The agreement identified many issues with the development. "We wanted to talk about the big issues because there’s no point in getting to the small ones if we can’t resolve the big ones first," said Gullo. In the case of Mountain Brook, the big issue is the road going through the development, which would also be used as the potential bypass through the City. The initial plans show the portion of the expansion from Francis Scott Key Highway to the floodplain being done in phase one, while phase two would complete Antrim Blvd connecting the road to 140, crossing over Flow Serve property.

The City is still waiting on the final results of a traffic study that was recently done and Gullo pointed out that if the study doesn’t show the need for an exit at each end of the development to mitigate traffic impacts, the developer will likely argue they shouldn’t have to be responsible for connecting 194 and 140.

The Commission members were stunned by the news as they thought the understanding had always been presented as the developer was building the development with two exits, thus providing the City with the long awaited for bypass. "I feel kind of hoodwinked here," said City Council Liaison Chris Tillman. Gullo responded by pointing out that this meeting wasn’t the final word on the bypass, "It was clear the City Manager told them that the Planning Commission is expecting two connections here," he said. "They didn’t say okay, they just said, well we’re going to look at other ways that we can possibly mitigate things."

The City has also been discussing the possibility of the bypass being a State Highway in the future. To accomplish this, the road would need to be built to Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) specifications which are intense and very expensive. This has proven to be an issue with the Mountain Brook developer as they have been willing to give a right-of-way easement for the bypass but are not so willing to build the roadway to SHA standards at their expense. "They said that their use of the road for their development would not justify the increased road stats," said Gullo. "They expect the Town or someone else, but not them, to make up the difference."

Gullo said the Developer also felt they shouldn’t be financially responsible for constructing the portion of the bypass that would be on Flow Serve property, but they understood wanting it to be built by the same person as the Mountain Brook portion for consistency purposes.

Tillman asked what would happen with the Flow Serve agreement that the City Staff have worked so hard to procure if the bypass is held up. City Manager Jim Wieprecht assured the Commission that Flow Serve is aware that the potential road through their property wouldn’t happen until the second phase of Mountain Brook, which is years away.

Gullo pointed out that the bypass has always been in the City’s Comprehensive Plan and the City has been actively acquiring land parcels for years for the purpose of the bypass. The Mountain Brook development was just a convenient conveyor of the City getting its wish of a bypass.

According to Gullo, nothing else was discussed at the meeting with the Developer because the road issue is the biggest concern. "If we solve the road issue, solving the water and sewer etc. would be manageable," he said. He also said no official agreement was met.