The St. Mary’s County Commissioners got an earful Tuesday night at their public forum at the Northern Senior Center. The topic: development in the Charlotte Hall area. The majority in the packed room spoke against any new development, particularly high-density residential development. But some of the speakers spoke of the difficulty of expanding their businesses under current regulations and the need for public sewer.
The prevailing theme of the anti-growth sentiment was the residents didn’t want Charlotte Hall to become “another Waldorf.” Some urged the removal of Charlotte Hall as a growth area destined for its own master plan. Most talked about the traffic backups during rush hours and the heavy traffic on weekends.
But the counterpoint came for businessmen such as Tommy McKay of McKay’s Food and Drug and development John Parlett of Custom Metals, Inc. McKay is attempting to build a shopping center on Route 5 with a relocated store there. He told the audience he has been held up by the State Highway Administration because of the congestion at the Golden Beach Road intersection. He said he has finally gotten approval to proceed with part of the project.
Answering a question asked earlier by another speaker, McKay said, “We are going to build a new store in Charlotte Hall and a new shopping center.” He said the inability to pay a fee for road mitigation instead of being required to build a new road was the big holdup. The Department of Land Use and Growth Management has asked the county commissioners to proceed with a zoning amendment that would allow that in Charlotte Hall.
Parlett said he spoke for himself and four other businesses that employ a lot of people in the community. He said Southern States wants to construct a larger store but has been unable to do so. He said the public is asking for more commercial options in the area. “Developers don’t build projects that the community doesn’t want,” he said.
Parlett also alleged there was a lot of misinformation about what is being proposed in the area. “I know of no high density residential development,’ he said.
But the other side of the story was even more vocal. Ron Johns said, “The commissioners dropped the town center designation on us. We didn’t ask for it. We want to keep it (Charlotte Hall) rural.” He said development should be concentrated in Lexington Park and Leonardtown where the jobs are. And he set the theme for other speakers by saying, “We don’t want any more traffic. We don’t want any more accidents.”
“It is time to focus on our needs, not some developers wants,” Johns said, positing the citizens versus developers battle that persisted throughout the meeting.
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