RALE Members Wonder About Lawsuit Filed By Monrovia Town Center Developers

They say they haven’t served summons to appear in court.


Frederick, Md. (KM)  It’s a question on the minds of the defendants in a lawsuit field by the developers of the Monrovia Town Center: are they’re being sued? The President of Residents Against Landsdale Expansion, Steve McKay, says the suit was filed last year, but no one has received a summons to appear in court.

“They’re asking for another two months during which they might issue the summons which means they’ve might actually served the suit against the county and against RALE and against the adjourning property owners that participated with RALE,” he says.

The developers, 75-80 Properties, LLC, and Payne Investments, LLC, are seeking $500,000, claiming that’s how much the county has cost them in time.

In 2014, the last the Board of County Commissioners approved the rezoning on 395-acres of property near the intersection of Route 75 and 80 which allows the developers to construct 1250 new homes, this despite strong opposition from nearby residents and property owners.

A Circuit Judge in 2015 ordered the case to be sent to the County Council because of “tainted” evidence presented by the developers. It was a letter, purportedly from the Frederick Area Committee on Transportation, which supports the massive project. But FACT says it was not approved by the organization’s board

Even though the suit was in 2015, McKay says he wonders what the plaintiffs are up to. “When I try to access what really is their strategy here from their perspective, I have no idea,” he says. “Because it only just seems so clumsy. It just seems not very well thought out.”

In the meantime, the developers have said they are putting together a new proposal for the project, but, McKay says, no application has been filed.

If one is put together, he hopes they engage the community in the project. “The first thing we’re suppose to know about that is when they call a community meeting, an actual, real community. Not the one that they pretended to have earlier when they made up the story about 30 to 40 people in a shed on the {75-80} Racetrack,” he says.

The developers were criticized during a public hearing on the project when they said they called a community meeting about the project at a site along the racetrack. But residents pointed out that area of the track is actually a shed which wasn’t large enough hold 30 to 40 people.