Year in Review

The SCA Annual Letter
Upcoming Events
Join us for Sugarloaf's annual membership meeting on Saturday, April 27, 2013, 9:30 am.  Continental breakfast will be served, and Royce Hanson will be our speaker to review the results of the recent FARM (Farming at Metro's Edge) Conference.
Mark your calendars now for Sugarloaf's fifth annual Plant Swap, Saturday, May 11, 1-3, rain or shine.  Buy, sell, swap, give-away - your choice.
Global Mission Church
September 17, 2012 letter from Maryland State Senator Rob Garagiola to the Maryland Department of Transportation.
November 8, 2012 staff report of the Frederick County Planning Commission in preparation for the November 14 Hearing
November 13, 2012 letter from the Montgomery County Planning Department to the Frederick County Planning Commission
November 20, 2012 letter from Maryland State Senator Rob Garagiola to the Maryland Department of Transportation
December 4, 2012 letter from Maryland State Senator Rob Garagiola to the Maryland Department of the Environment
Zoning and Permit Issues
Ten Mile Creek
Threat to the Master Plan? -- Zoning Rewrites
Passage of ZTA 12-03, Agricultural Zones-Wineries    and
SCA's letter commenting on ZTA 12-03
Passage of ZTA 21-12, Erosion, Sediment Control and Storm Water Management-Coal Tar Pavements
Special Benefits Permit Recommendations
Regional Happenings
Linden Farm field trip - PHS Global Ecology juniors
Poolesville High School Global Ecology Project 2012 S.C.A. Award Winners
New Farmer's Pilot Project
"The White's Ferry Road Paper Trail"
Agriculture in Motion: Experience Local Farming from a High School Senior's Perspective
   

Sugarloaf Citizens' Association, Inc.
   Linden Farm
   20900 Martinsburg Road
   P.O. Box 218
   Dickerson, MD 20842
   301-349-4889

   info@sugarloafcitizens.org

 


March Newsletter

Scenes around the Ag Reserve
Testimony Denied as Board of Appeals OKs Global Mission Church Authorization -- SCA to Appeal

At its scheduled February 28 hearing, the Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals refused to hear the testimony of co-appellants Sugarloaf Citizens Association's (SCA) and Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MCA), as well as that of 22 individual witnesses who signed up to testify in support of the appeal and against the GMC project.

If the 118,500 square foot Global Mission Church megacomplex is built on agricultural land in Southern Frederick County, access will be from Old Hundred Road, just west of the I-270/109 interchange in Montgomery County, via a concrete road and bridge across Little Bennett Creek and its floodplain.  Its water will be drawn from the Piedmont Sole Source Aquifer and its sewage collected in an unprecedentedly large sand mound septic field adjacent to Little Bennett Creek.

At the February 28 hearing, the five-member Appeals Board accepted arguments by attorneys for GMC that their Board lacked legal jurisdiction to consider evidence that GMC would use far more septic capacity than the maximum permitted 4,999 gallons per day.

Also, the Board voted to dismiss SCA's appeal that the Planning Commission decision is inconsistent with Frederick County's land use master plan, on the grounds that the GMC application is solely governed by an old master plan, ignoring the addition of new acreage not reviewed under their initial application.

On March 11, SCA voted to authorize our counsel to file a Request for Reconsideration with the Board of Appeals and to pursue legal remedies before the Maryland Department of the Environment regarding the Frederick County Health Department's determination on the septic issues.

The proposed GMC megacomplex is not a country church – not with floor space the size of the Nashville Convention Center, impervious parking for hundreds of cars, multiple worship services for thousands, kitchen facilities to serve hundreds, 48 class and meeting rooms, a multi-purpose room and a double gymnasium. 

SCA does not intend to rest while any opportunity exists to stop this project from going forward as proposed. 

As always, we both welcome and need your insights, your involvement, and your energy.

Please join our efforts and contact me at president@sugarloafcitizens.org.

Jim Choukas-Bradley
President 

Coming May 11th! Please click here for details!

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