Howard County officials are full of praise for the descendants of founding father Charles Carroll for agreeing to preserve part of his summer estate permanently. And they hope the move is only the beginning of an effort to keep the county's largest tract of open land permanently free of development.
Next month, the county's farmland preservation board will meet to decide whether to buy the development rights for 315 acres of historic Doughoregan Manor, which totals more than 2,000 acres and is the county's largest farmland area undisturbed by suburban development.
The land sits on the edge of Ellicott City's suburban development, in an area roughly bounded by Centennial Lane, Route 108, the Middle Patuxent River, Folly Quarter Road, and Route 144.
"I think they're right to preserve that property. It's the most historical property in Howard County, if not the state," said Joetta M. Cramm, a local historian, author of "A Pictorial History of Howard County" and lobbyist for historic preservation.
Rob Moxley, chairman of the Agricultural Land Preservation Board, agreed that the historical value of the property made it a top candidate for preservation.
"This is the first opportunity to have the [Carroll] family make a commitment to permanent conservation of a portion of that property," he said. "That size parcel alone is significant for the farmland preservation program, whether is was part of Doughoregan Manor or not."
The 315 acres recently operated as a farm independent of Carroll Mill Farm, the family partnership that now farms the Doughoregan estate.
The parcel does not include the estate's Manor House, which is about 260 years old and stretches the length of a football field. However, the preservation proposal is important for preservationists because it is the first step toward protecting the entire estate.
The house is protected by being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but the estate's 2,042 acres of farmlands are protected only temporarily by a state historic preservation easement that will expire in 2007.
For many years, the Carroll family has put protecting its privacy over satisfying the curiosity of history buffs.
VTC "While it may be historic, it doesn't mean that people have a right to come and look at it," said Philip Carroll, who lives on Doughoregan Manor and, with his children, owns its northern third, not including any of the parcel in question.
As for his portion of the estate, Philip Carroll would not make any predictions about permanent preservation. "There's absolutely nothing to be said about anything that far out," he said.
Manor Lane, which used to run through the property, now dead-ends at the the southern end of the estate. It is posted with "No Trespassing" signs at its northern end, where it connects to Route 144 on Ellicott City's rural western fringe.
Doughoregan Manor was split into northern and southern parts after the 1987 death of Nina R. Carroll, Mr. Carroll's mother.
Mr. Carroll's brother, John Lee Carroll, is executor of the southern portion of the manor estate, which includes the property to be considered for farmland preservation.
That parcel is owned by seven members of the Carroll family, including the Carroll brothers' sister, Carter Carroll Ziegler; her children; and John Lee Carroll's children.
John Lee Carroll, a New York City attorney, did not return several telephone calls from a Sun reporter.
The Calvert family, who received the colony of Maryland as a gift from the king of England, originally granted the Carrolls the Doughoregan tract. That tract and adjoining tracts also granted to the Carrolls make up a 12,000-acre swath of land cutting north to south through what is now western Ellicott City, Clarksville and Columbia.
Both Carroll men and their sister are descendants of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Carrollton was a Carroll property in Frederick County. He was one of three Marylanders to sign the Declaration of Independence, and his family was one of the most wealthy families to take part in the colonists' revolt against Great Britain.
Charles Carroll, who was also a member of the Second Continental Congress, used Doughoregan Manor as a summer home. The Irish immigrant inherited the 7,000-acre property, from his father in 1701.
The part of the estate to be preserved has been so highly rated as potentially developable farmland under the preservation program's guidelines that it is eligible for top-dollar compensation: $6,600 an acre. The temporary historic easement the property could prompt the preservation board to reduce that amount by as much as $600 an acre, however.
If the board approves the deal, the county will make the Carrolls an offer. If the family accepts the offer, the County Council must approve financing for the purchase, a vote that will probably not take place until May.
Preservation officials hope to settle the purchase by the end of the year, which allows time for the preservation approval process as well as for the county planners to approve separation of the property from the rest of the manor estate, now listed as a single lot.
The tract is the largest of five the preservation board will consider at its meeting at 7:30 p.m. March 13 at the 4-H Hall on the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship.
Other tracts being considered are 97 acres on Florence Road in Mount Airy, 74 acres on Daisy Road in Woodbine, 30 acres on Jennings Chapel Road in Woodbine and 26 acres on Old Frederick Road in Sykesville.
The 315 acres is not the largest area brought into the preservation program. Last spring, the County Council approved financing for the development rights to the 723-acre Holly House Farm near Folly Quarter and Triadelphia roads near West Friendship.
If the current proposals are accepted, the property owners will be paid $6,600 to $3,200 an acre, depending on the quality of the land. The money comes from bonds leveraged against a portion of county and state transfer taxes.
When a property goes into the program, its owners receive a small percent of the purchase price initially. The county pays tax-free interest of at least 6.5 percent on the balance twice a year for 30 years and a balloon payment of the principal at the end.
In return, the owners agree never to develop their land. They may sell their property, but subsequent owners also are bound by the development prohibition.
The program is now operating with $55 million set aside in 1989, of which about $5 million will remain after development rights on the current group of properties are paid for.
Even after that money runs out, Mr. Moxley said, funds from transfer taxes are expected to accumulate.
That could well be enough to help finance more easement purchases in the future, should the Carrolls decide to add more of their property to the program before their historical easement runs out in 2007.
County Council members have already expressed support for acquiring the Doughoregan parcel's development rights.
"It's a rather nice piece of property back there. I think it's certainly worth bringing into the program," said County Council Chairman Charles C. Feaga.