By RUTH FINCH

Stafford County Circuit Court Judge J. Martin Bass has forbidden a local developer to cut down any more trees on property where the company is building a subdivision.

Bass affirmed the county's position yesterday that a developer who cuts down trees on land it one day intends to put houses on is engaged in site development work, not forestry. That means Stafford-based Garrett Development Corp. cannot do any more timbering on the 478 acres it owns near Willowmere Park, in northwestern Stafford, unless the county approves.

Garrett has plans to turn the property into a neighborhood of 132 homes called Poplar Estates. Plans for the subdivision have been in the works since 2003, but company president Andy Garrett said he has not been able to start construction because the county has withheld permits and dragged its feet reviewing his plans.

While waiting for county approval to begin building Poplar Estates, Garrett signed a contract to allow selective timbering on the property. A Garrett representative said earlier this month that he expected the work to be finished this week. Garrett said yesterday that he didn't know whether the timbering company was still on that schedule.

While logging was going on in March, a neighbor began complaining that trees were being unlawfully harvested from an environmentally protected area.

The Chesapeake Bay Act forbids developers from taking down trees within 100 feet of a perennial stream such as the one that runs through Poplar Estates. But there is an exception for those involved in silviculture, the management and cultivation of forests.

Garrett argued in court yesterday that the exemption covers his actions.

His actions are lawful in the eyes of the Virginia Department of Forestry, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Garrett said.

Garrett also presented an opinion from the Virginia Attorney General's office stating that counties may not require permits or impose fees for those involved in silviculture.

"I do believe the county is interfering with my contracts," Garrett told Bass. "I think the county is harassing me."

But Gail Roberts, an assistant county attorney, argued that what Garrett is doing cannot be considered silviculture.

Foresters make plans to replant trees on the land they timber, Roberts said. Garrett plans to put houses there.