Homeowners in a Baltimore County community are relying on a circuit court judge to keep what they call a noisy and smelly trucking firm from encroaching further on their otherwise-tranquil neighborhood.
Residents from the Bloomfield community sandwiched between Lansdowne and Arbutus told a circuit court judge Oct. 20 she should uphold a county Board of Appeals ruling that said the New England Motor Freight company cannot expand from 70 rigs to 324, moving within 30 feet of homes.
But that?s not all. They also want Judge Ruth Jakubowski to reverse another board ruling that allows the company to operate at its current size as a special exception to zoning codes ? which they argue expired.
A decision in their favor would close the plant entirely, they said.
“I?m going for the throat,” said community attorney J. Carroll Holzer. “As it is, it?s sitting right on the existing community. And, over the years, they have finagled their existence even being there.”
Attorneys for the company are appealing the board?s decision against its expansion. They declined comment, citing pending litigation.
The small neighborhood of about 96 homes off Washington Boulevard is virtually crime-free, said Lorna Rudnikas, president of the Bloomfield community association. Close-knit residents have organized bake sales, bull roasts, a dance and raffles to cover their legal expensesand to conduct noise tests and consult with health experts on the impacts of exhaust fumes.
The 24-7 company changed hands in the mid-1980s with a two-year gap between owners, Rudnikas said. The first proprietor operated as an exception to a county law that requires companies to maintain 300-yard buffers between neighborhoods.
But that exception expired during the two-year period where the property sat idle, the community argued, and they hope
Jakubowski agrees.
“The first is an honorable one,” Rudnikas said. “We have everything we need to win, of course, that doesn?t mean that we will.”
Attorneys do not expect a decision before December.
