---------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 21, 2008 Letter received from H Alderman to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, filed 10/20/08. See: Go to the Online Information link to see the letter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 8, 2008 AMENDMENT TO AGE RESTRICTED HOUSING REGULATIONS SOUGHT BY DEVELOPER (Click on the Link Below for more information) The following amendment to the Age Restricted Housing Conditional Use is being proposed by Brantly Development. Clearly they are looking to water down the restriction to their advantage. Specifically they are proposing that only 80% of the housing in a given development need abide by the age-restriction (over 55) requirement - because "Other younger adults, including individuals with disabilities, would greatly benefit from the universal design standards and other features inherent in age-restricted adult housing. There is no compelling policy reason to restrict these adults from being offered the opportunity to live in these communities." (???? - misses the point - there is no compelling reason to override zoning regulations to give young adults with no children access to housing which has good universal design standards) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 5, 2008 GOOD NEWS: COUNTY BILLS PASS; CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED NOW FOR LEGAL BATTLE BEFORE THE MARYLAND COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS Hello Everyone, There is good news on many fronts. CB49-2008 and CB51-2008 passed with amendments. CB49-2008 increases the scrutiny and burden that will be placed on Hikmat if he wishes to obtain a multi-use sewer permit. CB51-2008 will make it impossible for Hikmat to obtain a multi-use sewer permit after the beginning of the new year. If a multi-user sewer cannot be used, it will be necessary for Hikmat to use individual septic systems which should constitute a new plan and potentially move the process back to the beginning with the department of planning and zoning. The next piece of good news is that we have filed our appeal brief with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. A copy is attached in Adobe format. Also a copy has been placed on the www.nocondos.org website. We have good arguments and hope to obtain a judgment that the petition for a conditional use (a necessary precursor for this development to be built) is completely rejected. Many thanks to Marc Jordan who put together and filed the appeal brief so that we would not have to incur legal expenses for the preparing and filing of the brief. Members of the opposition have been and continue to meet with county and state politicians to try to make sure that this project receives the scrutiny that it never received during the appeals process before the department of planning and zoning. The next phase in our legal battle will be to make oral arguments before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. We would prefer to hire counsel to make the arguments and have raised some money already toward that goal. Thank you to those who contributed. However, we still have to raise more funds prior to the court hearing if we are going to hire representation. Our goals remain modest, to raise between $4,000-$6,000. If possible a good donation amount would be $200-$300. We have attempted to keep costs to a minimum. It is our preference to have Randy again argue the case in court so that judges see that Miles and Stockbridge is continuing to represent us. Please send your donation amount (the amount will be kept confidential) to Marc Jordan at MJordan@jordantell.com and to Ruy Garcia-Zamor at ruythu@comcast.net so we can update our records. Unless you ask otherwise, we will include your name, but not amount, on donor lists that will be sent out to the opposition. You may pay by check or credit card. Marc can process checks and MC and Visa credit cards through his law firm with funds to be held in the firm’s escrow account. Please mail check donations to : Marc Jordan 7370 Grace Dr, Suite 101 Columbia, Maryland 21044 If you would like to pay by credit card, please call Marc's offices at (443) 535-0040. Thank you for your continued support. Best regards, Ruy Ruy Garcia-Zamor, Attorney at Law ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan 24, 2008 OPPOSITION FUND RAISING KICK OFF Hi everyone, Please contribute to our new fund raising drive. Our goals are modest, to raise between $5,000-$6,000. If possible a good donation amount would be $250. Of course, any donation is appreciated. We have come up with a strategy to try to keep costs to a minimum. Marc, his law clerks, and I are going to prepare the brief for filing with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Still, there are going to be expenses for transcripts, copies, hourly out of pocket costs for salary of Marc's law clerks, and hiring a lawyer to argue the case in court for us. It is our preference to have Randy again argue the case in court so that judges see that Miles and Stockbridge is continuing to represent us. Since Sweeney did not present any rationale or logic behind his reasoning, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals should not be affected much by his decision. Our tax dollars were completely wasted on his salary. The judge just punted. Attached is a copy of the decision. Please send your confidential donation amount to Marc Jordan at MJordan@jordantell.com and to Ruy Garcia-Zamor at ruythu@comcast.net so we can update our records. Unless you ask otherwise, we will include your name on donor lists that are sent out to the opposition. You may pay by check or credit card. Marc can process checks and MC and Visa credit cards through his law firm with funds to be held in the firm’s escrow account. Please mail check donations to : Marc Jordan 7370 Grace Dr, Suite 101 Columbia, Maryland 21044 If you would like to pay by credit card, please call Marc's offices at (443) 535-0040. Best regards, Ruy --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan 24, 2008 UDATE ON CIRCUIT COURT HEARING CASE NOW BEFORE The Maryland Court of Specials Appeals Hi everyone, Happy new year. Among the things that I am thankful for this year are that we are not passing a construction site each day when we leave our lovely community and that the building of clustered senior housing has been thwarted so far. I also relish that the