New Focus in 'McMansion' Fight As County Moves Against Signs

When a so-called McMansion threatens to cast its shadow on an undersized neighborhood, the fight that follows is usually about aesthetics and economics.

But in a neighborhood dispute in Montgomery County, it has become a battle over lawn signs and First Amendment rights to free expression.

It was bad enough, Nancy McCloskey said, when Montgomery officials approved plans for a six-bedroom, five-bathroom, 5,000-square-foot house on Overbrook Road in Brookdale, a Chevy Chase area neighborhood where most homes are about half to two-thirds that size.

Now, the agency that permitted the house has ordered McCloskey and other neighbors to remove lawn signs they planted in opposition to Thomas R. Eldridge's plans for his lot.

"It just makes me mad," McCloskey said. "The same people who allow this oversized house in our neighborhood tell me I can't put up signs in protest."

The dispute has attracted the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has written to the county that the sign ordinance is unconstitutional.

At the center of the dispute is Eldridge, a former county prosecutor and unsuccessful candidate for Montgomery County Circuit Court judge in 2002. He lives in Somerset, where he serves on the Town Council, and plans to sell the Brookdale house as soon as it is finished, his builder said. Brookdale residents said they are determined to stop him because if he succeeds, others will inevitably follow.

"When you get one McMansion in a neighborhood and the developers get wind of it, the vultures come in," said Nancy Wolfe, one of about two dozen residents who during the summer put up lawn signs that said, "Council Member Tom Eldridge, We Don't Want Your McMansion for Profit in Our Neighborhood!"

Early this month, the county Department of Permitting Services, which in July approved Eldridge's plans for building the house, said the signs had to go. It cited a county law limiting lawn signs to no more than 30 days in a year, unless the resident wants to pay a $29.70 fee and apply for a permit.

When six residents refused a zoning inspector's order to remove the signs after 30 days, they were issued a violation notice, the first step toward fines that could approach $500 a day.

The ACLU, citing numerous Supreme Court decisions, wrote to County Attorney Charles W. Thompson Jr. that the order is unconstitutional because it restricts a person's right to express opinions on his own property.

"You only got 30 days of free speech in Montgomery County," said Richard Griffiths, an ACLU attorney.