The Churning Point

"What they are doing is good for the environment. It's good for the locals," says Steve Weber, owner of nearby Cider Mill Farm and a past president of the Maryland Farm Bureau. "This couldn't be a better example of what you want to see."

Association members say they were misled, however, and on March 24 they withdrew their support. The group says Prigel did not have all the permissions in place, as he had claimed. It also maintains that the project is larger and more industrial than what he originally described.

Take the placement of the building. The creamery is across the street from the Prigels' barn, which means milk will have to be trucked there. That, opponents say, will result in intensive water use (the tankers must be washed and sanitized after each delivery) and require a large paved area for the trucks to dock and turn around. It also opens the possibility that the creamery could accept deliveries from other regional farms, they say, turning it from a small production facility into a factory.

More broadly, the group objects to the idea of processing milk into new products, which it sees as a commercial, not an agricultural, operation. Commercial activity has been prohibited on the Prigel farm since 1997, when the family placed 180 acres into an easement held by the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation. In exchange for payments totaling $796,500, the easement requires that the land be used for agricultural purposes only. The group's lawsuit says the preservation agency is failing to follow its own rules.

"This is not a farming plan on his part. This is an opportunistic move," says Ed Blanton, a neighbor and former association president. "And they want to do it on preserved land. That's what has everyone up in arms."

The case has divided the valley. Tempers have flared. Some neighbors can no longer look one another in the eye. Others fear speaking out or publicly taking sides.

Though the details are complicated, the two sides have whittled and spun the stories into two narratives. Friends of the Prigels say the creamery is being held up by a cabal of rich people who don't want their view spoiled. Opponents say the Prigels are stealthily commercializing the land they've been paid to protect.

"I don't know how to describe it," says Susan Yoder, one of the lead plaintiffs in the association's lawsuit, scheduled to be heard in November in Baltimore County circuit court. Her husband's family has lived in the valley since 1854 and, until now, has worked regularly with the Prigels. "People are afraid to say things to one another. People whisper, 'Which way are you going?' "

Even those who don't know the Prigels are torn: "I don't blame farmers for wanting to make more, but I'm in an association for preservation. There are other places you can do what he wants to do," says Carol Trela, the association's secretary.

Local media have pounced on the case, bringing it to the attention of a broader audience.

Stephen Belkoff, who lives three miles away, had never met the Prigels. But he was so incensed that he offered to hold a fundraiser for the family, whose legal fees to date top $60,000. "The reason we have this preservation land conservancy is to keep farmers on the farm," Belkoff says. "I want a viable local food source. We need to manufacture stuff in our own back yard."

Initially, Belkoff says, he expected no more than 200 people for the Labor Day weekend event. As word about the fundraiser spread, plans became more ambitious. Local farmers donated a whole pig, hundreds of hamburgers and hot dogs and dozens of pies. Belkoff says more than 600 people showed up to support the Prigels. Opponents counter that no more than 150 people attended. The party raised $25,000.

Legal wrangling is expected to continue for months. And local farmers are watching carefully. Sparks farmer David Smith has spent $30,000 to defend his proposal to build a 30-by-60-foot store and parking area for nine cars. Neighbors object, saying the structure is too big to qualify as a "roadside stand," which is all that zoning laws permit.

Smith says he expects to see a growing number of farmer-neighbor clashes. "All these people have moved from the city, and they want to see the area stay rural," he says. "But if you don't let farmers be farmers and market their products, which is the most profitable method for small farmers to continue to exist, then it becomes a development."

The county zoning office has ruled twice in the Prigels' favor: once to allow the market, once to approve the creamery operation. Deputy Zoning Commissioner Thomas Bostwick rejected opponents' argument that the production of milk, cheese and other foods is not permitted in a rural conservation zone. The opponents take "too narrow a view of the zoning regulations in order to suit their own interpretation of those regulations, and to bootstrap their view of how the Prigels should conduct their dairying business," he wrote in an Aug. 12 decision.

The Long Green Valley Association has appealed both zoning decisions. The association is also moving forward with its suit against the land preservation foundation.

In the meantime, Prigel says he will continue to plan and build the creamery "until the money runs out." He predicts that his view of sustainable agriculture will prevail. "We're protective of the land, too," Prigel says. "It's why we want to keep farming."