Abingdon Business Park development still stuck in legal purgatory after county appeals ruling

For 65 years, Janet Hardy has lived in her home on Abingdon Road in Abingdon. Her kids grew up playing in the surrounding woods, and she enjoyed the quiet and clean air that the trees provided.

But the landscape around Hardy’s home has changed drastically over the past few years, as a developer has fought to turn 330 acres of woods and wetlands across the street from her driveway into a warehouse development.

“We think this is a dangerous situation for everyone involved,” she said, looking out at the site of the proposed development, which has already been wiped of most trees. “I would like to see it preserved, instead of developed in such a dangerous way.”

It’s been nearly five years since a developer began trying to turn a portion of Abingdon Woods into a business park full of warehouses, but the project is still locked in legal purgatory, making it unclear what will happen to a development that has garnered ferocious opposition from residents.

The latest development was at the end of November, when the Harford County government under the direction of County Executive Bob Cassily decided to appeal a circuit court order that would have allowed construction on the land to resume after a monthslong county stop work order.

It’s yet another round in what has become a multi-year fight over the future of the woodland along the Haha Branch stream, as the developers — Harford Investors LLP and BTC III 1-95 Logistics Center LLC — square off with advocacy groups, and more recently, Cassily’s administration.

The Harford County Circuit Court’s ruling Nov. 15 — like most of the challenges to the development — centered on the developer’s forest conservation plan. Harford County Circuit Judge Kevin Mahoney ruled that the Cassily administration did not have the authority to revoke the developer’s work permits and site plan.

Even though the ruling is under appeal, the developer could still go forward with construction, according to Cindy Mumby, deputy chief of the Harford County Executive staff. However, Mumby wrote that the developer has advised the county that they are not proceeding with construction at this time. The county and developer are currently in negotiations about the project.

A requirement of the 1991 Maryland Forest Conservation Act, a forest conservation plan is meant to outline specific strategies for retaining, reforesting and protecting areas tied to a development. In the case of Abingdon Business Park, the developer had argued in 2019 for a waiver from the act, claiming that preservation would deprive the owner of rights “commonly enjoyed by others,” according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The prior county administration of Barry Glassman had granted the developer the waiver.

But environmental groups in Maryland, and the new Harford County government under Cassily’s administration, now claim that the developer’s forest conservation plan is not sufficient.

“The residents of Harford County rightly expect us to uphold the law,” Cassily said in a news release at the end of November that announced he would be appealing the circuit court’s decision. “The forest conservation plan filed by the developer of Abingdon Business Park violates state and county forest conservation requirements, and my administration will continue working to ensure the law is followed.”

The developers are seeking to build 2 million square feet of warehouses on the property bordered by Interstate 95 to the north and Maryland Route 7 – Philadelphia Road to the south. Construction has stopped and started on and off over the past year, as the development has gone through a series of legal challenges.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has argued since 2019 in various jurisdictions that the forest conservation plan for Abingdon Woods was inadequate. That legal fight even included a 2022 landmark ruling before the Maryland Supreme Court, which ruled that forest conservation plans can be challenged prior to a full site plan being completed.

But attorneys for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said that the county’s most recent decision to appeal the circuit court ruling was not enough. Instead, Paul Smail, vice president for litigation and general counsel with the foundation, said that Harford County must alter the forest conservation plan waiver initially granted to the developer.

“With respect to our case, we are currently waiting for that action by the County to occur,” he wrote in an email.

Other residents along Abingdon Road said that the work already done on the project had been noisy and disruptive to wildlife, and that representatives from the developer have never reached out to them about the project on their doorsteps.

“I don’t want a business development across the street,” said Susan, who lives on Abingdon Road and didn’t want to share her last name for fear of retribution. “This road is not built for all the traffic this project would let in.”

She said that there had been an increase in wildlife in her backyard, and that the reduction in shade from cutting down the trees had increased her summer cooling bills.

“It just disrupts the quiet of this area,” she said.

A coalition of community groups under the banner Save Abingdon Woods have organized against the development. Tracey Waite, a founder and co-president of Harford County Climate Action, said that the county’s decision to appeal the judge’s ruling was a step in the right direction, but she hoped the county would do more to protect all forests in the region.

“This is so important to all of us because we understand the importance of forests in addressing climate change,” Waite said. “Maryland is a fairly liberal state, but even here we spend so much money on tree replanting efforts; yet, we’re still cutting down forests across the state.

As for Hardy, she hopes that future generations get to enjoy the woods that her family did. She worries that the pollution from the project will impact the health of kids at nearby elementary schools on Old Post Road and at St. Francis Church, as well as reduce resale value for homes.

“I feel bad for young families who have to deal with this,” she said. “A lack of forests can be so detrimental to the health of kids.”