In an angry session, County Council narrowly approves sale of old Towson fire station property

Members of the group Save Towson’s Gateway, at Council meeting, indicate they’re watching their elected officials

April 16, 2018 UPDATE: At a meeting that turned into a shouting match, the Baltimore County Council on Monday evening approved the sale of the 4.6-acre site at York Road and Bosley Avenue to Caves Valley Partners.

Moments before the vote, Councilman Wade Kach said he had received a copy of an email between a county employee and a Caves Valley attorney from last year in which they discussed which trees the developer wanted removed from the site. The trees were later cut down at taxpayer expense despite the fact that the site was to be sold “as is” and the county council had passed a resolution saying the trees could not be removed.

However, the other council members were nonplussed by the news.

“I don’t think there was any issue at all or question as to who removed the trees and why,” replied Council Chairman Julian Jones. “It had to do with a change in the price and a negotiation that took place. We’re not going to get into all that.”

At a council meeting in April 2017 — two days after the trees had been cleared — there was a testy exchange between Councilman David Marks and Fred Homan, the chief administrative officer for the Kevin Kamenetz administration. Marks said he was upset that neither he nor anyone else had been notified that the trees were to be taken down.

“Quite frankly, the county is currently moving to accelerate the settlement on the property so the county can receive the $8 million that it’s currently had to forward finance through the sale of debt,” Homan said last year. “That keeps the revenue as a receivable, which does not help. The county needs the cash from the sale of the property. So the county is trying to accelerate the close of the property. That’s what going on at this point in time.”

In fact, the county will only receive about $5 million for the property.

The vote to approve the sale on Monday was 4 to 3 with Vicki Almond, Wade Kach and Todd Crandell voting against it, and Jones, Marks, Tom Quirk and Cathy Bevins voting in favor. Marks said he was supporting the deal because it was the best way to move forward without a gas station on the site.

After the vote, Towson resident Mark Lee testified at the meeting and told the Council, “For the record, the developer is not paying $6.9 million despite the number on the fiscal note. … This administration has shellacked the taxpayers and citizens in order to get the key site turned over, cheaply I might add, to its favorite contributors. The Council has made decisions repeatedly to back whatever the administration wants. … In a few months, the voters will have their say, and to say that we’re angry is an absolute understatement.”

Lee, a member of the group Save Baltimore County 2018, also thanked Sen. Jim Brochin, who is running in the primary for county executive against Almond, for voicing his opposition to the deal. That drew a scoff from Almond, but she did not respond when given the opportunity to reply.

Quirk, however, called Lee “a Jim Brochin propaganda artist” and said the deal the county had just approved had the blessing of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, and that had it failed, the community would be left with a gas station at the corner of York Road and Bosley Avenue.

(While the GTCCA did negotiate a deal to stop the gas station development, it was not involved in the price negotiation.)

“My vote tonight was about eliminating the gasoline station from the property at York Road and Bosley Avenue, period. I tried to do that in August, and I am pleased it happened tonight. I wanted to respect the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations and other stakeholders who spent months negotiating this agreement. If the County Council had voted the other way, the Planned Unit Development would have advanced and there would be years of litigation.  It is time to end this controversy,” Marks said in a statement. “Based on my conversations today, I believe the agreement is legally sound.”

“I can’t explain Councilwoman Almond’s vote,” Marks added. “I would have liked her support last August.”

Almond said, through a spokeswoman, that “I am supportive of a no-gas compromise, but not supportive of the process that brought us to this price reduction.”

Removal of underground storage tank at fire station site

April 15, 2018 The Baltimore County Council is set to vote Monday, April 16, on whether to approve a lower price for the land it’s selling at the corner of York Road and Bosley Avenue. Approval, which is expected, means the controversy over the fate of the site is almost at an end.

Yet some observers still have concerns about the deal, including:

• What they see as confusing and illogical assumptions made by the county to justify giving developer Caves Valley Partners a multi-million-dollar discount on the land
• The removal of an underground tank last week despite the fact that the amended contract with Caves Valley says the tank was only to be removed at the county’s expense after all approvals have been given

For the past several years there have been protests, op-eds, pleas to council members, and heated community meetings in opposition to the original plan to sell the site — the former Towson fire station — and allow in its place a Royal Farms gas station and strip mall. But now that a deal has been reached to replace the gas station with a different type of business — likely a drive-through bank or a drive-through Chick-fil-A — even some people who have qualms about the new deal are wary of speaking up.

