Mount Vernon residents who challenged a developer’s plan to subdivide a landmark church property in their neighborhood have been told they won’t be allowed to testify when Baltimore’s Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the matter on Thursday.
The hearing involves Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church at 2 East Mount Vernon Place and Asbury House, the church office building next to it at 10 East Mount Vernon Place. Last October, the Planning Commission approved a request from New Jersey developer and contract purchaser Joseph Novoseller to subdivide Asbury House from the main church so he could sell the house separately.
When the Mount Vernon Belvedere Association (MVBA) challenged the decision in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Judge Jeannie Hong sided with the community association, negating the subdivision approval and sending the issue back to the Planning Commission for another hearing.
The judge ruled on technical grounds, saying the Planning Commission did not give reasons for approving the subdivision in a follow-up letter about its decision. She said she was remanding the case to the planning commission to determine that its vote in favor of the developer was not arbitrary and capricious.
“The approval letter from the Planning Commission dated November 13, 2020 is a mere three paragraphs with only one paragraph discussing the case, and the other two informing the parties what the next steps are,” she wrote. “Nowhere in the approval letter did the Planning Commission outline its reasoning for its decision.”
The matter is on the agenda for the public portion of the Planning Commission meeting on Oct. 28 at 1 p.m. In advance of the hearing, city planner Matthew DeSantis sent an email message to leaders of the MVBA and the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy saying the commission will again consider the developer’s application for a subdivision but won’t take any public testimony on the matter this time.
“Please be advised that the purpose of this hearing, in accordance with the August 19, 2021 ruling from the Circuit Court, is so that the Planning Commission may render findings of fact and conclusions of law with regards to its October 22, 2020 hearing and subsequent decision,” DeSantis wrote. “As such, no additional public testimony will be accepted by the Commission.”
Completed in 1872, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church is one of the most photographed buildings in the city, constructed on the site where Francis Scott Key died in 1843, near the base of the Washington Monument. Asbury House, built around 1855, was acquired by the church in 1957 and legally combined with the church to form one parcel in 1961. Both structures are part of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon historic district.
The church has a small but active congregation that has been meeting remotely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Opponents of the subdivision plan say separating Asbury House from the main church will make it harder to renovate the landmark church because the two were interconnected.
Before the November 2020 hearing, which was conducted virtually, the planning commission received 65 letters and emails from community members opposing the subdivision plan. The commission also accepted public testimony, although several community members said they tried to speak but were never unmuted during the hearing.
The chair of the commission, Sean Davis, acknowledged during the hearing that he did not read all of the letters and emails about the application. Despite the opposition, the commission voted 5 to 2, with one recusal, to approve the developer’s application – one of the reasons the MVBA appealed the decision in court. This week’s hearing also will be held virtually.
This is not the first time the Planning Commission has refused to accept public testimony after city residents appealed one of its decisions. The planning commission also allowed no public testimony after a Circuit Court judge remanded decisions that it made within the last two years involving plans for the Clipper Mill community in Woodberry.
The commission held new hearings on developer Larry Jennings’ plans for two parcels at Clipper Mill and approved “findings of fact” and “conclusions of law” language supporting their original decisions to approve those plans despite community opposition. Jennings later sold the properties, and neither of the projects approved by the commission has been developed.
Mount Vernon residents say that even if they can’t testify, they plan to watch the hearing online to see what action the commission takes. Hong had indicated in her ruling that the MVBA could always challenge any future action by the commission and a judge could then consider the case on its merits, rather than ruling on a technicality.
The reason for requiring the commission to make findings of fact and conclusions of law, Hong said in her ruling, is “so that a court could, in fact, look at the decision and review it substantively.”
