Restaurants, hotel, homes OK’d north of Town Creek

Friday, Oct. 12, 2007

Actual development is probably five or six years away though, said one of its developers.

Park Place entails mainly restaurants, office space, a hotel and 38 homes on 41 acres.

The planning commission put extra scrutiny on this development as it stirred up concern from the residents of Town Creek and other surrounding neighborhoods.

A vocal audience was told that evening that the property owners had rights to develop and that the project could not be stopped outright.

John Parlett, a Charlotte Hall developer, is an equity partner in the project and said that there will be a 50-foot buffer along Shady Mile Drive with a six-foot-high berm, with plantings. There will also be traffic improvements, perhaps a new right-turn lane off Route 235 in addition to the lane leading to Route 4 to Calvert County.

There will also be a buffer along Route 235. ‘‘I’d like to think I’m one of the neighbors as well,” Parlett said, as he has a son living in Town Creek. ‘‘It’s being developed so differently that it’s not going to have the same characteristics as other projects. We have no big box buildings here.”

Sewer lines will be installed up Shady Mile Drive to the end of the Park Place property, and they will be large enough to accommodate future connections from existing homes.

Celia Rabinowitz of Town Creek asked that the project be denied and that an environmental review be conducted by the Potomac River Association and the St. Mary’s River Watershed project. ‘‘All of those studies necessary will be accomplished” before final site plan approval, Parlett said.

Shelby P. Guazzo, member of the planning commission, had been the most vocal critic of the project, but at Tuesday’s meeting, she said she was glad to see ‘‘local developer talent” now involved. ‘‘It makes me feel a lot better about it,” she said.

As the project moves forward, there will be more chances for public input, Parlett said.

Amy Humphries of Town Creek said if the project is approved, public comment doesn’t really matter. ‘‘Things like this make me want to move away,” she said.

‘‘We’re not trying to stop it; we’re trying to influence it,” said Steve Reeves, chairman.

‘‘It’s not about stopping anybody,” said Merl Evans, member of the planning commission. ‘‘These folks have a right to develop the property.”

‘‘Sorry everybody does not like it. That’ll never happen, but it does meet the test of the [zoning] ordinance,” said Phil Shire, deputy director of land use and growth management.

Guazzo reminded the audience that the property was held to residential mixed use zoning in 2005, rather than upgraded to commercial mixed use, which would have allowed more intensive use of the property.

E-mail Jason Babcock at jbabcock@somdnews.com.