‘Animosity and jealousy': Lawsuit filed in Maryland towns' land battle

A Maryland town filed a lawsuit in its battle with a neighboring town over an old hospital site slated for redevelopment.

Bladensburg is trying to annex the site, which Cheverly claims is an attempt to derail the project. Now, Cheverly filed two court actions claiming Bladensburg's attempts to annex the abandoned hospital site is illegal.

The lawsuit takes the ongoing land dispute to a new level, claiming Bladensburg has a "long held animosity and jealousy" of Cheverly and trying to annex the property on the eve of its redevelopment is "driven solely by jealousy and spite."

“I can understand people thinking it's pretty dramatic. It is,” Cheverly Mayor Kayce Munyeneh said. “Every day is not a day where you see municipalities suing each other. And for that I think it's unfortunate.”

Cheverly claims Bladensburg wants to "terminate this development project," which is expected to bring in tens of millions of dollars in future tax revenue.

In a separate complaint, Cheverly claims fraud and seeks $40 million in punitive damages. 

Cheverly planned to annex the 44-acre property after it was turned into a $500 million upscale development with commercial and residential space.

“We've worked closely with them for years, and so if they have to go back to the drawing board, it could severely delay or completely derail the project,” Munyeneh said.

Cheverly still hopes its neighboring municipality will drop its plans, but Bladensburg Mayor Takisha James told News4 last month the town isn't backing down. It’s looking for ways to grow its own tax base.

“So, any assertions that this was automatically going to be Cheverly’s are false,” she said.

Munyeneh pushed back on perceptions Cheverly is getting favored treatment with the project, saying the developer Urban Atlantic's desire to work with her town makes economic sense.

“If I'm a developer of properties, I want to develop where I’m going to make the most bang for my buck,” Munyeneh said. “The property values are higher in Cheverly than that of Bladensburg. That's just a fact.”

The complaint argues Bladensburg doesn't border the hospital site like Cheverly does, it didn't properly follow the public hearing process and it’s trying to wrongly annex part of the Baltimore Washington Parkway.

Bladensburg’s annexation plan passed and is set to go into effect next month.

Cheverly hopes a judge will stop it before it gets that far.

Bladensburg sent News4 a statement reading, in part, "The Town of Bladensburg stands firmly behind the fairness and legality of the annexation process conducted by the Town Council. We remain committed to upholding the principles of transparency and equity in all our actions and will not engage in divisive rhetoric or inflammatory exchanges to sway the whims of the court of public opinion.

"We look forward to answering the complaint filed by Cheverly and firmly believe that we have conducted the annexation in question in accordance with the law," the statement said.