BERLIN – Developers whose plans to build a Dollar General in Berlin were denied approval by town officials are seeking help from the court system.
Oxford Chase Development, the company that proposed a new Dollar General at the intersection of Route 113 and Old Ocean City Boulevard, has asked Worcester County Circuit Court to intervene so the project can be appealed to Berlin’s board of zoning appeals.
John Camp, vice president of the company, says the project was denied approval not for technical reasons but for political reasons, something he had not experienced on the Eastern Shore before.
“This is around the Beltway stuff,” he said. “I thought Berlin was the ‘coolest small town in America.’ I don’t think so.”
The Berlin Planning Commission voted in March to deny site plan approval for the 9,100-square-foot Dollar General proposed for the busy Route 113 and Old Ocean City Boulevard intersection. Commission members cited traffic concerns, raised by area residents as well as representatives from nearby Atlantic General Hospital, as their primary reason for not approving the project. Concern was also expressed, however, over an easement that Mark Cropper, attorney for a neighboring landowner, said passed over the Dollar General parcel. Cropper said last week that issue had still not been resolved.
Berlin Mayor Gee Williams said it was not the town’s responsibility to resolve legal disputes.
“The planning commission gave the parties an opportunity to resolve their differences and it didn’t happen,” he said.
Camp says that because the site plan was turned down by the planning commission, his company has the right to seek an audience with the town’s board of zoning appeals.
“The town ordinance says that if there’s a decision by the planning commission you can go to the board of appeals,” Camp said.
Randy Coates, attorney for Oxford Chase, has filed a writ of mandamus in Worcester County Circuit Court.
“It’s an action one files in court to seek performance of an action by another party,” Coates said, adding that in this case that party was the Town of Berlin.
While Oxford Chase officials believe they deserve a hearing with the board of appeals now that their project has been turned down by the planning commission, Berlin officials say Worcester County Circuit Court is where the decision should be made.
“The town believes that the next step is to go to circuit court and have the legal issues clarified,” Williams said.
Coates said he thought if Oxford Chase had appealed the case to circuit court the court would have told the company to take the issue to the town. By then, the 20-day appeal period would have passed.
Coates says the basis for the Oxford Chase appeal is the error company officials believe Berlin’s planning director — who acts on the recommendations of the planning commission — made in the Dollar General decision.
“We claim there’s an error — that the decision of the planning director was illegal,” Coates said.
He said the decision issued by the commission and its director denied access from the parcel of land the Dollar General was to be built on and Old Ocean City Boulevard.
“The planning commission is authorized to regulate access but they cannot deny it,” Coates said. “They basically said ‘yeah you’ve got the legal right to go to Old Ocean City Boulevard but we don’t think you can do it safely.’”
He added that Maryland’s State Highway Administration had approved the entrance Oxford Chase had proposed.