The commissioners, who also serve as the county sanitary commission, voted in May 2000 to deny a developer's request for sewer and water allocation for a proposed commercial project on Kent Island, near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Petrie Dierman Kughn, of McLean, Va., asked to purchase 44,972 gallons per day of capacity in the county's wastewater treatment plant and 28,202 gpd treatment capacity in the county's public water system.

PDK sued the sanitary commission for denying the allocation request. In September 2000, Queen Anne's County Circuit Court Judge John W. Sause Jr. upheld the sanitary commission's decision. But on April 30 Sause issued a written decision in favor of the developer. The judge issued a memorandum of law supporting a writ of mandamus that ordered the sanitary commission to approve PDK's allocation request.

The commissioners voted May 15 to approve the sewer and water allocation, saying they were bound to abide by the judge's order. The commissioners had until May 30 to file an appeal to the next highest court.

Thompson said it might take nine months to a year before a three-judge panel of the Court of Special Appeals issues a ruling. He said both sides have to file written briefs and the court usually hears oral arguments.

The Kent Island Commons project would consist of a Wal-Mart superstore; a hotel and conference center; and restaurants and offices. The 28-acre development site is located between the Bay Bridge Marina, U.S. Route 50, Route 8 and Pier One Road. 

©The Star Democrat 2001 

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Citizens' group collects 4,200 names on petition

By: JOHN GRIEP, News Editor 
 June 01, 2001 
 

EASTON - Two days before the deadline, a citizens group opposed to Bill 808 delivered more than 4,200 signatures to the county election board in an effort to petition the bill to a November 2002 vote. 

Slightly more than half of those signatures would need to be from valid, registered voters in Talbot County in order for Bill 808 to be placed on the ballot for the 2002 election.

Citizens for Sound Growth turned in 665 pages of petitions containing 4,246 signatures to the Talbot County Board of Election Supervisors on Wednesday afternoon.
The group had 59 days from the passage of Bill 808 to collect signatures from 10 percent of the county's registered voters in order to petition the bill to referendum.

The group beat the deadline - which is today - by two days and, if all the signatures are valid, the required number of voters by more than 2,000 people; at least 2,239 signatures were needed to petition Bill 808 to referendum.

The signatures collected by the group represent about 19 percent of the total number of registered voters in Talbot County. There were 22,388 registered Talbot voters as of Jan. 31, 2001.

Jane Bollman, chairman of Citizens for Sound Growth, delivered the petition to the election office.

Dirck Bartlett, president of the Talbot Preservation Alliance, one of the organizations supporting the petition drive, said Wednesday afternoon that the group was still trying to collect additional signatures to turn in to the election board by today's deadline.

Other organizations supporting the referendum included the Talbot River Protection Association, the county's Republican central committee, the Talbot Democratic Forum, Historic Easton Inc., Historical Society of Talbot County, Talbot County Historic Trust, Talbot County Taxpayers Association, the Garden Club of the Eastern Shore, Waverly Homeowners Association and the Mid-Shore League of Republican Women.

In a press release, Citizens for Sound Growth said that suspension of Bill 808 means that the county appeals board decision "prohibiting high intensity retial stores in a Limited Industrial zone will remain in effect."

The group also said that the petition "served notice that we will not permit developers and economic interests from outside our community to rewrite our zoning laws, for their financial benefit.

"In addition, the extraordinary volume of signatures, from a broad spectrum of age and economic groups throughout the county, should finally put to rest the repeated claim that Bill 808 was opposed only by a small minority of so called elitists."

Greg Gannon, whose family owns land near the Easton Airport that is the proposed site of a larger Lowe's, had a different take on the outcome.

"I'm very happy for the thousands who disregarded the petition and have been supporting us," Gannon said, referring to the approximately 18,000 registered voters who did not sign the petition over the past two months.

Talbot Councilman Philip Carey Foster, one of two council members to vote against Bill 808, called the petition drive a "tremendous success."

"To be able to get a response like that is really fantastic," he said. "Certainly there is a great deal of interest in the community to be able to have a say on this issue."
Election Registrar Patti Davis said the election office has 20 calendar days to verify the signatures.

Davis began typing the information from the petitions, including names, addresses and birthdates, into a computer database on Thursday.

With the computer system, Davis, after putting in the data, will be able to search the county's voter records and verify that the information matches that provided when voters registered in Talbot County.

Davis said that she would continue the process until she had verified about 2,400 names, slightly more than is required. If enough signatures are verified, the referendum petition will be certified by election officials, the legislation will be suspended and the county's voters will decide in November 2002 whether to enact or reject Bill 808.
She said Thursday that 13 people had mailed in forms asking to have their names removed from the petition.

Those forms have been printed in ads appearing in The Star Democrat and paid for by Tom Cohee/Glebe Ventures, LLC; Meadow Farm Joint Venture LLP; and Cecil and Sylvia Gannon. Those individuals and firms own the properties that are proposed sites for Home Depot and Lowe's stores. 
 

©The Star Democrat 2001