wait at our traffic light has not been made worse than it already is. It seems to me that things are definitely off to a good start. We are continuing to navigate our way through the legal system thanks to the efforts of everybody in the opposition. Our case is now before the Maryland Court of Specials Appeals. This court is the level of legal authority above the Howard County Circuit Court. Our notice of appeal and information statement were filed and we will soon be informed of when our next brief is due. At this point it does not seem likely that our case will be heard any earlier than this summer. Judge Sweeney from the Howard County Circuit Court retired around a week after hearing our case and did not take the time to substantively address any of the legal issues raised in our appeal to that court. While our briefs contained many excellent arguments, none of them were mentioned in the ruling and, as such, his decision really offered no clarity on our legal rights. It is extremely unusual that a judge issue a decision without addressing the merits of any of the legal arguments and without even setting forth a rationale underlying his decision. In the many appeals handled by Mr. Randy Whittenberger (our attorney and a partner from Miles and Stockbridge), he has never seen a judge altogether avoid placing his/her thoughts into a decision. Indeed, in these appeal situations it is his understanding that Circuit Court judges often relish the task of writing an appellate decision, which is a change from their day-to-day routine. As county tax payers the failure to do us the courtesy of providing an opinion is especially irksome. On the positive side, Sweeney's effective "rubber stamping" of the Board's Decision without any substantive opinion should carry no weight on any appeal to a higher court. Randy believes that we do have a number of good arguments that justify our current appeal to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. We continue to work toward achieving victory and overturning the approval of the senior housing development in our neighborhood. If we do prevail in this appeal it should be a crushing blow to Hikmat that forces him to go back to the drawing board and start the whole process over again with a new plan or with new hearings before the Howard County Board of Planning and Zoning. Now that would really make for a happy new year for all of us. Best regards, Ruy --------------------------------------------------------------------- UDATE ON FILINGS: CIRCUIT COURT HEARING MONDAY 11/19/07 9AM Hello everyone, Our attorneys at Miles and Stockbridge filed a Reply Memorandum on our behalf. This document, in combination with our originally filed Memorandum, sets forth all of our legal arguments for denying the petition for the Greenberry development. The next step is for the court to hear oral arguments and then issue a ruling. A copy of the Reply Memorandum has been posted on our website. The court hearing is on Monday November 19 at 9 AM. It would be great if everyone could make a point of attending the hearing to try to impress the judge with the fact that the community cares. We will not be able to testify since this is an appeal. PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO ATTEND. The specific court room can be determined by asking for information at the court house. The court hearing is at the Circuit Court for Howard County located at: 8360 Court Avenue Ellicott City, MD 21043 410-313-2111 http://www.courts.state.md.us/clerks/howard/index.html Directions are as follows: 1: From our community 3: Turn left onto MD-32 E 4: Merge onto US-29 N / COLUMBIA PIKE via EXIT 16A 7.3 miles 5: Merge onto BALTIMORE NATIONAL PIKE / US-40 E via EXIT 24A 0.9 miles 6: Turn RIGHT onto ROGERS AVE. 0.4 miles 7: Stay STRAIGHT to go onto COURT HOUSE DR. 0.7 miles 8: Turn RIGHT onto COURT PL. 0.1 miles 9: End at 8360 Court Ave Ellicott City, MD 21043-4550 See you next Monday! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Memorandum of Respondents to the Circuit Court received 10/12/07. Click the "On Line Information" page to see a copy of the first response from the other side. Mark and Ruy are soliciting any comments to this memorandum. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SIGNS OF PROGRESS "Corn has never looked so beautiful!" Thank you to everyone in the opposition for all of your efforts to date. The proof that we have created a positive effect is demonstrated by all of the lovely corn that is growing in the plot of land that will be the Greenberry development. If we had not filed our lawsuit there would be no reason why the construction would not have started. Instead, thanks to your efforts, the best use of the land in the short term has been to grow corn. This delay of the project for at least a year and the attendant aggravations, traffic jams at the light, and the blight created by the high density housing, makes our efforts well worth it. So while Hikmat and the Williams are not making money, other developers are selling properties all throughout the area. Hopefully, with our continued pressure, the Williams family will decide it is better to develop the land in a manner that respects the well being and property values of the surrounding community. At this point Hikmat and the Williams are risking the loss of an assured normal profit for the sale of their land in exchange for the possibility of greater future profit. Hopefully, with our efforts, that possibility will continue diminishing. UPDATE ON LAWSUIT The next event to take place will be the filing of our legal brief by August 6. This brief will contain our best arguments as to why the decision of the Board of Appeals for the Department of Planning and Zoning (BOA) should be reversed. As I mentioned in an earlier email, we have already received the transcripts of the proceedings before the BOA and a copy is posted on our website www.nocondos.org . I would like to thank Ed Grimes who reviewed the transcript and provided excellent comments which were forwarded to our attorneys for use in preparing our brief. Please take the time to also review the transcript and send in comments. Since the transcript is so long it may make sense for multiple people to get together and each agree to review particular sections. While our attorneys will be reviewing the transcript, receiving our comments can only help them focus on the issues. Best regards, Ruy