SNOW HILL – The Worcester County Commissioners this week took no action on a sewer allocation request that would have allowed Frontier Town to expand its campground.
On Tuesday, a motion to deny a request from Sun TRS Frontier LLC, the company that owns Frontier Town, for 34 EDUs (equivalent dwelling units) failed, receiving just two votes. There was no motion to approve the EDU application either, however. The lack of any action means Sun TRS Frontier’s appeal of the county’s earlier decision to deny it sewer capacity will move forward.
“If they’d approved the 34 EDU’s, I’d have recommended that Sun drop the appeal,” said Hugh Cropper, the company’s attorney, after Tuesday’s meeting.
Initially, in December, Frontier Town asked to purchase 71 EDUs to expand its campground. The commissioners voted 4-3 to deny the request, pointing out the county’s EDU policy allocated the available capacity to specific uses. Cropper filed an appeal of that decision in Worcester County Circuit Court.
In the meantime, however, he submitted a request for 34 EDUs, which he said would allow for the first phase of the campground expansion to proceed.
Kelly Shannahan, the county’s assistant chief administrative officer, told the commissioners Tuesday the sewer committee had reviewed the request and provided three options. He said the request could be granted by taking EDUs from other categories, as there are currently 20 available for commercial infill, two available for vacant lots, six available for a golf course, five available for a church and 20 available for single family homes.
Shannahan said the other options were to deny the request or to approve a portion of the request by granting Frontier Town the 20 EDUs currently available for commercial infill.
“Once EDUs are transferred from one category to another and sold they will no longer be available for their originally intended purpose,” Shannahan said.
He said that while there were additional EDUs available in the area north of the airport, allocating any of those to properties in the area south of the airport should be “carefully considered” and would require an amendment to the county’s water and sewerage plan.
Commissioner Jim Bunting made a motion to deny the allocation request. It failed, however, with just he and Commissioner Chip Bertino voting in favor of it. Commissioner Ted Elder abstained while Commissioners Bud Church, Joe Mitrecic and Diana Purnell voted against the motion.
Following the vote, Cropper said he’d be reviewing the county’s allocation policy.
“I filed an application,” Cropper said. “How do you not say yes or no? I don’t know what the legal effect of their decision is.”
