Who Are We?
Founded in 1973, the Sugarloaf Citizens’ Association (SCA) is a nonprofit, voluntary organization. Our primary purpose is to protect and preserve the Ag Reserve— the 93,000 acres of northern and western Montgomery County zoned in the 1980s for farming, open space, land conservation, and rural life..
We promote and advocate for sound environmental stewardship in the Ag Reserve and the county as a whole, as defined in the Ag Reserve Master Plan. And we monitor laws and regulations that relate to the Ag Reserve and environmental policy
Join, donate, or renew your membership in SCA! Just click here!
SCA Board Meeting
Monday December 5, 7:30pm
Members welcome, email for information
Watch this video!
When we work together, there's so much the Ag Reserve can to help make our County more energy independent, more food secure and more climate resilient. Let's be #SmartonSolar!
A short video about why it's so important to protect class 2 soils and conditional use.
The Draft Climate Action Plan
We look for and welcome your suggestions, concerns and questions about what's going on in the Ag Reserve. Please email us here.
The Agricultural Reserve is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. This map shows where Montgomery County has designated 93,000 acres to the preservation of farmland. See a larger version here.
See "Growing Legacy,” a terrific portrait of the Ag Reserve, produced by Montgomery Countryside Alliance. Here’s the link to the 30 minute film. MCA has a synopsis here.
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Protect the Sugarloaf Mountain Area
The Frederick County government spent the past two years debating a once-in-a-generation plan to protect almost 20,000 acres in the Southern part of the county from inappropriate development. The overall aim was to conserve and preserve natural habitat, forests, farms, and to prevent high-impact commercial and high-density residential development. The area encompasses Sugarloaf mountain itself (3,400 acres) and most of the land to the east all the way to the Monocacy National Battlefield and I-270. Much of the designated area borders Montgomery’s County’s Agricultural Reserve.
In late October, the Frederick County Council voted to approve the plan—dubbed the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan. It’s a 176-page document that provides detailed guidance for a 19,700 acre area.
Unfortunately, the Council failed to approve an accompanying zoning ordinance (called the “Rural Heritage Overlay Zone”) that would have had the force of law to prevent development threats in the area and fully protect forests, streams and natural habitats. The “treasured landscape” plan is a land-use framework and doesn’t include the zoning measures that would legally prohibit future inappropriate development.
The failure to pass the zoning overlay means existing zoning regulations stay in place. Fortunately, most of the area in question is already zoned for agriculture and“rural conservation.” This existing zoning will provide a good deal of protection against development. But it still leaves gaps the Rural Heritage Overlay Zone would have addressed.
The Council could not reach agreement or compromise on the Overlay Zone, which SCA and other environmental and local organizations strongly supported. Ultimately, the 7-member body, in a 4-3 vote, remanded the zoning measure back to Frederick County’s Planning Department to . . . well, essentially, to try again.
The timing of that reassessment is not yet clear. Any revised plan would also have to go back to the newly elected Council for consideration. So much of 2023 could be taken up with debate on this issue—that is, if the planning commission can devise a revised plan.
We intend to continue to advocate for Overlay zoning of the entire area covered by the Sugarloaf Management Plan. In our view, two issues of serious concern remain:
(1) Stronghold, Inc., the non-profit organization that owns and operates Sugarloaf Mountain, opposed the zoning overlay and threatened to close the mountain to the public if it became law. They could take that position again. We believe Stronghold’s board opposed the Overlay for both philosophical and financial reasons. They took the position that government should have either no or minimal involvement in the oversight of private property. This is a legally specious and frankly ridiculous argument since local authorities zone the vast majority of land in the U.S., for obvious community-planning purposes. Stronghold is already zoned, as mentioned above, and their existing zoning has helped foster good stewardship of their property, for the most part. Stronghold’s financial interest appears to be in possibly acquiring land adjacent to the 3,400 acres it already owns—specifically for development purposes. SCA would oppose any industrial or dense housing development in this area.
(2) Land encompassed by the Sugarloaf Landscape Plan along I-270 has been targeted for commercial development and possibly dense residential development. At one point, Frederick County authorities bowed to the demands of developers and exempted chunks of land along 1-270 from the Overlay zoning. That met with a fierce citizen backlash that led the planning commission to backtrack and recommend the land be included in the protected zone. The Council agreed. But the status of that land now—some 2,000 acres—is now open again to future development proposals. SCA believes that land should be kept in farming or designated for conservation.
Better Waste Management
SCA is working with Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich and the MoCo Department of Environmental Protection to develop a “zero waste” plan for the county. SCA led a county-wide coalition that, in 2021, provided county officials with a comprehensive plan that demonstrated the superiority of closing the Dickerson trash incinerator and instituting a suite of better solid waste management measures.
Those include expanded recycling, composting of organic waste, trucking waste to well-managed landfills, and a “save as you throw-away” program. The county is testing these initiatives. In December 2022, SCA Vice President Lauren Greenberger testified before the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council on issues related to the pollution produced by trash incineration and the faulty EPA regulatory framework that allows that pollution to disproportionately affect low- income and minority communities. We will be advocating on waste management issues with all levels of the state and Montgomery County government in 2023.
Regenerative Agriculture
With the aim of promoting the growing of high-quality food, sequestering carbon, improving soil, increasing biodiversity, and reducing the use of agricultural chemicals, SCA is in the process of converting its 150-acre farm near Dickerson to regenerative agriculture. Until recently, the farm’s fields were leased to local farmers for conventional grain production (wheat, corn, soybeans). We aim to be a model for the use of Regenerative Ag techniques for farmers in the Ag Reserve and the entire county. Regen Ag can help increase food security and climate resiliency for our region—now and for the future. Extreme weather events are expected to put many food-growing areas in the U.S. at risk. Increasing the amount of food grown locally will help ensure adequate crop growth and food supply. It will also help protect against supply chain disruptions, such as those the occurred during the pandemic.
Enhancing Solar Energy
SCA in 2020-2021 helped shape a Montgomery County zoning change that allows farmers in the Ag Reserve— working with solar developers—to place ground-based solar arrays on their land if those arrays do not take prime arable land out of use. Such solar arrays must meet certain requirements and be approved by county regulators. For now, the total acreage of solar arrays in the Ag Reserve is limited to 1,800 acres. The rules governing the initiative protect forests and environmentally sensitive areas. In 2023, we intend to continue to promote solar experiments under this program, and to urge farmers, landowners, and residents to consider installing solar on buildings and houses. The zoning change included a measure that allows homeowners who install solar to produce more solar energy than they need and sell it back into the grid—up to 100% more than they need! Thus if a homeowner needed 1,000 solar energy units for their own needs, they could produce 2,000 and sell 1,000 back to the grid. (Example is for illustration purposes; there’s no such thing as a “solar energy unit.”)
Convening Local Farmers and Groups
SCA has a long history as a local and regional convener. We intend to grow that role in 2023 and beyond, with a focus on the issues mentioned above and others as well. This will mean educational forums and informal “dialogue” get-togethers on local issues. All will be held at SCA’s facilities and beautiful Gothic Barn on Martinsburg Rd. in Dickerson. Stay tuned.
Sugarloaf Citizens Association, Inc. Linden Farm 20900 Martinsburg Road P.O. Box 218 Dickerson, MD 20842 301-349-4889 info@sugarloafcitizens.org
