Montgomery County must scrap plans to build a public safety training academy in affluent East Village or place it just beyond theback fences of expensive homes — triggering inevitable protests — after losing a shot at a more isolated land tract.

Miller and Smith Inc., which owns the 130-acre Webb Tract where county officials have set their sights for the project, has already sold land more distant from the homes, a company official said, locking the county into a parcel that comes within 100 feet of a classy neighborhood.