Update on Royal Farms Gas Station and Convenience Store Proposed In

SPARKS-GLENCOE COMMUNITY PLANNING COUNCIL Preserving our rural heritage Spring 2015 Newsletter Dear Neighbor, UPDATE ON ROYAL Spring couldn’t get here fast enough this FARMS GAS STATION AND year. And with the thaw we want to bring you CONVENIENCE STORE some updates on what is happening with the Royal Farms proposed new convenience store PROPOSED IN HEREFORD and gas station in Hereford, what the so called In January 2014 a Baltimore County Administrative “rain tax” really signifies, and why the bees are Law Judge granted Royal Farms permission to build a disappearing. The winter melt will also enable gas station and convenience store on Mt. Carmel Road in Hereford, on a site - which is now a corn field - used US Lacrosse to break ground on its new location for the Hereford Fall Festival. Sparks-Glencoe, Graul’s in Loveton. For these stories and more, please Market and other community members (the protestants) read on. appealed that decision to the County’s Board of Appeals. And while you’re thinking about what you Eight days of hearings were held in 2014 and 2015 want to plant in your garden this year, keep in and just concluded. SGCPC members attended every mind that you might be able a get a free new tree day of the hearings, and six members of our Board for your property. The information is inside. testified on various aspects of the case. Mr. Graul, several local residents, and the owner of Michael’s Pizza also testified against the proposal. The Hereford As always, we ask you to also keep us in Community Association voted 38-3, to support it. We mind. If you value keeping your countryside are awaiting the Board’s decision as this newsletter goes rural, keeping your streams and drinking water to press. safe and vibrant, and keeping the traffic on your country roads down, then we are here for you. There are many reasons why the protestants oppose We need your support both financial and with the construction of a Royal Farms gas station and store, volunteer hours. Please be generous! including its incompatibility with Hereford’s historic rural character, degradation of natural resources, traffic The SGCPC Board congestion and traffic safety, increased crime, adequacy of water supply, and the likelihood of small local stores being driven out of business by a large chain. One of the biggest concerns about the proposal is that gasoline Get a native big tree at a great price at leaks will contaminate local wells. Baltimore County’s Big Trees Sale May 9 An expert geologist, testifying for the protestants, 9am - 2pm explained that the underground water in this area Ag Center, Shawan Road consists of an unconfined aquifer. This means that www.baltimorecountymd.gov/bigtrees contamination from the gas station would flow freely (continued on page 2) ROYAL FARMS (continued from page 1) usage will not imperil the supply to their neighbors’ wells. throughout the aquifer, not being confined by any structure in the bedrock; there would be no barriers to The Hereford Plan points out that the continued prevent the gasoline from entering the aquifers feeding provision of potable groundwater is a great concern surrounding wells. due to the geology of the area which limits the amount of water recharging local wells. It offers this caution: Royal Farms witnesses testified that their gas tanks “Decreases in groundwater recharged due to increased and leak sensors have been updated to minimize the impervious surface area should be avoided to ensure possibility of leaks and to quickly detect any that occur. continued availability of groundwater to individual Also, they testified that there were no better locations supply wells.” for a gas station in the area, meaning sites where a leak Another important point would cause less damage, of contention in the case is than at the location they the “need” for another gas propose. Since the entire station and convenience Hereford area depends on store. Applicable zoning well water, there is obviously regulations state that the no good place for a leak to rural commercial district in occur. which the subject property is located is intended for Mr. Graul testified that shopping and personal he was concerned that a gas leak would contaminate services that are frequently needed and not available the well providing water to his market. He explained within a reasonable distance. As the Hereford that it took several attempts to find a productive well Community Plan points out: “The C.R. (Commercial, after fertilizer ran off the property on which the Royal Rural) District was designed to allow rural areas to Farms station would be located and contaminated his develop services either unique to or in keeping with well. He testified that another such incident could force the rural character of Northern Baltimore County his store to close, eliminating jobs, essential goods and rural town centers, and are not intended to supply considerable community