When Cheryle Franceschi, PTA Community Relations Manager for Carrolltowne Elementary School, heard about plans for an apartment complex near her neighborhood, she began circulating a petition to stop it.

Roads, traffic, water, sewage, schools and other infrastructure items are the main concerns of residents in the area. As of Wednesday morning, Franceschi and her team of concerned neighbors had collected more than 785 signatures from people opposed to the plan.

Plans drafted by Security Development Corporation for a 254-unit apartment complex were rejected by the Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals on Oct. 29, 2004, after the county's Planning Commission refused to grant approval in August.

During a series of pubic hearings held last summer and fall, Benjamin Rosenberg, an attorney with Rosenberg, Martin, Funk and Greenberg, represented the developer arguing that a 1999 court order by retired Judge Luke Burns forces the Planning Commission to approve the plan. County officials and members of the Board of Zoning Appeals have refuted the order saying that the plan, drafted in 1995, does not consider increased traffic and water shortage problems that the area now faces.

"The world has changed since they [the developer] put in to develop the land," Franceschi said. "I have not read that the developer is willing to put money into the infrastructure."

While County Commissioners recently signed a contract with Baltimore City officials to allow the Freedom area to take 4.2 million gallons of water from the Liberty Reservoir, officials have made it clear that the additional allotment meets only the area's current demand.

Franceschi and her neighbors know that the land will eventually be developed but they all agree that they would rather see some type of commercial development whose water use is monitored by the county.

"Businesses need to come in ­ they have to meet certain allocations of water," Franceschi said.

Among residents' concerns is a strain on fire, police and emergency services tot he area.

Kelly Khan, who has lived in the area for three years, worries that residential development of the site will create a greater strain on emergency services. Just recently when her husband hurt his back, EMS crews came from outside of the Sykesville area, a practice that she fears will be mandatory as more homes come into the area.

"Sykesville [Freedom Area Fire Department] held a recruitment drive in October at their open house because they need more volunteers to meet the demand," Khan said, adding that the effort was successful but will need to continue in other public service organizations.

School overcrowding is a major concern of parents of teachers at Carrolltowne Elementary School.

Martin Tierney, principal of Carrolltowne Elementary School, worries that students who will live in the proposed complex will begin attending the school as all-day kindergarten is implemented in the 2006 to 2007 school year.

"My fear is that the additional students would come as we move into all-day kindergarten," Tierney said.

"The influx of both of those groups of students at the same time is my main concern."

Tierney said that Carrolltowne Elementary School is scheduled to receive four additional classrooms to accommodate all-day kindergartners and that the school is lucky that the gym and cafeteria will be able to handle the additional students that all-day kindergarten will bring.

The building is simply not constructed to handle more students after that, he said.

Currently, the school is at capacity with 625 students. Six classrooms are housed in three portables on the school grounds and Tierney fears that the additional students will create severe overcrowding.

Angela Lee, who has lived in Eldersburg for 22 years, is not pleased with the proposal to add more residential housing units to the area.

"This is entirely the wrong time to be considering any additional housing complexes in the Freedom area, period," she said.

"With a new complex we're talking about new roads and now our [side] roads are falling apart because of lack of revenue, and revenue is not going to increase if they are built."

Lee too said that she fears additional strain on the area's infrastructure, namely the sewage pumping station.

She worries that overburdening the system will cause forced expansion and that the cost would fall "on the heads of people living here now."

Danielle Padula, a Harvest Farms resident, has two children at the school and another will begin kindergarten in 2006.

She is concerned that overcrowding and congestion issues will diminish the quality of life for her family and neighbors.

"It's an outdated plan," she said. "It's not family friendly, it's not environmentally friendly and it's not conducive to a good, positive, living environment."

A hearing for the case will be held today at 10 a.m. at the Carroll County Circuit Court.

While the public is permitted to attend, no public comment will be allowed. The Circuit Court for Carroll County is located at 55 North Court Street in Westminster.