Maryland's highest court is about to wade into a controversy about large-scale development in rural Allegany County that could have a bearing on Chesapeake Bay and the rest of the state.  The case concerns Terrapin Run, a proposed 4,300 community that would be built on 935 acres off of Scenic U.S. 40 by Green Ridge State Forest.  

It's drawing statewide and even national attention because the heart of the dispute is about the legal weight to be given to comprehensive or master plans, the blueprints for growth that every county and muncipality in the state is required to have.  You can read the story I wrote about it in The Sun here.  As Tom Pelton, the Sun's environmental beat reporter, pointed out to me, controversies have erupted around other large-scale development proposals that did not square with local plans, such as the Blackwater Resort project in Cambridge and Harbor East in Baltimore.

Even as the Terrapin Run dispute was heading to the Court of Appeals in Annapolis, a new one has flared up in Allegany over yet another plan.  This one, two years in the making, seeks to spell out growth in LaVale, an unincorporated area outside Cumberland.  Though parts of LaVale are already heavily developed, with stores, motels and offices along U.S. 40, the new plan drawn up with citizen input over the past year or so originally called for discouraging large-scale residential development.

But local Realtors and at least one large landowner objected to that plan.  The Realtors complained the plan would impose "draconian" restrictions on new housing construction, and worried that the development restrictions imposed in the LaVale plan could become a countywide policy.  They argued that Allegany, struggling to rebuild jobs and hold onto its population, needs to encourage more develpment, not discourage it.  Here's a letter explaining their objections.

After those objections, county planners produced a new version of the plan, calling for more residential and commercial development in the area and nearly doubling the amount of land targeted for new housing, even though state planners project population loss there.  Here's a story about the changes in the Cumberland Times-News.

Smart-growth activists complained that the new language said large-scale residential development was to be encouraged in LaVale. Here's a letter published in the Cumberland Times-News from Dale Sams, a member of the Citizens for Smart Growth in Allegany County, the group that has fought Terrapin Run.

The planning commission's executive director called the revisions "clarifications," which did not require a new public hearing before approving the plan, according to this story in the Times-News. But residents complained the plan's intent had been stood on its head.  The local forestry board objected that the revised plan did not protect lands traditionally used to produce harvestable timber, while the League of Women Voters complained that the changes were made without notice or opportunity for the public to comment. 

The county commissioners have scheduled a public hearing on the plan Dec. 6, after which they could approve the plan or suggest modifications, according to the Times-News. Plan on hearing more about this.

UPDATE: Allegany County commissioners have postponed the hearing on the LaVale plan until January, to give the planning commission a chance to consider amending it.  The planning commission will meet Dec. 19 at 7 p.m., the Cumberland Times-News reports.