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Board unanimously approves Booth after-the-fact variance with conditions to move driveway and add plantings
Summary
After extended review and discussion of mitigation and Critical Area Commission recommendations, the Board approved VAAP23-1978 for Kevin Booth's property contingent on moving the gravel driveway and parking outside the 100-foot buffer and augmenting native plantings in a central open area (walkway excepted).
The St. Mary's County Board of Appeals voted unanimously on Nov. 19 to grant an after-the-fact variance to Kevin Booth for disturbance of the 100-foot critical-area buffer at 18833 Hodges Lane, conditional on moving a gravel driveway and parking area out of the buffer and adding specified native plantings.
Planner Stacy Clements described the case (VAAP23-1978) as an after-the-fact variance for an existing gravel driveway and parking intruding into the county's critical-area buffer. Clements said the property is roughly 37,897 square feet in the rural preservation district, and staff noted the applicant had submitted a revised site plan that moves much of the driveway outside the buffer. The record shows the applicant planted 24,625 square feet of vegetation as mitigation and that the violation mitigation requirement for the clearing portion was 13,352 square feet; total mitigation required for the project was listed in staff materials as 19,405 square feet.
Applicant Kevin Booth, sworn for testimony, said he obtained permits and constructed an MDE-permitted pier and revetment in 2021, then received county violations in 2023 after MDE flagged possible landward clearing visible in aerial imagery. Booth said he cooperated, obtained after-the-fact permits, performed plantings (which he estimated cost about $15,000) and received county sign-off in April 2025. He said he did not understand at the time that a variance would be required for the driveway but said he is willing to move the driveway and plant native grasses; he expressed concern about transplanting established trees and shrubs because of cost and survivability.
Deputy county attorney John Sterling Houser reviewed the enforcement history and framed the legal issue as whether the performed mitigation and proposed revisions restore the site sufficiently or whether a variance is still needed to avoid depriving the owner of reasonable use of the property. The Critical Area Commission's written comments argued that gravel and cleared areas in the buffer should be removed and that mitigation must provide full restoration of native vegetation; staff and counsel discussed mitigation ratios, a two-year survivability requirement for plantings, and how mitigation must be placed in the buffer where the disturbance occurred.
Board members debated whether the existing plantings, removal of gravel/parking from the buffer, and additional plantings in the central open area would satisfy the seven statutory variance standards (Natural Resources Article standard cited in the record). Several members said moving the driveway and parking outside the buffer and clarifying a planting/management plan could satisfy the intent of the critical-area protections while avoiding undue hardship to the owner.
Donald Larocco moved to approve VAAP23-1978, with a condition that the gravel driveway and parking be moved outside the 100-foot buffer and that native grasses/plantings be established in the remaining open area except for a defined walkway to the pier. Bridal Weaver seconded; the motion carried 5-0. The board directed staff and counsel to draft an order reflecting those conditions within 60 days; a 30-day appeal period follows the signed order.
