St. Mary’s Commissioners Tommy McKay, left, Dan Raley, Kenny Dement and Tom Mattingly  — The Bay Net photo by Sean Rice

A political hot potato has been tossed back into the hands of St. Mary’s Board of Commissioners – one they thought they got rid of nine months ago.

A crowd showed up at the commissioners’ office Tuesday night to argue in support and against adding a handful of properties into the Lexington Park Development District.

The Lexington Park Development District (LPDD) is a land area surrounding Lexington Park that is earmarked for a higher level of residential and commercial development, similar to the county’s several “town centers.”

There are five properties that are currently under consideration to be added to the LPDD, and one property to be removed, but one stands out as a point of argument for several citizens.

Bernard Beavan owns 75-plus acres on the west side of Indian Bridge Road, just on the outside edge of the LPDD. He has been fighting with the county for four years to have his land put back into the LPDD, because it was removed without giving him any notice and some officials have admitted it was a mistake to remove it in the first place.

Those who argue on behalf of Beavan say is a property rights issue, his property was devalued when the county arbitrarily redrew the LPDD line. Those against correcting the issue argue against further housing developments and the sprawl surrounding Lexington Park, and says it’s a matter of protecting the county’s green space.

The St. Mary’s County Planning Commission voted in May to restore Beavan’s property in the LPDD. On Tuesday night, the county commissioners held a public hearing on the issue, but will not make a decision for at least 10 days.

Bernard Beavan took the podium and explained how the property in question has been in his family 80 years, and it has been included in the LPDD since the district’s inception. It has never been farmland, he said, therefore it does not belong in the neighboring Rural Preservation District (RPD).

On the same side of Indian Bridge Road, there is a radio station, a subdivision and a self-storage center.

“It is a very unfair and inappropriate way to treat residents,” Beavan said. “The removal of this property from the development district has done harm to me and my family.”

The LPDD is supposed to agree with the county’s comprehensive zoning map, and when the LPDD was redone at the beginning of the decade, the properties on the west side of Indian Bridge Road were drawn out of the LPDD and rezoned RPD.

Beavan began to fight the change when he was notified about the zoning change action in 2002. The commissioners agreed with him then and did not change his zone from “RL,” which allows residential development.

Several supporters told the commission Tuesday that Beavan was wronged, and his property status should be restored. Others disagreed.

California resident Linda Vallandingham, who along with former Commissioner Robert Jarboe, has been very vocal about rejecti