That’s because Caves Valley negotiated an agreement with the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations (GTCCA) last year that says the developer won’t put a gas station on the site — but only if the County Council approves a new purchase price that is acceptable to the developer, and if all necessary approvals for the project are granted. (The GTCCA was not involved in negotiating the actual purchase price.)

If those conditions are not met, the developer can automatically revert to the gas-station plan — although that would likely bring a lawsuit from the community.

Tax estimates that favor developer?

The site was appraised at $8.6 million in 2013. The county had the parcel re-appraised in February 2018 by two firms. One valued the land at $5.03 million, and the other valued it at between $5.8 million and $7.8 million. (Caves Valley wants to pay less money now that it can’t have a gas station, however, a gas station was not allowed under zoning during any of the appraisals.)

Under the new agreement, Caves Valley will now — on paper — pay $6.9 million for the 4.6-acre site. But the developer will actually only pay $5 million at the settlement. That’s because the county has agreed to let Caves Valley forgo the revitalization tax credits it would receive over the next 10 years in exchange for trimming $1.9 million off the price now.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Why is the County Administration trying to bluff the Council into approving a contract amendment that uses a tax-credit calculation that is not valid or legal under Maryland law?”  [/perfectpullquote]

That on its own raised eyebrows. But some observers also noticed that when estimating how much Caves Valley would likely have to pay in taxes in the future, the appraisers — at the directive of the county — valued the land at zero dollars. (The entire 9.4-acre parcel was already assessed at $17.8 million, which would make Caves Valley’s 4.6-acre portion have an assessed value of about $8.8 million.)

The site is located in a commercial revitalization district where the developer is entitled to a tax credit based on the improved value of the land (the difference between what it was worth before it was developed and what it was worth after the development).

By saying the land was worth nothing in its calculations, it appears that the forecast that Caves Valley would re-pay $1.9 million over 10 years was exaggerated. When the actual assessment is done on the property, it presumably will not be valued at zero dollars, and Caves Valley could end up paying much less than $1.9 million in taxes on the improvements over the decade — even though that money had already been taken off its bill.

“Why is the County Administration trying to bluff the Council into approving a contract amendment that uses a tax-credit calculation that is not valid or legal under Maryland law?  Is it to make the County look like it is only offering a 15 percent reduction from the original price in exchange for no gas rather than the actual discount of 40 percent?” Brenda Bodian, a Towson resident who works in the commercial real-estate industry, said in an email to the Flyer.

“A nearly $7 million ‘purchase price’ sure looks better on paper than the $5 million the County will actually get for a property — a property it said was worth the $8 million it needed right away to pay for the new fire station,” she said.

State Sen. Jim Brochin, who is running in the Democratic primary to replace Kamenetz, called the situation “sad.”

“What do you expect this county executive to give the people funding his gubernatorial campaign? Anything they want,” Brochin said. “That’s how he plays and people shouldn’t be surprised. It’s sad, but they shouldn’t be surprised. And when I’m the county executive, the party’s over, it’s done. Everybody will be treated fairly, and the first people who should be treated fairly are the taxpayers.”

Caves Valley and its associates have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Kamenetz, who is currently running for governor, over the past decade.

A campaign spokesman for Johnny Olszewski, who is running against Brochin in the Democratic primary, said the site value should not be zero. Councilwoman Vicki Almond, who will be voting on the issue Monday and who is also running for county executive, did not respond to requests for comment.

Republican Al Redmer, running in his party’s primary for the county executive seat, said he could not comment because he was not familiar with the details. Republican candidate Pat McDonough did not reply.

Councilman David Marks, who represents Towson, also did not respond to requests for comment. The county also did not reply. Caves Valley has not responded to requests for comment throughout the process.

“I believe that is very important to find out which county official told the appraisers to use a base value of $0 for the calculation of the tax credit, and to hear that official’s justification for doing so,” said David Plymyer, a Catonsville resident, retired Anne Arundel County Attorney, and commentator.

