Lawsuit seeks to block New Market’s annexation of amusement park land

Former property owners say park violated agreement

Friday, Sept. 15, 2006

The reasons a lawsuit was filed to block New Market from annexing Adventure Park USA remain a mystery to its mayor.

Owners of Intercoastal Industrial Center filed a lawsuit Sept. 6 to block the annexation of the amusement park into the town. Intercoastal, of Clarksburg, says the land should be part of a larger industrial park.

Intercoastal sold a 204-acre lot to amusement park owner Larry Stottlemyer in September 2004. The contract stipulated that park owners could not approach the town with annexation plans and must abide by Frederick County zoning laws.

Mayor Winslow Burhans III questioned Intercoastal’s motive for wanting to block the annexation. ‘‘They’re the ones that have to make the case,” Burhans said. ‘‘I don’t think they can. ... How are they going to win a lawsuit if they can’t be up front?”

The mayor maintains that the town approached the park with annexation plans years before plans were made public this summer.

The town scheduled a public hearing on the annexation Sept. 6, but rescheduled it for Oct. 11 due to lack of quorum.

‘‘We’re not sure if the town will become involved in the lawsuit, but clearly we’ll be keeping an eye on it,” Burhans said. ‘‘This should be a feel-good thing for everyone, not only the town or Adventure Park, but the whole region. Someone’s trying to rain on our parade.”

Stottlemyer, who could not be reached for comment, consented to the annexation July 20.

Miles and Stockbridge PC, lawyers representing Intercoastal, filed a lawsuit claiming the park breached its contract and should cease all annexation plans.

The lawsuit states Adventure Park chose to ‘‘ignore the clear meaning and intent” of the covenants and inappropriately gave New Market the consent needed to annex.

Thomas Lynch III of Miles and Stockbridge sent a letter to New Market town leaders informing them of the lawsuit and requesting they cease annexation.

Lynch declined to comment further.

The industrial park was meant to develop as a ‘‘uniform project,” according to the lawsuit. Annexing the amusement park property into the town would break the uniformity of the Intercoastal park.

‘‘It makes no sense from a planning⁄development standpoint to divide an existing [project] between two separate governmental jurisdictions,” Lynch stated in the letter.

According to the lawsuit, the town has expressed interest in annexing the industrial park to increase its tax base since the early 1990s.

Knowing the town was interested in annexing the park, an amendment was added to the covenants preventing the park from approaching the town.