A proposal to redevelop the 76-acre site at the Great Mills Road and Chancellor’s Run Road intersection on which now sits the Lord Calvert Trailer Park was unveiled to the St. Mary’s County Commissioners on Tuesday. The development to be known as East Run would include two five-story apartment buildings containing 527 units, 129 single-family homes, and a commercial and office area. The developer, East Run LLC would have the same ownership as Cherry Cove Land Development, which owns the trailer park. The residents would eventually be displaced but attempts will be made to find them housing within the new development.

The project came to light even though it has not yet been presented to the planning commission, because the commissioners were asked to support the application of a $500,000 grant to demolish a 12,000-square-foot building that sits along Great Mills Road in front of the trailer park. The building formerly housed a laundry and there is concern that chemicals from that process may have leaked into the ground under the building necessitating a cleanup. The building has been vacant for five years.

The proposal was presented to the commissioners by the CEO of the Community Development Corporation Robin Finnacom. That independent agency would apply for and receive the grant if awarded. East Run LLC would purchase the three-quarter acre property from an out-of-town owner (DKMB). If the demolition costs more than $500,000 East Run LLC would pick up the difference.

Once the building is demolished, a 40,000-square-foot medical office building would be built by East Bay on the three-quarter acre site. A memorandum of understanding was expected to be signed yesterday between MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, Walden Sierra, Greater Baden Medical Services, the St., Mary’s County Health Department and the Community Development Corporation to provide medical services in the building for the Lexington Park area, which Finnacom described as “medically underserved.”

Funding for the demolition would come from a new grant program from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. It is called “Strategic Demolition and Smart Growth Impact Fund” and is aimed at areas called “Grey Fields,” or “economically obsolescent, outdated, failing or underused real estate asset(s).” Finnacom said in a memo to the commissioners, “Lexington Park is littered with properties which fit this description.”

Finnacom said the entrance to the development off Chancellor’s Run Road would be a new road created by eliminating the current road into the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge and consolidating them into one. She said the developer would also contribute funds to renovate the lodge.

She said the five-story apartment building would incorporate parking on each level so residents could conveniently leave their cars and walk to their units. Sidewalks and landscaping wou