The county government has no business leaning on an Ellicott City homeowners association to help a developer build new houses in its neighborhood. The County Council should reject the relevant item in County Executive Kenneth Ulman's proposed capital budget.

The matter concerns negotiations between the Spring Ridge Homeowner's Association, developer Ron Carter and Georgia and Paul Miller. Carter has struck a deal with the Millers to buy their four acres on Rosemar Drive, contingent upon his ability to get water and sewer service onto the property so that he can put half a dozen houses on it.

Standing in the way of the deal is the homeowners association, which owns an adjoining quarter-acre of wooded open space. Carter wants to run a sewer line through it, and has made a compensatory offer to the association.

Association officials decline to discuss publicly any offers or counteroffers, but Carter says he offered them $10,000 and to replace every tree he has to cut down with two. He tells us the association countered with a demand of $30,000 and the same two-to-one replanting promise. Carter says he's weighing the counter offer in light of the recent downturn in the real estate market.

That's called negotiation. It's how these things are supposed to work.

But the Ulman administration is riding to Carter's rescue, putting in its budget request of $40,000 to acquire an easement through the association's patch of woods, using the government's power of eminent domain.

Such an exercise goes beyond any justifiable application of that power.

County officials say that they are acting on behalf of the Millers, who have the right to ask for sewer service because their property is in the metropolitan district. But that doesn't give the county the right to strong-arm another property owner.

Certainly, there are times when the power of eminent domain is in the best interest of the public and ought to be used. When condemnation is the only way to get a needed school or hospital, we would expect and even demand that the government employ that tool.

Using it to settle a conflict between two private property owners is another matter.

If Carter and the homeowners association can't reach an accommodation, it's not up to the taxpayers to force the issue. Let the parties look out for their own interests on a level playing field.

user comments (1)

user milton says...

Condemnation is never the only way to get land that may be needed for a school, hospital or some other quasi-public use. The needed land could simply be purchased from its owner by the County. If such a parcel of land is truly the only nearby parcel that is suitable for a school or hospital, then the County should expect to pay a high price for that land. Allowing the County to play the eminent domain card begs for abuses such as we see in this article. I recall not too long ago that a home in Howard County was taken by eminent domain supposedly for "open space"�. A bank now sits on a portion of that property.

Posted 4:50 PM, 05.09.08

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