County Council member Allan Kittleman said last week he will not submit legislation allowing large-animal hospitals on certain parcels in western Howard County, dealing a serious setback to a veterinarian's plans for a $1.5 million facility in Cooksville. 

Residents have objected to the prospect of living with a commercial enterprise. Stuart Scheinberg's supporters, including dozens of horse owners and current clients who testified at an Oct. 15 public hearing, argue that such a facility would further the county's efforts to preserve farm economy. 

And if the county can't accommodate it, they say, then its farmland preservation program is less about preserving agriculture than preserving picturesque views. 

Scheinberg had urged Kittleman, who represents the west county, and other council members to relax current zoning regulations so he could build the facility on a so-called preservation parcel next to a residential neighborhood. 

"I told him I'll help him find other land in the west," Kittleman said, adding, "Right now, I'm not convinced [a surgery center] wouldn't be a detriment to that neighborhood." 

Council member C. Vernon Gray, who had expressed support for the idea, said he won't submit legislation, either. 

Having counted votes, he asked, "Why put in an amendment for something that would fail?" 

Scheinberg said this week he will not give up. 

Preservation parcels are created when developers cluster new homes on small lots, leaving at least one large lot. The large lot is then restricted by easement to a limited range of uses, including farming. 

Scheinberg, who has a veterinary practice in Cooksville, agreed to buy such a preservation parcel in the Riggs Meadows subdivision, then took his surgery-center plan to the county Department of Planning and Zoning _ only to learn that under existing regulations it could not be allowed. 

The regulations, for which the County Council is considering a series of amendments, do allow such a facility on land without easements in the rural-residential or rural-conservation zoning categories, under which most of western Howard County falls. But the land Scheinberg has agreed to buy is restricted by an easement. 

For now, the regulations also allow agricultural uses such as grain mills and feed storage on preservation parcels protected by easements, as well as golf courses, slaughterhouses and radio towers. 

Protected land falls into two groups: the preservation parcels and other parcels _ working farms _ on which the county and state have paid for development rights. 

County zoning staff have proposed adding some allowed uses, such as farm stands and "pick-your-own" operations on protected parcels. 

Kittleman has discussed deleting others, such as golf courses and recreational facilities owned by homeowners associations. 

Kittleman said he might consider allowing some uses, such as a surgery center, on land in the county's preservation programs but not on the preservation parcels in subdivisions. 

At the Oct. 15 council hearing on the zoning department's proposals, Scheinberg expressed dissatisfaction with the inconsistency between allowed and forbidden uses, and disappointment that he had not persuaded neighbors to support his plan. 

With a metal roof and stables, his approximately 10,000-square-foot surgical center would "basically look like a horse farm to anyone driving by," with no more than 10 horses housed there at a time, he said. 

In addition, Scheinberg and his lawyer said, such a center would fill a critical need. According to the county Economic Development Authority, the local horse industry includes some 9,000 horses and 10,000 owners and riders and is worth $140 million annually to Howard County. 

Horses needing surgery usually are taken to Leesburg, Va., or to Philadelphia _ debilitating trips under stress, Scheinberg said. 

Owners sometimes euthanize their horses rather than subject them to such a journey, he said. 

Scheinberg said he bought the protected parcel because of its low cost. If he had to spend $2 million on land, then another $1.5 million to build a surgery center, the business could not succeed, he said. 

Atttorney Thomas Meachum, who represented himself and his Riggs Meadows neighbors at the Oct. 15 hearing, said the protected parcel sold for a low price because so few uses are permitted on it and suggested that the veterinarian created a problem where one did not exist.