Despite offerings from community members to max out their credit cards for bail, members of the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission regrettably approved a site plan Tuesday that will allow Security Development Corporation to build a residential development on a 20-acre parcel of land in Eldersburg.

While concern over adequate facilities in the area have created qualms among residents and county officials, the Commission was required to approve the decade-old plan in a June 30 order by Circuit Court Judge Michael M. Galloway, or be held in contempt of court.

Just hours after the Commission's decision was read, Carroll County Commissioners vowed to appeal Galloway's order.

"We were elected to represent the best interests of this county," all three commissioners said in a joint statement released Tuesday evening. "We cannot in good conscience allow this development to proceed."

Vivian Laxton, public information officer for the county, said that the commissioners waited to make their appeal because they wanted to see what the Commission's vote would be on the issue.

While Commissioner Julia Gouge was not present at the meeting because she is attending the National Association of Counties conference in Hawaii, Gouge's special assistant Tim Feeser read her written statement opposing approval.

"As a Carroll County Commissioner who represents the citizens of South Carroll and all of the people of Carroll County, I must speak out against this travesty that is about to occur," Feeser read. "If I were present my vote would be to deny the plan."

In his motion to approve the plan, Commission member Wayne Schuster said that it is a "dark day" for the Commission of law-abiding citizens and for common sense land use, and that he regretted having to comply with a developer who has threatened and intimidated county officials repeatedly.

The motion passed by a three to one vote in favor of approval ­ Michael Guerin, the last to vote, remained opposed.

"It's an issue of free will," Guerin said after reiterating the 'big three' inadequacy issues for the project. "Forcing a person to say yes when they mean no is a problem with me."

Guerin said that he is concerned that the project will forever have the Commission's stamp of approval and that when serious problems arise, people will look back and see that the Planning Commission approved it.

Commission Chair David Brauning once again recognized the strain that the development would place on facilities but stated his responsibility to the Planning Commission.

"Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do and you know are not right when your hands are tied," Brauning said, then addressing developers, "I urge you to reconsider your proposal and see that it's in your best interest to work with the community."

Security Development Corporation has 18 months to record their plan for the 254-unit rental townhouse community with the county in order to remain valid. The development is planned on a vacant lot on Kali Drive and backing to Liberty Road.

Residents filled the Scott Center Theater at Carroll Community College ­ the hearing was moved to the space in anticipation of a large crowd. At the request of county officials, two uniformed deputies from the Carroll County Sheriff's Office were on hand in case the meeting got out of control. Ben Rosenberg, attorney for Security Development, requested their presence after receiving several threatening e-mails from residents. Only verbal obscenities were rendered to developers and the Commission after approval was granted.

While the majority of community members have said that they would compromise and be comfortable with commercial development of the site, developers seem set on residential development.

"We've tried for years and years to be a commercial development," said Steve Breeden, one of the land's owners.

The property was commercial and then changed to residential ­ it has to be residential," Rosenberg agreed.

While residents showed their support of the Commission before the vote, shouts of "build it in your own backyard" and "got to jail" echoed throughout the theater.

Cheryle Franceschi, who lives in the vicinity of the proposed development, called for a community effort to create a compromise.

"We want to work with them [Security Development]," she said. "We understand that they have the right to develop their land but we have rights too ­ we need some type of conclusion that's a compromise."

At least 30 residents of the community around the proposed development met on Monday night in preparation for the hearing. Of the group, no one understood their frustrations more than Fallstaff Court resident Rich Zambito.

Zambito and his family have lived in the area for 10 years and remember the first time that the issue of development of the property came to light and the frustrations he had at the time with overcrowded schools.

"My daughter was in a portable at Carrolltowne [Elementary] for six years," he said. "She had to put a raincoat on to go use the bathroom."

When he found out by pure accident that the land was slated for townhouses in 1995, he said the community sprung into action.

That was a Friday, he said. A Tuesday meeting was held and at a community picnic, 600 people signed a petition, he remembered.

A newer resident of the same street, Dan O'Keefe and his family, have lived in the area for three years. O'Keefe, a retired Army serviceman, is concerned about his six children under the age of 10.The family moved to Carroll County from Kentucky for the exceptional school system that mirrored his children's private school.

"I moved here thinking that this would be my retirement house where I could watch my children thrive educationally," he said. "Putting this strain on the system is not going to help them or anyone else who moves in thrive ­ it just doesn't make any sense."