Carroll County Commissioners Public Hearing on Market Street Extended Project – August 27, 2026
Carroll County Commissioners Public Hearing on Market Street Extended Project – August 27, 2026
On Thursday, August 27, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the Reagan Room of the Carroll County Office Building, the Carroll County Board of Commissioners (President Joseph A. Vigliotti, Vice President Michael R. Guerin, and Commissioners Thomas S. Gordon III, Kenneth A. Kiler, and Susan W. Krebs) held a public hearing on the proposed closure of a portion of Old Baltimore Road off Market Street, part of the long-planned Market Street Extended Project. County Attorney Tim Burke and Public Works Director Brian Bokey presented background; Acting County Administrator Deb Effingham was also present. Public comments were limited to three minutes.
Project Background
- Tim Burke explained that resident Michelle Jefferson and several neighbors petitioned to close the road; the petition was submitted about October 24, 2025. Advertisements of the intention to petition ran in the Carroll County Times on October 24, October 31, and November 7, 2025, and the hearing was advertised on August 6, 13, and 20, 2026.
- Brian Bokey said the Market Street Extended Project had been planned for a long time to connect the Stone Gate traffic circle to Market Street at Route 140. The county needed additional land from a new property owner to proceed. The site was formerly a Chick-fil-A, and although there are no current Chick-fil-A plans, the developer still wants to proceed; a memorandum of understanding covers road and stormwater cost responsibilities.
- The board had previously taken up the matter on June 25, 2026 and set this formal public hearing.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jason Hexek, a Locust Avenue resident, supported closing the road to general traffic but wanted emergency access preserved, suggesting signage, gravel, or collapsible bollards.
- Michelle Jefferson, the petition organizer, said residents have been fighting for two and a half years. She said residents do not oppose development or the developer making money, but their red line is no fast-food restaurant of any kind; she proposed closing the road if traffic exceeds 1,500 to 1,750 cars per day. She asked whether the county would work on that compromise. President Vigliotti responded that the board would take all comments seriously.
- Kelly Schaefer Miller, representing Morgan Companies, which owns two parcels at Market Street and Route 140, opposed deciding to close the road before it is built. She argued the property will develop whether or not the connection is built and that the county should build the planned road, observe the actual traffic impact, and then decide.
- A commenter not named in the transcript suggested shifting the turn-off onto Old Baltimore Pike and the commercial entrance so commercial traffic cannot cut straight through the neighborhood, while still allowing residents to use the spur.
- Mark Depot, Director of Community Planning and Development for the City of Westminster, urged the county to build Market Street as designed and then complete an actual study after development. He cited an existing traffic study projecting a significant decrease in trips through the tree streets.
- John Conrad, a Willow Avenue resident, supported closing the road now. He said he watches traffic on Willow Avenue and estimated 95% of cars do not belong to residents; he did not want to wait until the problem gets worse.
- Trisha Piper, a Locust Avenue resident for about 22 years, supported closure or relief, describing severe quality-of-life impacts from truck traffic, noise, dirt, and unsafe conditions. She noted two high schools within 2 to 3 miles and doubted the extension would stop cut-through traffic.
- Christine Crow, a Willow Avenue resident since 1981, asked for speed humps, a lower speed limit, or other measures to prevent through traffic. She cited children on Old Baltimore Road, school bus stops, video of cars speeding by, and heavy trucks shaking her house.
- The Carroll County Sheriff said he is firmly with the tree-streets residents. He said he had driven the route to assess emergency response times and considered emergency-access concerns nominal compared with the traffic burden on residents. He recommended giving residents their streets back, offered to work with Public Works on a high-level traffic study, and said bus routes could be adjusted.
Key Outcomes
- No decision was made on the road closure or the Market Street Extended connection.
- The board unanimously voted to close the public hearing and keep the record open for ten calendar days from August 27, 2026.
