Report: No Legal Fee Coverage for Brickyard Farm Supporters

Coverage of attorney's fees will not be granted to those who argued that the lease of the Brickyard property in Potomac for use as soccer fields was not conducted with proper public transparency, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Robert A. Greenberg ruled last Tuesday, The Gazette reported.

The Brickyard property, which is owned by the Montgomery County School Board, was leased out for the past 30 years to Nick Maravell for use as an organic farm and educational site. That lease ended in August 2012, and the school board then leased the property to the county for soccer field development, Patch reported.

But months of controversy and legal wrangling ensued, as a group of Potomac activists, residents and farm supporters argued that the lease agreement with the county was executed without full public transparency, Patch reported. In the end, the county backed out of the lease, Patch reported.

"Maravell and his co-complainants—including Curtis Uhre of the Brickyard Coalition’s steering committee—had argued that the lease of the land from the school system to the county had been illegal and lacked proper public input," The Gazette reported.

According to Uhre, "the group was seeking reimbursement of the segment of the legal fees they felt dealt with the Open Meetings Act, saying the amount was in the low $30,000 range," The Gazette reported.

Read more about the story on The Gazette's website.

The Brickyard site could become the location of the new Potomac Elementary School, Patch reported.