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Photo by Sam Yu
A ballot box sits on the hood of a City of Frederick mini-van ready to collect votes in the special referendum election held at the entrance to the Thatcher Farm off Biggs Ford Road early this morning.
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A referendum that could potentially overturn the city’s northern annexations wrapped up today with 100 percent turnout.
But officials don’t have much faith the votes of the seven owners and occupants of the Crum and Thatcher farms will cause the properties to be de-annexed from the city.
“It's not my expectation that will change anything,” said Frederick County Commissioner’s President Jan Gardner.
The seven individuals who voted all have a financial interest in the annexations and eventual development of the land.
The county commissioners called for the referendum of the land owners and occupants as a last option for reversing the city’s decision to annex the more than combined 436 acres on either side of U.S. 15 at Frederick ’s northern boundary.
County commissioners opposed the annexations, which could bring more than 2 million square feet of office space and more than 1,000 housing units.
The commissioners have opposed the northern annexations primarily because city agreements with developers do not explicitly require them to fund an interchange at U.S. 15 and Biggs Ford Road. Both city and county officials view the interchange as vital for safety along U.S. 15 — a roadway to which the two properties are directly adjacent.
Another referendum effort to put the annexations to a vote of the entire city failed after anti-annexation organizers could not collect enough signatures for a petition. The referendum required a petition signed by 20 percent of city voters.
Commissioners decided to pursue the other referendum option allowed by state law: Putting it to a vote of the land owners and occupants.
The city’s Board of Supervisors of Elections set up polling locations on the two properties Tuesday and today. Voters on the Crumland Farm included John D. and Judith E. Crum; Cameron Pratt, president of the Rockville-based developer Foulger-Pratt; and David Chapin, a representative of the Homewood Retirement Community which had a portion of its own land also included in the annexation.
The Thatcher Farm voters included occupants Gary J. and Judith C. Thatcher and Wayne Lingafelter, executive vice president of Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia-based developer that now owns the land.
City elections board president Anne Leffler said it was the first city el
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