No plans for emergency access between Tollgate Village, Bel Air Acres

More than a month has passed since the county tried to facilitate a compromise between two at-odds communities.

In early June, Harford County hosted a public hearing for the residents of Bel Air Acres and Tollgate Village to try and negotiate an emergency access road. Since then, not much has been done to finish the road.

At the time, owners of homes in Tollgate Village, a community for people ages 55 and older, asked Bel Air Acres residents for rights of way to finish an emergency access road. Tollgate Village has one point of entrance and exit, which could prove dangerous if it's blocked and there is an emergency.

All Tollgate Village needs, they said, was the 10 feet of grassy area separating the already partially-built road from Bel Air Acres.

The access road would connect the two communities, using Cider Mill Lane and Highland Road.

Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company Chief William Snyder was at the lengthy meeting and assured Bel Air Acres residents that it would be gated and locked to prevent its use for anything other than emergencies.

In the end, however, neither side could come to a compromise. While Tollgate Village owners expressed frustration because they were told it would be completed, Bel Air Acres residents insisted they had always turned it down.

Bel Air Acres Improvement Association Secretary Catherine Mateer recently reiterated that point in a letter to the county and The Aegis.

In her letter, Mateer wrote there were several occasions when residents told the county they would not grant an easement to the access road, but did thank the county for its role in trying to facilitate discussion.

Trying to reach a compromise was their main goal, county spokesperson Robert Thomas said, later adding that the county had no immediate plans for future meetings.

"It's unfortunate that we could not come together and get an agreement between the two communities in the interest of public safety," Thomas said.

The Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company and the Emergency Operations Center informed the county of the public safety issue, Thomas said, but the county found that residents of Bel Air Acres did not feel it was an issue of public safety.

As of now, he added, no other meetings are planned or other attempts being made to obtain right of way of the grassy buffer separating the communities.

"The county's position on this was simple," he said. "To try to mediate a compromise between two communities that abut one another."

Edward Stauch, president of the Tollgate Village Homeowners Association, had other ideas in mind for the county's involvement. He, too, said he had not pursued the issue further.

He did, however, hope the county would get involved and potentially seize the property.

"I didn't expect the county to do anything, although I thought they should push it," he said.