A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge Thursday refused to order the lights dimmed at a Bowleys Quarters Royal Farms store, despite arguments that they were interfering with operation of the nearby Bengies Drive-In Theatre.

Bengies owner D. Edward Vogel contends that light from the store bleeds over onto his property and is distracting to some customers watching movies from their cars. Although a zoning hearing officer had found in 2003 that an adequate buffer needed to be installed between the store and drive-in to keep such light encroachment to a minimum, Judge Kathleen Cox ruled that enforcement of that ruling was up to the county's Department of Permits & Development Management, which has said the Royal Farms store's lights are not in violation of the county zoning code.

While clearly sympathetic to Vogel's dilemma, Cox said she had no authority to force the county's hand.

"I'm not unsympathetic to Mr. Vogel's position," Cox said before dismissing Vogel's request for a writ of mandamus that would have forced the county to take action against Royal Farms. While labeling his dilemma "not some illusory or minor complaint," she said she could find nothing "arbitrary, illegal, capricious or unreasonable" in the county's actions.

For more than an hour during yesterday's hearing, lawyers for Vogel and the county sparred over what level of light would be distracting to the Bengies' customers. Vogel's attorney, T. Wray McCurdy, offered testimony from a Lutherville-based lighting consultant that light from the store was more than 10 times brighter than any other neighboring light visible at Bengies.

In rebuttal, a skeptical Assistant County Attorney James Nolan noted that plenty of other lights along Eastern Boulevard bleed onto the Bengies property. At one point, he suggested that light from the moon could prove disruptive - a claim disputed by the lighting expert, Bruce Dunlop, who noted that the moon is rarely, if ever, in a position to be unduly intrusive.

Interviewed after the five-hour hearing, a clearly frustrated Vogel said he was unsure what to do next. He said he thought the light issue had been settled in 2003, when county Zoning Commissioner Lawrence E. Schmidt granted a special exception allowing construction on the site where the Royal Farms store now stands. As part of his ruling, Schmidt said that buffers and light controls needed to be installed, perhaps above what the county code mandated, because of its proximity to the Bengies.

But in 2009, a new zoning commissioner, William J. Wiseman III, granted a variance request by Royal Farms to allow extra signs on the property. In his opinion, he took issue with Vogel's claims that the store's lights were interfering with the drive-in. And representatives from the county have said consistently that the store is in compliance with its regulations.

The Bengies, which has been showing films on what is billed as the largest movie screen on the East Coast since 1956, will open for its 55th season in the spring, Vogel said, although possibly later than in past years. The light from the Royal Farms store, which sits across Eastern Boulevard from the drive-in, will force him to wait until trees along the edge of his property are in full bloom. Only then, he said, would there be enough of a buffer to keep out much of the offending light.

"I'm confused," Vogel said. "I need to digest all this."

Timothy M. Kotroco, who heads the county's Department of Permits & Building Development, insisted afterward that there is no bigger friend of the Bengies than he and promised to do what he could to look after the interests of the drive-in, Maryland's last outdoor theater. But, he suggested, Vogel might have to temper his zeal a bit.

"D. is a passionate advocate for the drive-in theater business," Kotroco said. "Does he let that passion interfere with his judgment? I think so. But he's very protective, and I can appreciate that."