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Kevin Heenan thinks Montgomery County government is bad for business, and he's not shy about letting the community know.

Heenan, co-owner of an unmarked gas station on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, displays the message in bold, capital letters on a hard-to-miss sign attached to a listing of the day's gasoline prices. The bulletin marks a sharp turn from the upbeat or religious messages usually posted at the station.

"They're putting us out of business," Heenan said of the county. "We cannot operate right now and continue to be here with the taxes they have, and that's why I'm lashing out right now — to get some attention because they're not changing."

Heenan began renting U-Haul trucks from his gas and automotive service station last November, and the county recently told him to either get a special exception or shut down the leasing business, he said.

"Basically, we were doing that just to keep our heads above water and protect our jobs here," Heenan said of the rental business. "So what's going to happen is once we lost this, if I don't find a way to replace this income, someone's going to lose a job here."

County zoning permits land use by right and by special exception, according to the Department of Permitting. The county grants special exceptions only after a lengthy — and often expensive — application and hearing process, said Susan Scala-Demby, zoning manager at the Department of Permitting.

If he applied for a special exception, Heenan would pay a $9,075 filing fee, Scala-Demby said. The fee does not include an additional charge for a sign Heenan must display to inform passersby of the pending special exception, Scala-Demby said. Heenan's zoning does not now allow for an auto truck and trailer rental lot.

Heenan said he froze employee salaries two years ago and cut some benefits. The U-Haul rentals offset his electricity tax, he said.

Unable to afford the filing fee and subsequent costs — such as hiring a lawyer to assist at hearings and an engineer to write up plans — for the special exception, Heenan said he shut down his source of supplemental income Monday and might need to lay off one of his 17 employees.

"The whole reason I put it in, in the first place was to protect jobs here," he said. "So we're shutting it down at the end of [August], because I can't afford to fork out another $10,000 to $12,000."

Typically, a petitioner filing for a special exception will want a lawyer, someone to write up plans, and an engineer, Scala-Demby said.

"When you go into that special exception, you have to show them exactly where you want your buildings to be, what's on site now and what you're adding to the site, if anything," Scala-Demby said. "There's a lot of work that goes into a special exception that the average resident cannot do by themselves."

The county must award the special exception if the petitioner meets all the conditions, Scala-Demby said. However, the county can make the conditions specific and firm, controlling anything from hours of operation to where the owner can put the U-Haul trucks, she said.

"They can make conditions so tight that you really don't have any wiggle room," Scala-Demby said.

The county requires extensive information from those filing for a special exception. The application alone must include everything from architectural drawings to a preliminary forest conservation plan to an original, certified copy of an official zoning vicinity map of the property.

Assembled information then goes before the Board of Appeals, a five-member body of Montgomery County citizens appointed by the county council. The Board reviews the materials and, if they are complete, the Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings schedules a public hearing on the application.

The public hearing requires the applicant to explain how the special exception will operate, proposed landscaping, lighting and parking arrangements, among other things. Those opposing the special exception will explain their position. Cross examination is permitted.

After the hearing, the Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings prepares a detailed written Report and Recommendation on the application, which then goes back to the Board of Appeals so it can finally grant the special exception.

"Some are simple ones, some have months and months and months of hearings," Scala-Demby said of special exception cases. "It depends on the complication of the special exception."

As for Heenan's sign, it seems to spark questions rather than deter customers. Heenan has posted messages for the 14 years he has been at the station, and his past messages have included such thoughts as "Hurt people hurt people'' and "To be interesting, be interested.'' He said he has kept up his latest message longer than usual.

Harold Lindo, a regular customer who stops by Heenan's station at least twice a week to fill up, said he thinks people wonder about the sign rather than refuse to stop for gas because of it. At one point, Heenan posted a religiously fueled message that went against Lindo's personal beliefs, Lindo said. He still stopped in that day.

"This guy's politically motivated, but his gas prices are always better than these gas stations here," Lindo said, gesturing toward other stations along Georgia Avenue. "I do understand [the sign]. He's just voicing his opinion."

Sometimes the message on the sign really speaks to Lindo, he said.

"Some of them, I say ‘wow, it's like he's talking to me,' " Lindo said.

John Muglia, another regular customer who knows the owner personally, said he probably would not post a politically motivated sign if he owned the gas station, but he understands Heenan's frustration.

"He tried to make a go of it with these rental trucks, and he basically got nitpicked out of business," Muglia said.

Unsure of whether the sign would improve Heenan's situation with the county, Muglia said he still understands why Heenan posted it.

"Sometimes you have to do something a little drastic to get attention," he said.

abryant@gazette.net