County officials are negotiating to purchase a 100-acre tract near Fort Meade as a site for an amphitheater similar to the Wolf Trap complex in Vienna, Va.

Council Chairman David G. Boschert said the county is negotiating to both purchase the tract, off Route 198, and reach an agreement with a private company that would lease the site and operate facilities, including an amphitheater.

Boschert, a Crownsville Democrat, declined to name the company, but said it is "a highly credible organization" based on the West Coast.

During a meeting last month with a committee of community leaders working to find parkland, Boschert said Potomac resident Doug Legum is willing to sell 100 acres south of Route 198 to the county for $1 million.

The land could conceivably fetch four times that amount, but Legum would get a substantial tax break for selling the land tothe county, Boschert said. The county would get prime parkland at a reduced price and could use it for both an amphitheater and for some much-needed ball fields, the councilman said.

He said the county could own the 100 acres and lease it to the company, which would manage both the amphitheater the ball fields.

Legum's attorney, who attended last month's community meeting with Boschert, would promise only that community leaders would be impressed with the undisclosed company and that whatever is built would be compatible with other recreational uses.

Boschert irked many committee members by not being specific about the company's identity.

But he said that county officials have been negotiating with the company for about a month, and thecounty has agreed not to disclose the identity of the company until an agreement is reached.

Boschert said again Saturday that he could not reveal the company's name, but said he hopes an agreement can be reached within two weeks.

"I don't want to go into further detail," he said.