traffic impact and the aesthetics of the project on the county's western gateway. 

Mr. O'Donnell said the developer does not have any further recourse because the wastewater treatment plant, which serves the entire island, is not going to be expanded for several years. 

"It wasn't the Wal-Mart necessarily; it was the Wal-Mart on (Kent Island)," he said.

mmohsberg@capitalgazette.com 

mmohsberg@capitalgazette.com 

Published September 19, 2002, The Capital, Annapolis, Md. 
Copyright © 2002 The The Capital, Annapolis, Md.