Neighbors, expert tell Carroll County BZA forest-conservation plan contains conflicting calculations; hearing continued

Appellants asking the Board of Zoning Appeals to overturn a Department approval of a forest conservation plan for 2239 Bachman Valley Road argued on Nov. 25 that the plan contains multiple, contradictory numbers and insufficient legal justification for removing specimen trees.

In an opening and detailed expert testimony, appellants' counsel Alex Vota said the plan’s calculations are “a mess” and inconsistent across sheets, which prevents the county from determining whether the 15% conservation threshold required by Carroll County’s chapter 150 has been met. Vota and witness Ruth Grover, a land planner accepted as an expert, pointed to two different net-tract-area figures printed on the plan (12.32327 acres and 10.13044 acres) and to multiple, different afforestation and retained-forest acreages listed elsewhere on the same set of sheets.

Grover testified she found conflicting values for the conservation threshold and planting obligations — for example, the plan shows threshold and planting figures of roughly 1.51957, 1.84849, 0.69991, 0.36417 and 0.78763 acres in different boxes — and she said the discrepancies make it impossible…