The Carroll County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Thursday, June 25, to schedule a public hearing on the possible closure of a portion of Old Baltimore Road, a stretch that residents of the surrounding “tree-streets” neighborhood fear will become a major cut-through route once a new Westminster Chick-fil-A opens at the intersection of MD Route 140 and Old Baltimore Boulevard.
The vote came after more than half an hour of discussion involving the county's Public Works director, the Carroll County Sheriff, and the Fire & EMS chief, as well as public comment from a neighborhood resident. Commissioners agreed the community deserved a formal opportunity to weigh in before any decision is made. State law requires 30 days' notice and consecutive weeks of advertising before the hearing can be held; commissioners said they want to schedule it in the evening to make it accessible to working residents.
What residents are asking for
The petition does not seek to stop Market Street Extended, the county-planned connector road that has been in Carroll County's master plan for years. Commissioner Joseph Vigliotti clarified the scope at the outset of the discussion: residents are specifically asking the county to close the section of Old Baltimore Road that would eventually connect to Market Street Extended, the linkage that, if left open, would allow drivers on MD 140 to cut through their neighborhood streets to reach Chick-fil-A.
"They're not asking us to do anything with Market Street," Vigliotti said. "But currently the plan would be for Old Baltimore to connect into Market Street; those residents would still be able to come off of 140."
Community member Michelle Jefferson, who lives in the affected area of Old Baltimore Road, addressed the board directly. She said she has been fighting the Chick-fil-A construction since first contacting Commissioner Thomas Gordon about what she described as a "secret project" roughly two and a half years ago.
"We are trying to keep 3,000 cars who have never been to our neighborhood before from coming through," Jefferson said. "The road closure will do that. The road closure will help steady our property values as well."
Jefferson also noted that a county employee had previously suggested closing the end of Old Baltimore as an option if residents could not stop the Chick-fil-A from being built. She added that the traffic circle at Stonegate, which Market Street Extended is designed to complete, was originally supposed to be finished before a single home was built in that development. "Color me a little yellow on believing that some of these things might happen," she said.
About Market Street Extended
Market Street Extended is a Carroll County-owned connector road designed to complete the fourth leg of the existing roundabout at the Stonegate neighborhood entrance, linking MD Route 140 south to Old Westminster Pike. Carroll County Public Works Director Bryan Bokey told commissioners the road has been in the county's master plan for some time.
"The goal of this road was to connect Maryland 140 to Old Westminster Pike," Bokey said. The primary obstacle to completing it had been land: the county did not own all the parcels needed for the right-of-way. When The Morgan Companies approached the county about the Chick-fil-A development, the two sides reached an agreement; the developer would provide the land the county needed in exchange for cooperation on stormwater management and other elements of the project.
Bokey approved the road's final design with all State Highway Administration comments resolved. He told commissioners he hoped construction could begin this summer and that he has an upcoming meeting with the developer scheduled to assess the status. He estimated the road would be complete and open to the public in July or August 2027.
On one point, Bokey was unequivocal: the Chick-fil-A will not receive a certificate of occupancy until Market Street Extended is fully built and accepted by the county. "I will put my name to that statement," he said. The requirement is also baked into the City of Westminster’s approval for the property.
The City of Westminster conditionally approved the Chick-fil-A site plan with Market Street Extended as the binding condition. Construction of the road must be past the excavation and grading stage before the city will issue building permits, and the road must be fully complete before a certificate of occupancy can be granted.
Emergency response not a significant concern — but traffic is
Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees, who said he is "intimately familiar" with Old Baltimore Road, told commissioners he believes the residents' concerns are legitimate and he is "with them on looking at options."
The sheriff said his analysis of incident responses in the affected area — Locust, Willis, Spruce, Maple, Sycamore, Oak, and Elm Avenues — found the calls are almost entirely EMS-related, with nothing significant on the law enforcement side. He said closing Old Baltimore would be more of an inconvenience for cut-through drivers than a meaningful obstacle for emergency responders.
"The response is negotiable, really, when you look at if you closed off Old Baltimore," DeWees said. "I think it would be more of an inconvenience factor for people trying to cut through there than it would be for us in law enforcement."
His larger concern was future traffic volume. "My fear is that there will be more calls for service if we don't do something with that development when [Chick-fil-A] is built," he said, raising the possibility of pedestrians being struck and other incidents driven by increased traffic.
Fire & EMS Chief Michael Robinson echoed that position. He said his department conducted its own incident-response analysis and found that calls to the area were primarily EMS calls. He noted there had been a shed fire in the neighborhood about two weeks prior. He said a road closure on Old Baltimore would not significantly deter emergency response or limit access.
"We would yield to allowing a process and listening to the community," Robinson said. "With the new construction and the continuance of Market Street, that's going to give us some additional options."
Commissioner concerns: accountability, costs, and the roundabout
Commissioner Susan Krebs questioned why the Stonegate roundabout with Market Street Extended was never completed as required when that development was approved, and whether the same pattern was repeating itself. She argued that the county ordinance requires approved traffic mitigation to be in place within six months before building permits can be issued and that the requirement had not been enforced.
Krebs also challenged the county's cost-sharing arrangement for Market Street Extended, under which Carroll County is paying 90% of road mitigation costs while the Chick-fil-A developers pay 10%. "The developer, as part of their project, they pay for it everywhere else. Our taxpayers should not be paying for these mitigations," she said. Krebs said Carroll County is “one of the few counties” that pays for these mitigations, rather than requiring developers to pay for them as part of their projects.
Krebs also expressed concern about the proximity of the proposed Chick-fil-A entrance/exit to existing homes. Bokey responded that the design extends the driveway 5 to 15 feet away from the road to increase separation and includes additional landscaping and screening.
Commissioner Michael Guerin referenced a Chick-fil-A that opened in Mount Airy years ago and said traffic problems there are still being addressed. "I don't think [the citizens' concerns] are overstated," he said.
Commissioner Kenneth Kiler expressed some uncertainty about timing, wondering whether a hearing and potential closure were premature before construction on Market Street Extended had even begun, but said he supports holding the hearing and presenting the community with full plans and a clear timeline for the road.
What comes next
The board voted unanimously to move forward with a public hearing. By statute, the county must provide 30 days' notice and advertise the hearing on consecutive weeks before it can be held.
At the hearing, commissioners indicated they expect Public Works, the Sheriff's Office, and Fire & EMS to present a range of options — including potential temporary traffic controls while Market Street Extended is under construction — alongside full renderings of the project and its expected effects on the neighborhood.
No hearing date has been announced.
Featured photo: from City of Westminster Planning & Zoning meeting documents