support. the complete range of services one would find in an urban area.” The law places the burden on the Royal A scientist from the Johns Hopkins School of Farms to document the need for a new gas station at the Public Health explained another form of contamination proposed location. gas stations bring: gasoline that leaches through the cement pad of the station or washes off the pad into the While a Royal Farms expert testified that there was surrounding area with rainwater. Unbeknownst to many a need for another gas station in Hereford, an expert of us, gasoline that spills onto the cement pad does not for the protestants testified that there was not sufficient evaporate—it penetrates through the cement and enters demand for gasoline in the Hereford area to support the ground below. From there, it can enter the aquifer and another station, and predicted that if another station were flow throughout the area. While Royal Farms experts opened, either one of the two would go out of business, testified that their drainage system would capture storm or they would both limp along with meager profits. water runoff, they did not address the issue of gasoline penetrating the station’s cement pad. Advertising Specialties Annual Reports In response to fears expressed by community Artwork & Design members that Royal Farms would consume so much Banners • Booklets water that local wells would experience shortages, Royal Brochures • Business Cards Calendars • Catalogs Farms testified that there was adequate water supply, but Envelopes • Folders offered little evidence to buttress these claims. Baltimore 2010 Flyers • Full Color Printing MD Chamber of Commerce Invitations • Letterheads County has indicated that additional water studies are Small Business of the Year Marketing Consulting needed, but they have not yet been performed. Since Menus • Newsletters Baltimore • Hunt Valley • Lutherville NCR Forms • Notepads the applicable zoning regulations state that growth Towson • Westminster Posters • Postcards should occur only where “a potable water supply 1.866.MMP.6789 Programs • Stationery can be provided without an adverse effect on the www.millersmmp.com More By The Minute! environment and neighboring uses,” Royal Farms should be required to provide clear proof that their water 2 The same witness also testified that there were STORM MANAGEMENT – enough stores in the area selling the kind of items that Royal Farms would sell in its convenience store, so there the Way it Works was no need for that part of the Royal Farm enterprise either. Indeed, with a 7-11, Michael’s Pizza, Graul’s, Since the stormwater management fee was imposed the Monkton Grill, Subway and the convenience store several years ago, it has incited howls of protest; and and Exxon gas station, all in downtown Hereford within since our new Governor is attempting its repeal, it seems walking distance of each other and of the proposed appropriate to take a look at the history and reasons for Royal Farms site, nothing that Royal Farms sells is its enactment and see which makes more sense: to keep needed in Hereford. it or to scrap it. SGCPC collected 1200 signatures on petitions In 2010, a federal lawsuit by environmental groups opposing the proposed gas station and store. Royal successfully argued that voluntary efforts to reduce Farms objected to the petitions being accepted by the Board of Appeals, and the Board sustained the objection. pollution in the Chesapeake Bay weren’t working. The While it would seem that those who live and shop in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the local area would be the best judges about the need for federal Clean Water Act, mandated a cleanup of the another gas station and convenience store, the Board Bay by requiring that six watershed states – Maryland refused to accept that input. among them - be monitored for three main sources of pollution: nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. While Weighing the burdens against the benefits of the the EPA was charged with ultimate responsibility for proposed gas station and store, it is our considered the cleanup, under a partnership with these States, it opinion that Hereford is not a good location for the Royal was left to the States to enforce compliance. Farms. It would be incompatible with Hereford’s rural character, would degrade the environment, consume a large amount of water, double the traffic on a small rural Maryland enacted the Stormwater Management road, and threaten the viability of existing independently Act and issued new municipal stormwater permits that owned local stores. The products that Royal Farms outline steps needed to be taken to clean up runoff would sell are already available in Hereford. This pollution and tighten limits on urban sprawl. It was left proposal would not enhance the unique character of the up to 10 counties whose waterways feed into the Bay town and should be denied.

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