Although it has been almost a year since the state Board of Public Works halted a contentious development on Kent Island, an appeal of the body's ruling still remains unresolved in a Queen Anne's County court.
Last May, the board shot down an application by K. Hovnanian Cos. for a wetlands permit.
That permit, which would have authorized the construction of a pile-supported bridge, a stormwater-management system, water and sewer lines and a community pier, is a crucial part of the proposed 1,350-unit Four Seasons development.
"We're waiting patiently," said John Zink, an attorney for K. Hovnanian, which filed the appeal in Queen Anne's County Circuit Court.
A hearing on the case was held in December and little action has occurred since that time besides the filing of supplemental memos. Mr. Zink declined last week, with a laugh, to say whether it is unusual for such a case to take this long for a resolution.
"The court will let us know its decision when appropriate," he said. "We're waiting like everyone else."
Judge John W. Sause, Jr., who is deciding the case, could not be reached for comment.
The Four Seasons project has inflamed the ire of Kent Island environmentalists for close to a decade and captured the Maryland limelight last year when its permit application hit the state level.
When fully built, the project would envelop about 350 acres of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, which is defined as land within 1,000 feet of the shoreline.
Bordering the Chester River, Cox Creek and Macum Creek, Four Seasons would use almost 5 miles of buffer to protect the water, and would keep 40 percent of the land as open and green space.
But those safeguards were not enough for Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot, who voted against the permit because of concerns it would harm the environment and was not in the best interests of the state.
"The mission of the state is to preserve these wetlands," Mr. O'Malley said last year before voting against the permit.
Treasurer Nancy Kopp, the other member of board, dissented from the majority saying K. Hovnanian had met the letter of the law.
During the hearings, representatives for the developer said the same thing: The project meets all existing environmental standards and has been approved by the Critical Area Commission, Wetlands Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In fact, both Secretary of the Environment Shari Wilson and Secretary of Planning Richard Hall grudgingly said the development had met state guidelines.
