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A plan to add more homes to be accessed on a treacherous road in Sunderland brought several residents to the Wednesday, April 18 meeting of the Calvert County Planning Commission. The proposal to create a cluster subdivision in the Aspen Woods subdivision on Pushaw Station Road would add three more homes to a 13.6-acre lot. The area is zoned Residential Community District. The tract is owned by local developer John T. Crain Jr. Under county zoning regulations, he developer could apply to have addition homes built in proximity to the proposed cluster subdivision.

The Pushaw Station Road residents who testified by the planning commission during the site plan review of the project indicated motorists traveling on the old, winding road are already placed in harm’s way due to the proximity of Mt. Hope Community Center and the Calvert County Solid Waste Transfer Station. Adding more homes would increase the peril, the residents indicated.

“All you’re doing is creating more accidents,” said Timothy Morsell Sr., who explained Pushaw Station Road is steep and driveways located along the roadway have sight- distance problems. Additionally, trash trucks and local residents with their garbage have already made travel in the area problematic for the long-time residents.

“It’s dangerous,” said resident Darrell Shank. “If you add houses you are going to increase traffic load and congestion.”

Resident Paula Young stated she wrote to the Calvert County Commissioners a decade ago asking that something be done to make Pushaw Station Road safer. “I have not seen anything done on that road,” said Young. “We cannot get in and out. It’s not safe.”

Another resident stated her mailbox has been knocked over by vehicles three times this year.

The residents found an ally in planning commission member Malcolm Funn. “That road is up and down,” said Funn.

According to a memo from the Department of Planning and Zoning’s principal planner Carolyn Sunderland, “in an effort to resolve the sight distance issues associated with the existing entrance [to Aspen Woods], the applicant’s engineer met with the Department of Public Works.”

As a result of that meeting, the applicant chose to revise the layout of the planned cluster subdivision.

Planning commission vice chairman Mike Phipps requested a decision on the site plan review be deferred until officials from the Department of Public Works address the panel about plans for improving the access to the compactor site. An agent for the applicant said he would voluntarily defer the request until the planning commission is updated on the county government’s plans for the Mt. Hope facility.

Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com