Sugarloaf Alliance
Preservation * Smarter Growth * Transparency in Government
6/14/23 In this newsletter:
1. Sugarloaf Alliance Wins MPIA Lawsuit: Frederick Circuit Court Orders Release of Sugarloaf Plan Documents
2. Community Meeting on Data Center Development
3. County meetings postponed re Quantum Loophole applications
4. You Make a Difference #1: Please Sign the Sugarloaf Petition
5. You Make a Difference #2: The Costs of the Sugarloaf Alliance Mission
**This is an update to last week’s very long newsletter. If you missed it, you still can read it here.**
1. Sugarloaf Alliance Wins MPIA Lawsuit: Frederick Circuit Court Orders Release of Sugarloaf Plan Documents
On June 8, Frederick Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg ordered Frederick County to release the bulk of Sugarloaf Plan records requested by Sugarloaf Alliance. Sugarloaf Alliance initially filed a lawsuit against the Frederick County government, in June 2022, under the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA). The suit sought release of public records related to development of the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan. During drafting, unexplained changes in the Plan's boundary and text were made outside the normal public process. Sugarloaf Alliance filed two public information requests in 2021 for documents linked to the unexplained changes. The Maryland Public Information Act allows up to 30 days for release of public records. Frederick County failed to respond for over 200 days, forcing the Alliance to file a lawsuit. Read the full press release here.
2. Community Meeting on Data Center Development
6/15 Community meeting on data center development, Quantum Loophole and QLoop construction impact: Data center development is a regional issue, and this is an opportunity to learn more about this major industry moving into the area. Sugarloaf Alliance is coordinating with community partners in Montgomery County. Please join us for an update on and discussion of the two large-scale development projects underway or proposed in southern Frederick County and in the adjacent Montgomery County Ag Reserve. The meeting - sponsored by Montgomery Countryside Alliance, Sugarloaf Citizens Association and Sugarloaf Alliance - will be held from 7-9pm at the SCA Gothic Barn at Linden Farm, 20900 Martinsburg Road in Dickerson. For more info and to RSVP, click here.
3. County Meetings Postponed re Quantum Loophole Applications
POSTPONED: 6/14 Planning Commission Meeting on site plan for a new electrical substation on Quantum Loophole property. The Planning Commission was scheduled to consider a site plan for construction of a new electrical substation on Quantum Loophole’s Eastalco property. The 2.5M gallon dump of presumed contaminated water into Tuscarora Creek and related citizen complaints prompted deeper Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) inspection; the inspector directed Quantum Loophole to stop working. Turned out not to be great timing for this application.
POSTPONED: 6/22 Board of Appeals Hearing on Quantum Loophole Floodplain Drilling
On June 22 the Frederick County Board of Appeals was scheduled consider an application by Quantum Loophole for a special exception that would allow them to drill below floodplain in Frederick County for QLoop installation. Given the recent MDE citations for drilling damage to creeks and floodplains, it’s not great timing for this application either.
4. You Make a Difference #1: Please Sign the Sugarloaf Petition
Click here now to sign the Sugarloaf Alliance petition, asking the Board of Appeals to deny QL's special exception request. The 6/22 hearing has been postponed for now, but the community still needs to be ready make the point.
Here’s what the petition says:
In light of the illegal environmental damage that Quantum Loophole already has caused, we the undersigned call on the Frederick County Board of Appeals to deny Quantum Loophole "a Special Exception to allow Activity within a Floodplain.” Before a special exception is approved, Quantum Loophole must first:
· come into full compliance with all environmental regulations;
· demonstrate that the requested QLoop alignment is the ‘minimum needed’ and the lowest risk possible; and
· prove that denial of the request would cause ‘exceptional hardship’.
Please note that change.org will encourage you to make contributions. Be aware that those contributions go to change.org. Sugarloaf Alliance welcomes your tax deductible donations through our website, sugarloaf-alliance.org/donations.
5. You Make a Difference #2: The Costs of the Sugarloaf Alliance Mission
Sugarloaf Alliance is an all-volunteer, 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Our missions - primarily related to southwest Frederick County - are preservation and environmental protection, smarter growth, and transparency in government. Our activity mostly involves research, networking and communication to our mailing list, our partners, and the general public through our newsletters, website, social media, local press, and comments to county officials in writing and in person. Our mailing list currently numbers nearly 650 people.
Most of those activities don’t cost the organization very much, but our legal pursuits in the interest of government transparency do. If you also believe that the government’s work is the people’s business, and if you have the means to help us in that mission - a little or a lot - please visit the donate page at our website.
Thank you!