Harford County judge sends Abingdon Woods forest conservation plan back to the county

A Harford County Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of the nonprofit organization the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in its lawsuit against Harford County regarding the Abingdon Woods development project.

Judge Diane Adkins-Tobin ruled that the county and the project developer, BTC II I-95 Logistics Center LLC and Harford Investors LLP, didn’t provide a basis for waiving requirements of the state’s Forest Conservation Act to remove 49 trees.

The county Department of Planning and Zoning now must provide justification for removing “specimen” – or large mature – trees.

The decision, made earlier this month, sends remands the issue back to the county’s department of planning and zoning to provide findings as to why it allowed the developer a waiver to remove the trees.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which initiated the lawsuit on behalf of residents of Abingdon Woods, state law requires developers to preserve the mature trees unless they prevent property owners from having rights “commonly enjoyed by others.” The judge ruled that Harford County did not provide a factual basis as to how the developer’s property rights were infringed upon by the tree requirement.

“This is a major victory for citizens to ensure that the Forest Conservation Act in Maryland can be used to protect forested land from unceasing encroachment by developers,” Paul Smail, Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s director of litigation, said in a news release. “The judge’s ruling sends a message to counties and developers that there must be a clear factual basis for granting waivers from the state’s requirements to protect forested land.”

A stop work order for the Abingdon Woods project was issued in January by Harford County Public Works over the “lack of a valid forest conservation plan.”

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The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s lawsuit against the county was originally filed in January 2020 challenging the validity of the project’s forest conservation plan.

Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly said when he first took office last year, he had concerns about the Abingdon Woods project’s forest conservation plan approved by the administration of previous Harford County Executive Barry Glassman.

In a statement to The Aegis, Cassilly said: “I then instructed the county attorney [Jefferson Blomquist] to ask the Harford County Circuit Court to return the plan to my administration for further review, so that we could properly apply the law according to the Supreme Court’s opinion. I am pleased that the Circuit Court has done that.”

Cassilly said his administration has found the project’s forest conservation plan to be “deficient in numerous aspects, including the protection of priority forest and the buffer separating the project from adjacent residential areas.”

He said the developer will be notified that the plan has been nullified and that they needed to submit a new one.

Tracey Waite, president of Harford County Climate Action, said that the Circuit Court’s decision is an important precedent for the State of Maryland.

“These court actions and decisions have kept hope alive even as trees were being cut down,” Waite said in a statement. “The more opposition and obstacles the developers face, the closer they might come to a decision to sell the property for preservation purposes instead of continuing to fight to build warehouses.”