He also wrote a letter to the council objecting to the calculations that were used.

The group Save Towson’s Gateway also sent a letter to the Council last week.

“We advise the Council to tread very carefully in doing its job in providing a check and balance on the Executive branch, and to muster the energy and resources to fully understand what is transpiring here,” the group wrote. “Please make the County present and argue this deal to you on the merits. If they want to support a super-sized discount on this property, you should know what it adds up to, and make them explain why it is appropriate.”

Selling the property as-is

Under the original contract, Caves Valley was to buy the property as-is, meaning the county would not spend any money to improve the site. Yet last April the county paid on-call contractors to work during a weekend to cut down 30 trees on the site — despite being forbidden from doing so by a council resolution — and also paid to remove one of the buildings.

(Caves Valley said last year that it would cut down an additional three dozen 20-foot-tall trees along the perimeter of the property adjacent to Immaculate Conception School, but the trees will remain under the new plan.)

The revised contract adds a clause saying that the county will pay to remove an underground storage tank from the site within 30 days of Caves Valley receiving “unappealable approval” of the new site plan — which is months away. However, the county removed the tank last week.

“The tank contains grout and sand. It was originally slurred in the fall of 1990 with [Maryland Department of the Environment] approval. All MDE requirements were meet when we abandoned the tank in place at that time,” a spokeswoman for the county said. “The case was accepted and closed by MDE. MDE did not require soil testing with this removal of the tank. The tank has not required testing per MDE regulations since it was abandoned in place.”

A question about why the tank was removed now — instead of after the deal was approved — was not answered.

Prior to 1990, the tank had held diesel fuel that was used to heat the building. County officials said they believe it was not part of a 2008 settlement with the EPA over improperly handled underground tanks in Baltimore County.

Does the county come out ahead?

The new fire station at Towsontown Boulevard and Bosley Avenue cost $7.6 million to build, and that does not include the more than $800,000 the county spent to buy a home adjacent to the site. It also does not include the costs associated with moving the salt dome and highway-maintenance equipment that are housed at the site; the county has not yet said where they will go. Nor does that include the price of removing the building, trees and storage tank at the old site.

Additionally, the county-owned land that is now home to the new fire station could have been sold — likely for several million dollars — had the old fire station simply been renovated at its original site.

Recent history of the fire station site

April 2012: County Executive Kevin Kamenetz unveils a budget proposal that does not include the $4.5 million that the Planning Board had requested in order to rebuild the aging Towson fire station.

December 2012: Kamenetz says county will sell the Towson fire station property, and other county-owned land, to pay for replacement facilities elsewhere and to funnel money into air conditioning for schools.

December 2012: Kamenetz’ office says it will locate the new fire station at the site of Towson Manor Park, causing an outcry from community members who say Towson already has a dearth of green space.

January 2013: Kamenetz says the new fire station will instead be built on Bosley Avenue at Towsontown Boulevard.

October 2013: Kamenetz announces the county will sell the fire station property to Caves Valley Partners, which will in turn build a strip mall and a 24-hour Royal Farms gas station, which at the time was not allowed under the zoning regulations. A developer who planned to build a Harris Teeter also submitted a bid for the site.

January 2016: The new fire station opens; it is said to cost $7.6 million.

September 2016: Councilman David Marks says he is being pressured to introduce a PUD (planned unit development) that would allow Caves Valley to bypass zoning laws and build the gas station at York and Bosley;  community activists say the gas station will ruin Towson’s gateway and that it doesn’t meet the guidelines of Towson’s master plan.

December 2016: Marks introduces the PUD and the County unanimously approves it.

April 2017: Ignoring a Council resolution, the County cuts down 30 trees at the site without warning, and despite the fact that the property was to be sold “as is.”

June 2017: Marks withdraws support of the PUD and introduces a bill to kill the gas station, but in August the Council overrides his wishes and the PUD stands.

January 2018: Community leaders and Caves Valley agree on a new plan that does not include a gas station.

April 16, 2018: County Council to vote on reduced sale price of the land.

-Kris Henry,
The Towson Flyer