Update: On Jan. 7, the appeal was settled out of court.

Update: On Nov. 10, Preston Capital Management filed a motion to dismiss an appeal filed by local resident Gail Sigel regarding zoning on the Coca-Cola Drive property. The motion was based on Preston's belief that she does not have standing. "Standing" means the right to protest a zoning decision. Stay tuned to Elkridge Patch for more. 

Ever since Coca-Cola Company sold its Elkridge property off Route 100, plans for the 122 acres along Coca-Cola Drive have been a source of consternation for some residents.

No sooner had Lutherville-based development firm Preston Partners purchased the land than it asked Howard County to alter the property's zoning restrictions. The space had been designated M-2, suitable for manufacturing. Former owner Coca-Cola planned to build a bottling plant there. Preston Partners pushed for transit-oriented development (TOD) zoning so it could erect commercial and residential units.

The proposal went before the Howard County zoning board several times after Preston Partners' December 2009 request for rezoning.

In April, Preston Partners offered 20.2 acres of its land to Howard County to build a much-needed school in the northeast. On top of that, the company promised the school system $4 million if it built a school there by 2014.

On Sept. 13, the land was deemed TOD, after a 3-2 vote, with County Council Chair Courtney Watson and Councilman Greg Fox dissenting.

Last month, local resident Gail Sigel appealed the zoning board's decision, which could delay development plans.

The road from here

Sigel lives just up the road from Coca-Cola Drive and believes the land could be put to better use. As a business owner who has resided in Howard County for 34 years, she said: "The county may get $4 million for build-out [from Preston Partners], but it could get $12 million from commercial [revenue]."

In addition, as a parent whose children went through the county's schools, Sigel is concerned the area on Coca-Cola Drive lacks the infrastructure needed to support that kind of traffic. "There's only one way into the site and one way out," she said. Noting the highway across the street from the property, she added: "Route 100 can't even handle the capacity it has now."

So what's happened in the month since Sigel filed the appeal?

After receiving notice, Preston Partners attempted to negotiate out of court.

But Sigel has stood her ground. "What he wants, he can't give me," she said of David Scheffenacker, president of Preston Partners. "He has no way of fixing the problems: We need two elementary schools, a new middle school and a new high school. We're 30 percent over capacity at Elkridge Elementary and Bellows Spring. Can he fix that? No. He can't fix the school problem. He can't fix the roads. He can't fix the infrastructure. He can't fix Elkridge." 

Court date has yet to be set

A hearing will not occur until at least the end of January, said Robin Regner, administrator for the zoning board and board of appeals. Before the case goes to court, all transcripts from meetings where the property was discussed must be transcribed. And Regner estimated there were more than 600 pages.

How this will impact the Board of Education--which accepted Preston Partners' offer of land at its Oct. 7 meeting--remains to be seen.

"All terms and conditions of this agreement," said Preston Partners' offer letter to the school system, "are subject to the final unappealable approval of the TOD zone," dated April 12, 2010, and signed by the company's president, David P. Scheffenacker.