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DENTON – A years-long, sometimes contentious, zoning compliance dispute between the county and a local agribusiness was finally resolved in April.
At their April 21, 2026, meeting the Caroline County Commissioners approved a Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities (DRRA), required by a Caroline County Circuit Court consent order and submitted by Hartland Holdings LLC, a grain processing operation near Greensboro owned by Benjamin Flahart of Quarryville, Pennsylvania.
The DRRA, approved by the Caroline County Planning Commission at its Jan. 14, 2026 meeting and sent on to the County Commissioners, created conditions for Flahart to continue operating an agricultural processing business at 14010 River Road, Greensboro. At the same meeting the Planning Commission also approved a final site plan for the facility.
“All of the infrastructure is already on the property,” said attorney Brendan Mullaney of Easton-based McAllister, DeTar, Showalter & Walker, who represented Flahart. “This is really a retroactive site plan approval with the exception that Lane Engineering has evaluated all of the improvements that are on the site and concluded that some stormwater improvements are necessary.”
A large concrete storage pit on the property will only be used for grain storage, Mullaney said, adding that “it cannot be used for storage of DAF (dissolved air floatation), otherwise known as food processing residuals, or other liquified products of agricultural process.”
Drafted as a legislative resolution, the DRRA was approved by the Caroline County Commissioners on April 21, 2026. Several years of legal wrangling preceded the decision.
Caroline County Commission President Travis Breeding, a member of the Planning Commission, who has served on the Board of Commissioners throughout the process, said his “personal opinion (was) in order” as the Planning Commission concluded its approvals of both the DRRA and a final site plan for the River Road property on Jan. 14.
“I think it's a long time coming, and could have probably been obtained much easier with attorneys on both sides of this issue making a lot less money, unfortunately for them,” Breeding said.
Breeding described how the resolution benefits the agricultural community.
“The (County) Commissioners … have given both this site plan approval, the DRRA, and this entire issue a lot of thought and consideration,” Breeding said. “Ultimately, it's another outlet for farmers in this county. There are a few upsides, that being one of them; it provides competition in the market. Mr. Flahart does stay open later than the other commercial buyers. So there are advantages and good things that come of this operation.”
Flahart declined to comment on the decision, but in a June 1 phone call Mullaney, speaking on behalf of his client, said the settlement between Flahart and the county was a “great thing … because it saves taxpayer dollars and private dollars, and the resolution to this matter is a good thing for all parties involved.”
The DRRA was “part of the global resolution” of the litigation between the parties, Mullaney said. “The site plan was to approve everything that’s on the property.” He said Flahart was “glad that things are moving towards resolution on this project.”
The DRRA was drafted in response to a consent order which resolved litigation between the County and Hartland Holdings LLC and Wakefield Holdings LLC, both of which Flahart is a member. Among the provisions, Hartland Holdings is required to pay the county $400,000 towards the cost of paving Sunset Avenue from River Road to the Greensboro State Highway right of way. In return, Hartland Holdings is not responsible for future repairs to Sunset Avenue or River Road unless damage is caused by reckless or negligent operation of the grain facility. The DRRA runs with the land and remains effective as long as the grain operation exists, and doesn’t guarantee approval of any future development beyond what is specified.
County obligations under the DRRA also run with the land and bind future county officials and agencies.
Flahart bought the 160-acre property in 2019. “Over the years, some things have happened that have gotten to the point where it expanded beyond the existing operation that was originally approved,” Caroline County Assistant Director of Development Review Matthew Kaczynski said at the Jan. 14 Planning Commission meeting.
In other words, although Flahart originally used his grain processing facility for personal use, it soon expanded because local farmers also were doing business with Flahart in order to minimize travel distances and, in some cases, obtain better pricing. According to a Jan. 30, 2024, document filed by the Caroline County Board of Zoning Appeals, the long application process for creating a commercial grain processing operation that complied with the County Code was daunting, so Flahart chose to limit his property to personal use. However, complaints from the community prompted the Department of Planning and Codes to investigate, “(confirming) that the construction on and use of the Property were inconsistent with personal use.”
“We got to a point where the ag products processing facility had to be approved for commercial use,” Kaczynski said. “The drying and storage of grain is a process that is specific to a grain operation and the processing of grain not grown or harvested on site subjects the property to an ag product processing plant and those regulations. So the ag products processing plan requires not only a site plan approval from this board, but also a special use exception approval.”
The Board of Zoning Appeals held a public hearing for the special use exception approval on Nov. 14, 2023, and approved the exception with conditions. But those conditions were met with resistance.
Before 2023, the Department of Planning and Codes had issued several zoning violations on Flahart’s River Road property, as well as Wakefield Holdings LLC’s property on Peaviner Road near Ridgely.
Later, in response to concerns by neighbors that Flahart was storing DAF. The Caroline County Commissioners enacted moratoria on the storage of DAF in the county. Flahart then filed a lawsuit against the county, challenging the validity of the moratoria.
The Commissioners filed for a mandatory injunction to cease and desist the zoning violations, eventually triggering the consent order. Flahart and the holding companies entered into a consent order, filed April 8, 2025, to settle the litigation, which required a DRRA. The final dismissal of litigation between the parties was recorded on May 1, 2026, by the Caroline County Circuit Court.
Subsequent to enacting the DAF storage moratoria, the Department of Planning and Codes created a process for property owners to apply for permission to store DAF. Since that time, no one has applied in Caroline County, according to County Attorney Stewart Barroll.
“There's a lot of history related to the site and how things evolved in the last couple of years,” Mullaney said at the Jan. 14 meeting. “(We) have been meeting with staff (and have) been working … to make sure that this property is in compliance with current regulations.”
“I think it would have been a lot easier had the proper path been taken from the beginning, but we can't go back and undo that,” Breeding said Jan. 14. “So I think this entire process has established that the county is going to enforce its regulations in a reasonable manner, not necessarily dig in and be unreasonable, and we see benefits to the community when they're there.”
“It makes clear that people in the county who want to develop need to go through the proper process,” he said.
