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At a Frederick County Council hearing Tuesday, local landowners, conservation groups and recreational users pleaded their case for and against proposed zoning changes to Sugarloaf Mountain ahead of a scheduled vote next week.
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For a year, the mountain, known for its scenic views and sprawling trails, has been the subject of an intense zoning battle between Frederick County and Stronghold Inc., the nonprofit owners of the 3,400-acre mountain and the surrounding 20,000-acre land.
The dispute stretches back several years, and in 2022 the county’s planning commission approved the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan, which would limit development and commercial logging in the mountain range and the surrounding area, among other things. The plan is awaiting a council vote to become legislation. Stronghold opposes the plan.
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A mountain closure from August to October exacerbated tensions over the proposal. Stronghold officials said at the time that they closed the mountain because of a burglary attempt. In an interview Wednesday, John Webster, Stronghold’s president, also blamed the prolonged closure on cement repairs for a popular road. But some supporters of the plan have accused Stronghold of using the closure as leverage over the council. Stronghold’s attorneys had previously threatened to close Sugarloaf if the county didn’t fulfill their zoning requests.
In a letter in the Frederick News-Post earlier this month, Walter C. Martz II, Stronghold’s attorney, reiterated the nonprofit organization’s opposition to the county’s zoning plans. “Any additional restrictions,” he wrote, “will impact Stronghold’s operation and maintenance of Sugarloaf Mountain.”
On Tuesday night, more than 50 people filled Winchester Hall in Frederick for a public hearing on the Sugarloaf quandary. About a third wore green “Sugarloaf Alliance” shirts to support the zoning restrictions. Proposed amendments are due Thursday. If the council accepts them, the council would delay a vote on the plan scheduled for next Tuesday.
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Sugarloaf’s popularity as a recreation spot has expanded the zoning debate far beyond Fredrick. Both sides have enlisted hundreds to thousands of petitioners to pressure the county to act accordingly. Supporters and opponents presented their petitions to the County Council at the hearing.
Advocates of the zoning restrictions said the rules are necessary to preserve local habitats and prevent data center development from encroaching on the area.
Frederick County has considered data center development by the Sugarloaf mountain range before, said Steve Black, president of the conservation group Sugarloaf Alliance, which opposes the centers.
In November 2019, Amazon approached the state to build data centers. Emails between Amazon and Frederick County’s executive branch obtained by Sugarloaf Alliance through public records requests show the county planned and nearly committed to building data centers on the Sugarloaf range using a floating zone, which would allow the project to supersede Sugarloaf’s zoning restrictions. The plans foundered in 2021 after Amazon and the county failed to come to an agreement on a project timeline.
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, and the newspaper’s interim CEO, Patty Stonesifer, sits on Amazon’s board.
Opponents of zoning restrictions, such as Rocky Mackintosh, who lives on a farm in Adamstown, Md., note the mountain range is already under the county’s harshest zoning designation: resource conservation, which heavily restricts development and regulates habitat maintenance. The current restrictions already limit data center development and other large-scale developments in the region, he said.
If the concern is data center development, the solution is easy, he said after the meeting. “Just tell the council you don’t want it.”
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“This overlay plan is absolutely not wanted,” he said. “There are lots of people here tonight who are for the plan or want to make it stronger. … I ask how many of them live here in our region or own property in our region.”
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At one point, the crowd heckled Mackintosh. “Okay, I’ve got 30 or 40,” he said, counting the in-person hecklers. He then pointed to a petition with signatures from owners of 153 parcels that he handed to the council.
Webster, who also opposes the zoning restrictions, said in an interview Wednesday that the landscape plan could create more years-long bureaucratic messes for Stronghold. “The county is making people’s property vulnerable to people’s fears in the future.”
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Mackintosh and other zoning opponents said the overlay would set a precedent for the county to infringe on their property rights.
“I’m not planning to put a data center in. I don’t care if you tell me I can do one,” said David Parker, 61, who owns a farm on the outskirts of the Sugarloaf acres. “But you shouldn’t tell me I can’t build something on my farm. That is crazy.”
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The zoning restrictions, he later said, feel as invasive as a homeowners association that restricts minute details of every project.
Black disagreed. Because of the existing restrictions at Sugarloaf, there wouldn’t be much change in how Stronghold or other nearby landowners operate, he said.
“Well, he can’t guarantee me that,” Parker rebutted.
Webster, though, said he could guarantee one thing. “There will not be development on Sugarloaf property or Sugarloaf Mountain.”
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