- Written comments may be submitted during the ten-day comment period before the board considers next steps.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is Thursday, August 27th, 2026. Welcome to the public hearing for the Market Street Extended Project. My name is Joe Vigliati, Commissioner from District One and President of the Carroll County Board of Commissioners. I'm joined this evening by Commissioner Mike Garon, District 4, and Vice President of the Board of Commissioners, Commissioner Kenny Cowler from District 2, Commissioner Tom Gordon from District 3, and Commissioner Sue Krabs from District Five. We're also joined by com I'm sorry, by Acting County Administrator Deb Effingham and our County Attorney Tim Burke, as well as Brian Bokey, who in a few moments will give us a brief summation of the project that we're here for the public hearing about. As we always do, we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. So very briefly, I'll run through the order of tonight's events and then we'll kick things off. We are all very much looking forward to hearing from you, and we are incredibly grateful that you were willing to join us uh this evening to do so. As Tim had mentioned a minute ago, if anybody is interested in commenting tonight, there are salmon colored cards at the back of the room. Please do fill one of those out and then give it to uh Deb up here at the front of the room. All right. So first of all, I'm going to officially call to order the public hearing on the possible road closure of a portion of old Baltimore Road off Market Street. And uh I'm going to turn things over to Tim for a very brief introduction. Uh we'll turn over uh things to Brian Boggy after that for a very brief summation of the proposed uh project and legislation. And then we are going to open the floor to comments from you. So Tim, would you take us through our next step? Good evening, Commissioners, and good evening, everybody. Uh as stated earlier, this is a public hearing on a proposed uh closure of a portion of Old Baltimore Road. This was initiated by our uh one of our citizens, Michelle Jefferson and several of her neighbors. Uh on our about October 24th submitted a petition to close the portion of the road. Uh prior to that, she submitted uh an advertisement of her intention to submit the petition to close the road that ran in the Carroll County Times on October 24th, October 31st and November 7th, uh 2025 2025. This hearing uh was uh advertised in the Carroll County Times on Thursday, August 6, 2026. Uh August 13th, 2026, and August 20th, 2026. Uh with us is uh Director Brian Bogey from the Department of Public Works. He uh can give us a brief background of of what's happening here and explain maybe the rendition we have up on the screen. Sure, thanks, Tim. Uh good evening, Brian Bogey, Director, uh Department of Public Works. Uh as Tim and uh Commissioner Bigliati um spoke to already. Um we've had uh Market shirt extended is is what our office calls it, uh in our in our plan for a very long time. We we coordinate with planning for plan major streets. Um we've we've had this line shown on a map for a very long time. Um part of the Stone Gate uh development had had a fourth leg of that traffic circle if you're familiar with the area. Um there was always an intention to connect that traffic circle out to Market Street at 140 uh with the truists and the Wild Walkati corner there. Um we had a struggle for a long time to to get this built because we didn't own all the property. Um property owner at the time was not willing to work with us. So this kind of we we had the the plans developed by Stone Gates engineer as part of their development process. And um until the property was sold to another owner, uh they were then able to work with us and and provide us the additional land we needed to make this connection. So, as part of the development on the corner, uh formerly was a Chick-fil-A. I think that's probably um what most folks in the room know it as. Um currently, Chick-fil-A does not have any plans to develop with this company on the site. Um, but the the project is still moving forward. We're still in active conversations with the developer. Um so they are they want to proceed. Uh we're we we have a memorandum of understanding on who's gonna pay for what portion of the road and stormwater management, uh, things like that. And as we're all here tonight, um the the plan has always been to have this road tie into old Baltimore. Um so the street tree streets could still access 140, um, easy access to 140 or old Westminster Pike. Um we never saw any problems with it. We've had a couple comments um regarding landscaping and some screening, and we were happy to work with uh the folks in the in this community um up until uh October, as Tim mentioned, we did receive the petition to close off that portion of the road and not make that connection.
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