Board affirms violations over unpermitted roof and lagoon use at Peaviner Road farm

The Caroline County Board of Zoning Appeals on Oct. 23 affirmed multiple violation notices against Wakefield Holdings and owner Benjamin Fleahart for work and uses at 23092 Peaviner Road in Ridgely.

Chair Ben Butler opened the evidentiary hearing and the board admitted the staff report and a Maryland Department of the Environment letter into the record. Appellants’ counsel, Demetrius Kowaris, argued the small steel pent roof over a feed bunk and the use of an on-site lagoon for cow manure are agricultural activities that either are exempt from substantive building-code requirements or should qualify for agricultural permits. Kowaris asked the board to reverse the county’s determinations.

Planning and zoning staff, represented by Mark Gabler, told the board an agricultural-structure exemption in Chapter 88 does not eliminate the need to apply for a building permit. Gabler said staff found no permit applications for the roof or for the physical alterations to the lagoon and that the lagoon had previously been permitted for food-processing wastewater. He also noted the MDE letter (applicant exhibit) reporting unauthorized discharges from the holding pond into nearby tributaries and a laboratory match tying the lagoon discharge to contamination found in Piney Branch.

Owner Benjamin Fleahart testified the farm is roughly 250 acres with a large lagoon that predated his ownership. He said he repaired a compromised liner, installed leak-detection manholes, and believed the changes brought the lagoon up to acceptable agricultural standards. Fleahart acknowledged DAF (dissolved-air flotation/food-processing residuals) had been present at the site in 2023 but said he stopped receiving such off-site material after the county moratorium was enacted and that litigation over the moratorium is pending.

During cross-examination county counsel pressed for delivery records and gallons of DAF or other material brought to the property. Fleahart agreed to provide records. Planning staff read MDE’s written findings into the record, including an estimate that roughly 1.8 million gallons were sprayed during one irrigation episode while a liner was changed and a laboratory confirmation that a water sample from Piney Branch matched the sample taken from the lagoon.

In public deliberation the board considered whether the roof, the physical alterations to the lagoon, and off‑site storage of material during a moratorium required permits and whether the county’s violation letters were properly issued. The board concluded the roof and lagoon alterations meet the county definition of a structure and that building permits and zoning review were required. The board voted to affirm the notices of violation and directed the owner to apply for the necessary zoning and building permits. The board also affirmed the moratorium-related violation regarding storage of materials not permitted by the county’s 2024 moratoria. A written decision will be prepared and made part of the record.

What’s next: the board instructed staff to prepare a written decision. Parties were reminded of judicial-review rights in the Circuit Court of Caroline County. The owner and counsel said they will provide delivery/volume records and will submit any permit applications the board requires.