The commercial bazaar of Clarksville is a far cry from the rural crossroads it once was, but Howard County is still trying to protect several remnants of bygone days now shielded by an earthen berm from a gauntlet of nine auto dealerships.

Last night, the county Board of Appeals reversed a Nov. 7 decision in favor of the car dealers, and voted 4-0 with one abstention that hundreds of new vehicles parked by several Antwerpen dealerships on a muddy lot just outside a small horse farm are there illegally and must be moved. The cars sit at the entrance of Edmund C. Holweck's land, at the end of Auto Drive.

The Holwecks did not attend the hearing and could not be reached for comment.

"The primary use of this lot here is for storage, and not for sales," said board member Albert J. Hayes, who had moved to reconsider the earlier 3-1 vote.

Three other members agreed. "There's no signs, no lights, no pavement, and no doubt it's a storage area," said Pat Patterson, another member. Storage is illegal in that zone under county law.

There are two related zoning violation cases, one at the end of Auto Drive, off Route 108 north of Route 32, and the other off Ten Oaks Road south of Route 32.

Illegal storage alleged

The county charges that the Antwerpen auto dealerships, several of which are in the Clarksville Auto Park, are illegally storing vehicles on two unpaved lots - one just outside the berm intended to protect residential property owned by the Holweck and Mulreany families. Some of the land is in agricultural preservation.

The 2-acre lot at 6381 Ten Oaks Road has been a bone of zoning contention for more than two years, and Antwerpen has made sporadic attempts to clean it and lower the number of vehicles parked there, county files show.

Last night's hearing involved only the 3.4-acre lot at 12451 Auto Drive.

The case began in February, when county inspector David L. Calloway found hundreds of new vehicles parked on the lot.

Residents' complaints

The county was responding to complaints from several residents whose property is behind an earthen berm meant to shield them from the car dealers.

"We don't go out and go after these things," county Planning Director Joseph W. Rutter Jr. said, explaining that the county enforces zoning laws by responding to complaints. "We've gotten so many complaints from people in Clarksville."

The county contends the vehicles are being stored on a lot not zoned for that purpose, while Antwerpen Vice President Stanford Hess, and his attorney, Richard B. Talkin, claimed it is a sales lot and not storage.

The county said Antwerpen could leave the vehicles on the lot if it had a dealer's license for the spot, but Hess told a hearing examiner that cars and trucks are sold from that lot and a permit for that location is not needed.

Parking on berm

Meanwhile, Rutter said that vehicles were sometimes parked up on the berm itself, virtually threatening to intrude on the residences beyond. Yesterday, a decorative wooden fence separated the properties.

In August, a county hearing officer denied Antwerpen's appeal and upheld the county's view, but the Board of Appeals disagreed last month, dismissing the violations after a hearing.

The Ten Oaks Road case is scheduled for a District Court trial Dec. 20, according to county files.