Plans for fence at River Road property head to Planning Board

‘‘[The Montgomery County Department of Park and Planning] said I couldn’t put the fence up, couldn’t cut the nut trees down and replace them with other trees,” said Mardirossian in a telephone interview Tuesday. ‘‘We are taking this to the next step...at the Planning Board.”

County planners said the proposal did not adhere to standards set by the county’s Forest Conservation Law.

‘‘The goal is to retain forests in Montgomery County,” said Gwen Wright, the department’s acting director. ‘‘The proposed conservation plan is inconsistent with those goals.”

That decision met with favor from the Potomac Conservancy, a group that advocates for the health and beauty of the Potomac River and its tributaries.

‘‘It’s terrific news,” said Anne Merwin, conservancy policy director. ‘‘Good for the planning department — they stood up for the law, exactly as they should have done.”

Mardirossian, developer of the Crown Farm property in Gaithersburg, wants to build a family home on the 3.2-acre site.

His plans include running the fence through a scenic easement that fronts the C&O Canal and removing 54 nut trees. The fence will protect his two young children, who are allergic to nuts, from contact with nut trees on adjacent properties and from falling into the river, he said.

He believes the fence is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and is offering to replace the nut trees on his own property with non-nut species.

Wright said her department’s decision did not go into the ADA claim but the issue may come up at the board hearing.

Wright said the plan was particularly disturbing as it involved removing trees on wooded slopes of greater than 25 degrees.

‘‘As soon as you cut those trees, you’d get monster erosion coming down those hills,” she said.