Carroll schools will ask Westminster to annex Winters Mill High and Cranberry Station Elementary

The Carroll County Board of Education will petition Westminster city officials to annex the property containing Winters Mill High and Cranberry Station Elementary.

The Carroll County Board of Education unanimously approved a measure last week to ask Westminster city officials to annex roughly 56 acres of property, which includes both Cranberry Station Elementary and Winters Mill High schools.

A planned addition at Cranberry Station for kindergarten and prekindergarten students will require additional water allocation to the school property, and per the City of Westminster’s Water
and Sewer Allocation Policy, the increased water allocation requires he annexation of the property into city boundaries.

The property, at 505 N. Center St., Westminster, adjoins the city’s boundaries and an annexation would not create an area of unincorporated land surrounded by city land on all sides.

Annexations must occur within the municipal growth area that has been jointly established between Carroll County and Westminster, according to county planning rules.

Westminster’s Common Council in February approved a request to annex a property less than 2 miles from the schools, so that Crosscreek Enterprises LLC could use city water and sewer in developing a building at 411 Malcolm Drive for retail use. The 1,560-square-foot building sits on an 0.69 acre lot. Westminster also successfully annexed the historic Ellsworth Cemetery, on Leidy Road, last summer.