Judge denies West Laurel Civic Association annexation appeal

The 13 acres are owned by the Catholic sisters who run the Pallotti Early Learning Center. The Missionary Sisters Catholic Apostle, who planned to build a day-care center on the site, purchased the property from Jack A. Wilson for $800,000 in October 2004, according to state property records.

A woman answering the phone at the learning center Tuesday said the school would have no comment for this article.

The West Laurel Civic Association, which represents 1,800 homeowners in the unincorporated area between Laurel city and Riding Stable Road, and two city property owners, Ralph Gruetzmacher and Justin Chapel, filed suit June 27, 2005, in Prince George’s County Circuit Court.

The plaintiffs argued that the city’s annexation was illegal because the annexed land, located on the north side of Brooklyn Bridge Road just East of Dorset Road, was not contiguous with any other parcel in the city.

Mary Lehman, the civic association’s president, said continuity is achieved only if the property lines for the annexed property and another city parcel on the southern side of Brooklyn Bridge Road are assumed to meet in the middle of the roadway, a condition the civic association contests.

Neither this month’s Court of Special Appeals opinion nor last year’s Circuit Court ruling directly addressed these claims, however. Judges instead said that the civic association and two property owners lacked standing in the suit because they did not show they were adversely affected by the annexation.

In a 14-page opinion, Judge Meredith wrote that the plaintiffs ‘‘alleged no harm suffered by them that was distinct from any harm suffered by the general public” and ‘‘claim[ed] no harm as taxpayers which is concrete and not speculative.”

Lehman said she is disappointed ‘‘the case has never really been heard on its merits.”

Lehman said the civic association would decide on an appeal by March 8, the date of its next board meeting.

E-mail Steve Earley at searley@gazette.net.