Hampstead must pay $2.89 million for golf course 

Posted: 7:54 pm Wed, December 9, 2009
By Danny Jacobs
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

The town of Hampstead must pay a local golf course nearly $3 million if it wants to acquire an irrigation well on the property for the municipal water system, a Carroll County jury determined.

The $2.89 million price tag for part of the Oakmont Green Golf Club is 36 times what the town originally offered for the 10-acre parcel it seeks to acquire through eminent domain.

The jury’s decision on Tuesday came a day after retired Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. ruled the town had a public necessity for the land and therefore could exercise its power of eminent domain. Kane was specially assigned to the case from Howard County after two sitting judges in Carroll County recused themselves.

Lawyers on both sides said decisions on appeals have not been made, although Hampstead’s lawyers indicated they would file post-trial motions.

The town filed its condemnation lawsuit in July 2008 to acquire the well, near the golf course’s 13th tee, and the adjacent woods. Oakmont Green, a public course that opened in 1992, owns two irrigation wells on the property.

“It’s a very high-production well in an area we’ve tried for over a decade to find high-production wells,” said Michelle M. Ostrander, Hampstead’s appointed town attorney. Ostrander is also a solo practitioner in Westminster.

In a question-and-answer page about the Oakmont Green case on Hampstead’s official Web site, the town says this is the first instance in 119 years it has used condemnation to acquire a property.

The town has no water reserves and has unsuccessfully drilled wells in other parts of Hampstead, the site says. Restrictions imposed by the Maryland Department of the Environment have prevented any further drilling exploration, according to the town.

Richard R. Titus, one of Oakmont Green’s lawyers, denied the town’s claims but declined to elaborate further on them.

The town originally offered Oakmont Green $80,000 plus additional funds to drill another well or find more efficient ways to run the golf course with one well, Ostrander said. The amount was an average between two appraisals of the parcel performed by the town, lawyers said.

Titus, of Hollman, Maguire, Titus & Korzenewski Chtd. in Westminster, said the proposed acquisition would have affected multiple holes on the course, significantly decreasing its value. One defense appraiser valued the golf course with the parcel at $3 million and less than $1 million without.

J. Brooks Leahy, who also represented the town, said the irrigation well at issue was not used by the golf course until 2002.

The second well on the property “had been the exclusive source for 12 years,” said Leahy, of Dulany, Leahy & Curtis LLP in Westminster.

Titus said that was because the family that owns the golf course has expanded its operation gradually.

“As finances allowed, they increased the size of things,” he said.

Lee Snyder, Oakmont’s owner, was “on the verge of tears” upon hearing the jury’s verdict following five hours of deliberation over two days, Titus added.

“He was very pleased,” said Titus, who argued the case along with colleague Charles D. Hollman.