The 12-year-old controversy over a proposed Royal Farms gas station and convenience store on Harford Road took another turn yesterday when the city’s approval of the plan was upheld by a judge.

After hearing arguments, Circuit Court Judge Kendra Y. Ausby rejected residents’ appeal of the decision last year by the Zoning Board to approve the plan by the convenience store’s corporate parent, Two Farms, Inc., to build the 12-pump gas station at a busy intersection in northeast Baltimore.

Pretty much every community association in the surrounding area has opposed the plan since it surfaced in 2012 – sentiment that has fueled the long-running legal battle, which may not be over yet.

• A dinosaur of a zoning dispute, the Harford Road Royal Farms case, is back (9/21/23)

• Gas station plan a flashpoint for a neighborhood with aspirations (6/19/12)

“We’re going to try to have a meeting, a Zoom session, next week and see what our attorney is up for,” Jody Landers, a former City Councilman who lives in Lauraville and has been active in the opposition.

“We’ve come this far,” said Landers, referring to veteran zoning attorney John C. Murphy.

Murphy has been representing opponents who maintain that the project, across the street from a library branch and near an elementary school, would pose a danger to children and other pedestrians as well as pose a traffic hazard.

Two Farms’ lawyers say their plan, slated for a large vacant lot at 5901-21 Harford Road, would serve as a community asset and job generator.

“Absolute trash decision”

The Royal Farms chain, which has more than 240 outlets in the region, has needed permission from the city because the parcel had a zoning designation that permitted a convenience store, but requires a “conditional use” for the construction of gas pumps.

After years of legal wrangling, the Court of Special Appeals sent the matter back to the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals (BMZA), saying its decision should be based on whether a gas station would be more harmful at this location than elsewhere in the zoning district.

Last June, the BMZA re-examined the case and granted the conditional use approval by a 4-1 vote.

Angry opponents afterwards noted that not only residents, but the Department of Planning opposed Royal Farms’ request.

A gas station in that spot would be inconsistent with improvements to the pedestrian experience along the corridor, the planning department’s statement said.

The district’s council member was furious.

“An absolute trash decision,” Councilman Ryan Dorsey said at the time, writing on X. “This is a decision of people who don’t care about community development siding with people who don’t care about community development,” he wrote.

With Murphy’s help, residents challenged the decision. But yesterday Judge Ausby concurred with the BMZA and the company.