Hearing panel affirms ALJ order, adds limits on hours and new mitigations for trucking facility

A three-member hearing panel voted to affirm an administrative law judge’s order in a dispute over a Class 2 trucking and parking facility adjacent to homes, while adding conditions intended to reduce dust and noise. Panel chair Joseph Evans said the core of the neighbors’ complaint was straightforward: “it came down to, dust and noise.”

The panel said it would adopt the ALJ’s decision with supplemental requirements described during deliberations: limiting hours of operation to 6 a.m.–7 p.m. six days a week, allowing three Sundays per year; incorporating owner-proposed mitigations such as enhanced landscaping and additional surface millings; establishing a standing subcommittee for resident‑owner communications; and making the subcommittee’s modest administrative costs the property owner’s responsibility. Deborah Dobkin, a panel member, urged numeric limits for Sunday operations, saying the community should be guaranteed “3 or 4 Sundays a year” as the maximum for exceptions.

Panel discussion recognized limits to the tribunal’s reach: the body can issue a zoning order but enforcement of environmental or nuisance standards rests with the county. The panel said it expects Baltimore County to act if the facility is generating dust in excess of legal standards. William Paul Schock, another panel member, cautioned the mitigations will take time to work — for example, millings need time to compact before they reduce airborne dust — but described the package as a practical way to balance the facility’s use and residents’ quality of life.

The panel also discussed a requirement that any active parcel on site provide sanitary facilities; Schock offered to draft language requiring on‑site restrooms or portable alternatives. The panel said it would issue a written opinion formalizing these conditions in due course.