Carroll County lawmakers voiced their support this week for an effort by property owners in the communities of Bachmans Valley, Ebbvale and Melrose in northern Carroll County to stop a megachurch from being built on a 25.45-acre property at 2239 Bachman’s Valley Road in Manchester. Del. Chris Tomlinson posted on Facebook Tuesday that he has been “fighting to stop” the megachurch from being built since before he became a legislator and that he and Sen. Justin Ready, Del. April Rose, and Del. Christopher Eric Bouchat all “stand with the community” in asking that the Carroll County Board of Appeals side with them against the property owners who want to build an Ethiopian Orthodox church there.

On Wednesday the Carroll County Board of Appeals delayed a decision on a request to overturn a variance that would allow the property owners to remove four mature maple trees on their property in Manchester. The church is planned on 12.32 acres of the 25.45-acre property. In a letter signed by Ready, Rose, Bouchat and Tomlinson to the Board of Zoning Appeals on Maryland General Assembly letterhead, the lawmakers said, “the surrounding neighbors have been harassed and tormented by the church and its members for years.”

Efforts to reach church officials for comment were unsuccessful.

Chris Heyn, director of the county’s Department of Planning & Land Management, last November approved a request by the owners of the property, Tserha Tsion Menfes Kidus Church and Merafe Kidusan Kidist Arsema Andinet Monastery, for a variance allowing them to remove four trees.

The owners have stated that the trees are too close to existing buildings on the property, and a variance was needed since the removal of the trees was not originally included in the site plans for the property.

The four maples are known as “specimen trees,” because they are 30 inches or larger in diameter.

“… State law requires that we make extra effort to preserve them,” Heyn stated in an email Thursday. “However, it is recognized through the availability of a variance process that there are situations where there is a need to remove specimen trees. Variance requests of this nature are sent to me for review and decision. In this case, I approved the variance request and the removal of the trees.” Neighbors appealed that decision. The property’s Forest Conservation Plan, which was approved by Carroll County’s Bureau of Resource Management, is also up for appeal.

“It is essential to point out that the property owned by the church consists of 25.45 acres and as stated in the written findings, ‘the proposed development of the site is approximately 12.32 acres,’” the letter from the state lawmakers states. “With less than half of the property being developed, we do not understand how it would be impossible for only four trees to be preserved and alternative options were exhausted.”

Alex Votaw, the attorney who filed the appeal, argued that the variance request was in opposition to Maryland’s Forest Conservation Act.

“The reason the [neighbors] appealed this plan is simply because the plan and the variance request do not meet the requirements of the law,” she said.

“The Maryland Supreme Court in 2022 described the purpose of the Forest Conservation Act, and it is to create a system that balances property owners and their need to develop their property, and the wellbeing of neighboring property owners, and in preserving important environmental resources like forest land, wetlands, streams and things of that nature. “The property owner is required to identify the environmental resources on its property,” she said. “The applicant is required to design its site to preserve those resources as best as they can. It might be impossible to preserve every piece of woodland on a property.” “These are large trees, they are very mature. They provide specific ecosystem roles. They are also better equipped to treat stormwater runoff, and pollution from the site,” she said.

Heyn was at Wednesday’s meeting, along with his staff from the Department of Land Management. They requested that the variance decision be upheld, saying that it followed Carroll County code. According to a concept proposal for the property dating to 2021, plans call for a 10,000 square-foot church and an estimated 6,600 square-foot holy-water immersion building. The plan also proposes that the existing assembly hall and the archive and prayer building at the site be expanded.

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