Residents discuss Myers farm annexation

By Richard D.L. Fulton
Emmitsburg News Editor

THURMONT, Md. – Though 300 to 400 new homes in Thurmont would increase the customer base for his jewelry store, John Brown doesn’t want to see the Myers farm annexed into town.

“It would help my business, but I’m more concerned about the town,” Brown said. “I don’t want to see 300 new homes.”

Brown was among the 30 people who attended an April 12 meeting in Thurmont’s town hall to talk about the possible annexation and town growth in general.

“Mayor” Martin Burns hosted the meeting in response to the many e-mails he has received since he said he expected an annexation request for the 235-acre farm to come to the town in the near future.

Burns has met with developers twice and told them, “You’d better bring your checkbook if you’re even thinking about coming to the town with an annexation request.”

He said an annexation is a legally binding contract. The town can stipulate anything and if the developer agrees to it, they have to abide by it.

Area resident Kevin Haney said, “To me, it almost sounds like bribery.”

Burns said it was a business decision for the town and the decision depends on what the town is offered.

“They have not made it anywhere close to being intriguing for me,” Burns said.

Besides a commercial development with a large box store and a residential development of 300 to 400 new homes, developers have suggested building the shell of a new town hall (the exterior structure only, leaving the interior for the town to finish) and a wastewater treatment plant for the development.

“Nothing is firm until somebody puts pen to paper and they say this is what we’re offering,” Burns said.

The box store is commonly believed to be Wal-Mart, but Burns said five different large stores have expressed an interest. Wal-Mart has not signed a contract and Burns has heard Wal-Mart is interested in property between Lewistown and Walkersville.

“If we were talking Wal-Mart alone, I think people would say go for it,” Burns said. “People don’t want the homes.”

Though the town can’t stop a request from being made, town officials can discourage it from being made.

“What we can try to do is steer it and scare them off,” Burns said. “Sometimes that works.”

However, he noted that the town’s potential for growth is down to about one year’s worth of developable lots. With the current zoning on the farm, only a dozen homes could be built on the farm now, according to town planning and zoning commission chairman John Ford.

Without that growth, Burns said, “Your sewer rates and water rates and tax rates are going to go up if we don’t get more money in.”

Haney, who lives within a third of a mile from the farm, asked if the town would consider bringing the annexation issue to a referendum. Burns said he fully endorsed a referendum, but it has to be brought forth by residents. The town charter doesn’t allow the commissioners themselves to begin the process.

Even if a referendum were successful, only town residents would be allowed to vote on it. Haney and about half the people at the meeting would not have a say.

“What you’re asking for is a right to act as if you are part of the town and paying our taxes,” Burns said.

Town resident Thomas Cromwell said, “You’re responding to other people’s initiatives, which are really always driven by commercial interests.”

(See related story, “Myers development could start in 2008,” in this issue of The Dispatch.)