Eyesore gas stations wait for redevelopment to come

Friday, Feb. 16, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Reid Silverman Two abandoned gas stations sit at the intersection of Chancellor’s Run Road and Great Mills Road. Active redevelopment plans are in the works for at least one of them. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

The old Dash-In store’s gas tanks have been removed, leaving an earth-filled hole in the parking lot. The sign advertises gas for $1.63 a gallon — it’s been out of business a long time.

The other gas station, an old Mobil station, has been vacant even longer.

They represent the worst notions of Lexington Park, that businesses die on Great Mills Road, and their buildings are left as empty skeletons.

However, at least one of the gas stations will be going away in the near future. ‘‘It’s an eyesore for the time being. I think it’s just a matter of time,” said Phil Shire, deputy director of land use and growth management for St. Mary’s County.

The old Dash-In property has been purchased and is part of a privately funded redevelopment project, said Robin Finnacom, president of the Community Development Corporation, on Wednesday.

‘‘It’s going to be redeveloped. That’s going to part of Patuxent River Town Center,” Shire said, a combination of 400 to 500 condominiums and 124,000 square feet of office and retail space on 23 acres. The project hasn’t been reviewed by the planning commission yet.

The county’s zoning ordinance doesn’t have much power over blighted properties.

‘‘The zoning ordinance doesn’t really speak to that,” Shire said on Wednesday.

Both of the gas station properties are covered by an enterprise zone and state funding program, Finnacom said, intended to encourage redevelopment.

The old Mobil station, owned by Besche Oil in Waldorf, had more restrictive zoning than the old Dash-In property for years. It was zoned for residential mixed use, while the other side of Chancellor’s was, and still is, zoned downtown mixed use.

During the recent rezoning of the Lexington Park area, Paul Colonna, vice president of Besche Oil, wrote to the county commissioners asking for commercial mixed use for the Mobil property. ‘‘This is holding up our progress with the property, I need to hear from you so I know what our next move will be,” he wrote in August 2005.

The commissioners granted the upgrade in zoning last year in the comprehensive rezoning of the Lexington Park area.

Colonna was out of town this week at conferences and couldn’t be reached to discuss the future of the property.

The Community Development Corporation has twice tried to purchase the .6-acre property from Besche Oil. Besche turned down the offers and the Community Development Corporation then asked that at least that the property be maintained ‘‘so it’s not such an eyesore to the community,” Finnacom said.

‘‘Blight is such a huge challenge,” she said, and once it is eliminated, it provides ‘‘an immediate springboard” for redevelopment.

Finnacom has about one dozen blighted properties along Great Mills Road targeted, and some have already been torn down.

However, she said of the vacant gas stations, ‘‘Those two properties are so prominent ... they’re the ones that draw the eye,” she said.

Last week, Michelle Vandergrift of Drayden wrote to the commissioners. She said, ‘‘Those two abandoned gas stations need to be maintained. If the owners aren’t willing, then they should be made to pay for someone else to maintain them.”