Dairy Farm

The state has scrapped its quest to build a giant equestrian park in Anne Arundel County amid new, daunting local opposition: a competing bid from the county to turn the former Naval Academy Dairy Farm into parkland that would likely preserve the organic farming operation, state and local officials said yesterday. J. Robert Burk, executive director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board, said the county's new move eliminated any chance for the state to muster the necessary political support - specifically from County Executive John R. Leopold - for the estimated $114.

ISSUE: The Navy has begun accepting lease offers for an 857-acre former dairy farm in Gambrills, formally making available the pastoral tract for a state horse park, a mining operation, an organic farm or other uses. The Navy decided to accept lease offers after receiving expressions of interest from six parties early last year, including one from the Maryland Stadium Authority, which seeks to open a state-run equestrian center featuring a visitors center; a museum; an indoor, climate-controlled equestrian show ring with 2,500 fixed seats; and stables for 840 horses.

As the Navy begins accepting lease offers for an 857-acre former dairy farm in Gambrills, the director of the Maryland Stadium Authority told state lawmakers yesterday that it is still determining whether to seek approval for a horse park on the property. "We have a new County Council, new county executive and a new governor," Alison L. Asti, the authority's executive director, told a House of Delegates subcommittee yesterday. "We need to make the rounds," she said. "We do not know their views, so we would need guidance on what direction to take."

Kate Dallam, co-owner of the Broom's Bloom dairy farm and ice cream shop, was getting lunch with her daughter yesterday in Bel Air when a fellow patron asked her if she'd heard the news. "She told me, `Broom's Bloom is on fire, and the cows are still inside,'" Dallam recalled yesterday.

The Navy has received a half-dozen expressions of interest in the Naval Academy's dairy farm property, including proposals for a sand and gravel mine and an organic farming operation, in addition to the horse park plan put forth by the Maryland Stadium Authority. Navy officials sought outside interest after the stadium authority designated the 857-acre Gambrills tract last fall as its preferred site for a proposed horse park. A Navy spokesman declined to identify the six parties that have expressed interest, but four of them confirmed their responses to The Sun. Warren E. "Cookie" Halle, head of Silver Spring-based Halle Enterprises, confirmed that he responded to the Navy's request.

Horse park a bad fit for Gambrills I'd like to publicly thank Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens for seeming to see the big picture in all of this horse park/dairy farm mess and state Del. John R. Leopold and County Councilwoman Pamela G. Beidle for attending and giving us their viewpoints at the public meeting on Jan. 25 at the West County library. I do not know anyone who is opposing the proposed horse park at the [Naval Academy] dairy farm who is against the horse park going ahead at another location.

One of the few rural enclaves left in the triangle formed by Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington, Gambrills is a haven of rolling hills and small farms. But residents are worried that a $100 million horse park the state wants to build on a shuttered dairy farm could attract more than horses. People and their cars could strain area roads and disrupt a slow-paced lifestyle that residents covet. While the Maryland Stadium Authority faces significant hurdles before it can break ground on a major equestrian center on the U.S. Naval Academy's pristine 850-acre farm property - formerly used as a dairy for the brigade - state officials have conducted a steady march toward the goal since last spring.

Aiming to quell community concerns, the Maryland Stadium Authority has released a scaled-back horse park site plan that it hopes will impress horse enthusiasts while preserving the rural nature of its proposed location at the Naval Academy's former dairy farm in Gambrills. The plan, publicly released last month, features a smaller indoor arena than originally proposed. Although initial discussions called for a 5,000-seat facility, that idea was scrapped in favor of a 2,500-seat venue that can be supplemented with temporary and floor seating for events such as high school graduation ceremonies.

While much of the discussion about the Naval Academy dairy farm in Gambrills has focused on the Maryland Stadium Authority's horse park proposal, the Navy has indicated that the race to secure a long-term lease for the site is still wide open. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Washington posted a "Request for Interest" notice in The Sun and other area publications last week, seeking "potential re-use opportunities" for the 857-acre site. "It's actually standard procedure," said John Verrico, public affairs officer for the agency, which controls the lease.

The old Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills, with its white picket fences and red-roofed buildings on gently rolling land that resembles the English Cotswolds, has emerged as one of the state's top two choices for a planned Maryland Horse Park, but few parties are clapping. In a significant step forward, the Maryland Stadium Authority site selection committee met Friday to evaluate the 857-acre farm in Anne Arundel County for a feasibility study for a major equestrian venue envisioned as Maryland's answer to Kentucky's state-supported horse park.