Stung by criticism over their plan to sell the Merryland horse farm in Long Green Valley, Baltimore County officials say they would consider keeping it as an equestrian park -- but only in the unlikely event someone comes forward with an acceptable plan and $750,000 for repairs.

The county's decision to sell the 160-acre farm, donated to the county six years ago by a wealthy New York businessman, angered those who helped arrange the gift and caught neighbors and the area's councilman by surprise.

Yesterday, Michael H. Davis, a top aide to County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, said the county would reconsider auctioning the property as long as the alternative ensures preservation of the area's farmland and makes financial sense.

"If someone has a proposal, we'll be glad to look at it," Davis said. But he said the county has not received such an offer, and that it seemed unlikely someone would be willing to spend so much to repair the property without purchasing it.

The county gets about $18,000 a year from a couple who operate a thoroughbred training facility on the property, Davis said.

The county has wrestled with the question of what to do with Merryland for several years, finally deciding to sell the property and use the proceeds to protect farmland in Long Green Valley.

The development rights would be donated to the Maryland Environmental Trust and the Long Green Valley Conservancy to ensure that Merryland would remain a farm.

Yesterday, former County Executive Roger B. Hayden, who accepted the gift from New York real estate magnate Seymour Cohn in 1993, said the county would be making a grave error in selling it. "I'm more than disappointed," Hayden said. "It would be a tremendous loss to Baltimore County."

When they learned that Cohn wanted to donate the land -- in exchange for a $4 million tax write-off -- county officials were "enthralled with the possibilities," Hayden said.

The first plans centered on developing an equestrian center, but, Hayden said, the property presented other opportunities, such as a nature center.

"I think it would be a big mistake to sell it, as tough as it is to get parkland," he said.

But Ruppersberger's staff says the farm doesn't fit the county's park needs because it is not easily accessible and lies in an area targeted for farmland preservation.

The farm, once one of the grandest thoroughbred breeding and training facilities in Baltimore County, has become a declining asset, Davis said. Fences need to be painted, the farmhouse repaired and the track improved.

Betty Shea Miller, whose late husband, horse trainer Danny Shea, owned and operated the farm in its heyday between 1939 and 1959, said she rarely goes by the property now. "It pulls at my heart to see fences falling down," she said.

Miller sold the farm to a friend in 1963. The land was sold to Cohn in 1987 for $1.3 million. At the time he donated the land, it was appraised at $4 million. The county has said it will get new appraisals before selling it.

County Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder, a Fullerton Democrat, said he recently talked with investors thinking of submitting proposals to operate the farm and make it available for public events.

News that the county had decided to sell it surprised him, he said. "I didn't think we had reached that point where it was definite."

Charles Fenwick Jr., a horseman who headed an advisory committee on the farm during the Hayden administration, said he would like to see a county equestrian center, but agrees that Merryland is probably not the best place for it.

But Charlotte Pine, president of the Long Green Valley Association, said, "I don't think [the county] ever gave it a chance. When a property is gifted for educational/recreational purposes, I think that should be honored."

Pub Date: 3/12/99