Neighbors don’t see eye-to-eye on viewshed, oyster leases

Tranquility Farm Lane, in St. Mary’s County, is tucked away from the bustle of the nearby naval base and ubiquitous strip malls. But the Patuxent River tributaries surrounding the dirt roads and cow pastures have been anything but quiet as an oyster war between shellfish farmers and prominent Southern Marylanders enters its third year.

Former bank executive Talmadge Petty, who owns Hollywood Oysters, moved to his family’s 300-acre farm in 2013 and began cultivating oysters on a lease on Hogg’s Neck Creek. At the time, he says, his three neighbors did not object. One of the neighbors is Sotterley, a restored early 18th-century plantation. The second is a Sotterley descendant, Gita Van Heerden. The third neighbor is the Liu family, which owns a forested parcel abutting Sotterley Creek, just upstream from Hogg’s Neck Creek.

The problems began when Petty applied for a few more acres, this time in Sotterley Creek, not only adjacent to the Liu property but also closer to the plantation house. The plantation’s staff and supporters say the “viewshed” is important for telling Sotterley’s story, particularly how slave ships came up from the Patuxent to support the landed gentry’s opulent lifestyle. A slave cabin remains on site, as does an African-American graveyard.

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