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Disputes over a redevelopment project slated for the Frederick Avenue Corridor have escalated to Montgomery County Circuit Court, where a historic preservation and advocacy group filed a petition against the City of Gaithersburg.

Since August, Montgomery Preservation Inc. fought plans for the Wilson redevelopment project, which has since been approved for a 20,000-square-foot medical office building at the corner of Frederick and DeSellum avenues.

The site includes five houses, including three that MPI and the city's Historic Preservation Advisory Committee say should be preserved. MPI has said that it disagrees with city council decisions to allow residential properties to be rezoned as commercial and approve the plans.

"I guess I could say that I believe that the city council made right decisions," said Jody Kline, attorney for Dr. Robert G. Wilson Jr. who owns the 2.6-acre parcel. He said he couldn't comment further without details of their case.

Michele M. Rosenfeld, former lead attorney for the Montgomery County Planning Board, filed MPI's Nov. 4 petition against the city, listing four residents as plaintiffs.

Rosenfeld said that the city and Wilson have 30 days to decide whether they will participate in the action.

"I've reviewed the record and the city code and believe that MPI has a very strong case to overturn the rezoning," Rosenfeld said.

City Attorney Lynn Board gave the city council two grounds for granting rezoning of Wilson's residential properties to commercial.

First, she said that the rezoning was consistent with the city zoning ordinance. Rosenfeld said the rezoning does not meet city code requirements.

"The second basis was that there had been a mistake in the original zoning, but under Maryland law, the benefit of hindsight does not qualify as a mistake," Rosenfeld said.

Suzanne Shayt, Scott W. Henry, Hillary Griffin and Helen M. Imbernino — the four residents who have joined MPI in the appeal — live in adjoining parcels or very close to Wilson's property, Rosenfeld said.

"It's just too big, it's just too dense, but most importantly, it's not just fronting Frederick Avenue," she said of the city dentist's plans. "It pushed the commercial development into the neighborhood, which is something that was never contemplated by the master plan."

MPI's appeal does not impede the city's development review or final site plan process, said Gaithersburg Director of Planning and Code Administration Greg Ossont in a Nov. 11 briefing to City Manager Angel Jones.

"Staff will determine their involvement when the petition has been reviewed," Ossont said.