Sykesville is pushing for two roads to improve access to Route 32.
The Obrecht Road bypass would loop around the north end of Fairhaven, while the other project would extend Third Avenue to Route 32.
Each project is estimated to cost at least $1.5 million and after several public hearings last year, the town supported the bypass option, but asked the county to build the extension, too.
The county has said it will pay for the Obrecht Road bypass, but that project has been delayed by the state permit process. The state is seeking another public hearing on the proposal and holding out the promise of possible funds.
"We don't take a position favoring one over the other, but there may be state funding for the [Obrecht Road] project," said Gene R. Straub, assistant district engineer with the State Highway Administration.
Officials from all three jurisdictions met yesterday with representatives from Fairhaven Retirement Community. The meeting ended with a call for a public hearing.
Sykesville Mayor Jonathan S. Herman said he could predict the outcome of the hearing, which he will schedule for next month.
"The public will be split and it will not give us a direction," the mayor said. "Both roads are what is best for the town. . . . We know Obrecht Road is funded and we anticipated it would be built a few years ago. The town wants both roads and does not want to sacrifice one for the other."
The county allocated money for Obrecht Road, but the state has not granted the permits necessary for construction on wetlands properties.
"The permits must go through the environmental processes and are taking a long time," said Edmund R. "Ned" Cueman, county director of planning. "The town wanted relief and the county assigned its funding mechanism to Obrecht Road. There is no funding for Third Avenue."
William Dulany, president of the Fairhaven board of directors, offered a solution to the delay.
"If the money is appropriated for a road that can't be built, why not move the money to a road which can be built?" he asked.
Officials at the retirement community, just outside town limits, favor extending Third Avenue to give Fairhaven's 450 employees and 550 residents better access to Route 32.
"We want to see Third Avenue extended first," said James Melhorn, president of the Episcopal Ministries to the Aging, the parent company to Fairhaven. "If Obrecht Road is built first, we still have not relieved the town of traffic, nor addressed the welfare and safety of our employees and residents."
But Mr. Herman said if the extension is built first, the county may never construct the bypass.
"If we use up county funds to build Third Avenue, we may never get the money for Obrecht," the mayor said. "There would be an enormous increase in the amount of traffic through town."
Without the improvements to Obrecht Road, all traffic north and west of Sykesville would use the improved Third Avenue to reach Route 32.
County Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown said the county master plan to concentrate growth around the towns "is working like a clock. We have to find a way to fund improvements to continue that growth around the towns."