After a debate that spanned two different Board of Zoning Appeals sessions, the board this week voted to remove restrictions on a proposed gas station in Eldersburg that would have limited its hours of operation.

With the Jan. 27 ruling, the station — planned for the 40-acre Liberty Exchange business park on Liberty Road — may operate 24 hours a day.

The county's Planning and Zoning Commission had approved the plan in September 2009, but stipulated the gas station could only operate from 5 a.m. to midnight.

The Board of Zoning Appeals voted 3-2 to remove that restriction, but only after lengthy discussion and "guest" testimony from County Commissioner Dean Minnich and the director of the county's Department of Economic Development, Larry Twele -- both of whom urged the board to overturn the planning commission.

"I hate to see a good project like this go down the tubes," Minnich told the board.

Wednesday's hearing was continued from an initial Jan. 6 session. Residents at both hearings expressed concern about noise and light pollution as well as traffic and crime from a 24-hour operation adjacent to their community.

After the second daylong hearing and more than a year of battling the project, Tanglewood Drive resident Michelle O'Grady said she was disappointed.

"I felt like I wasted my time," she said after the hearing.

The developer of Liberty Exchange, St. John Properties, appealed the restriction, claiming that limiting hours of operation stretched the county's authority over business. Attorney Clark Shaffer, representing St. John, argued that based on the county's industrial zoning, the planning commission did not have the authority to restrict hours.

Board of Zoning Appeals members generally disagreed, but members differed on whether the Liberty Exchange decision would set a bad precedent.

They noted that no other gas station in the county has a restriction on hours.

In the end, board members Chairman Charles Wheatley III, Howard Kramer and Gary Dunkleberger voted to remove the restriction.

Board members Richard Simmons and Jacob Yingling voted to keep it.

Wheatley focused on economic development and said, "I can't find a good justification for saying that we're going to close it from (midnight) to 5 a.m. when nobody's out there."

He also said restrictions should have been brought up earlier in the development review — not during the planning commission's deciding vote.

Yingling and Simmons disagreed.

"If they had the authority to make the condition, did they err?" Simmons said. "I find no egregious error on the part of the Planning and Zoning Commission."

Members of the planning commission defended their ruling. Member Wayne Schuster wrote in a letter to the board that he would have voted against Liberty Exchange if the restriction hadn't been part of the package.

"I can assure you that, had I known there was a possibility of our actions being overturned on this matter, I would not have voted in favor of site plan approval," Schuster wrote.

Planning commission Chairman David Brauning said the same.

"In my opinion, if those conditions were not placed upon as a commission, the plan would have failed," he said.

With the Board of Appeals verdict, the planning commission can appeal the decision within 30 days to the Carroll County Circuit Court.

Branches of the same tree

The case presented the odd scenario of a county attorney — Deputy County Attorney Terri Jones — arguing for the restrictions, while other parts of county government argued against them.

The Board of County Commissioners and the Department of Economic Development took the stance that the project was all about the use of industrial land, the county's need to expand its tax base and doing good business.

Minnich carried the commissioners' message that the project is needed to create jobs, and that the restrictions on hours is unnecessary because the project is not a "radical change to the community."

"In certain circumstances, over-regulation could be a deal killer for a very good project," Minnich said.

The entire Board of County Commissioners — Minnich, Julia Gouge and Michael Zimmer — stated in a letter that it would send a bad message to business to place restrictions on a property zoned industrial for more than 20 years.

Gouge, who also sits on the Planning and Zoning Commission as an ex-officio member, had voted in favor of the Liberty Exchange project — with the restrictions — last September.

Minnich said the county needs projects like Liberty Exchange to help reduce the deficit of industrial property in the county, and boost the commercial tax base.

Yingling called Minnich's appearance a mistake.

"I think Commissioner Minnich made a mistake in coming before us," he said. "In the seven years I've been here, no commissioner has come to endorse or go against any project."

But Larry Twele, director of the Department of Economic Development, also backed the project, and said the restriction would make his job difficult.

"We don't want to be known as the county in the region where we approve a project and in the end, you're going to run into trouble," he said.

In her comments at the hearing, O'Grady wondered aloud what message Twele is telling potential homeowners.

"What kind of message are you sending to people that want to make Carroll County their home?" she said. "You're sending a message they can put a 24-hour gas station in their front yards."

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