Waldorf, MD – An 11th-hour addition to the 2016 Charles County Comprehensive Plan may derail an effort to revitalize Waldorf and turn it into an urban center.
Gary Hodge, president of Regional Policy Advisors in White Plains—who advocated the project when he was county commissioner—said the county has made a substantial contribution to implement the Downtown Waldorf Vision Plan.
A “substantial contribution” to the tune of $30 million and an additional commitment of $300,000 in first year operating costs to create a “Downtown Waldorf” redevelopment office to implement the first phase of the project.
“The zoning was adopted and is in place,” Hodge said recently, noting that the county has invested millions for infrastructure, such as water and sewer upgrades.
The plan, he added, is to have a transit-oriented urban center with light rail and residential all encompassed in one area.
“To make a project like this work, you have to have people living within walking distance of the train station,” he stressed.
Hodge said that five days before the Charles County Commissioners adopted the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, Commissioner Amanda Stewart [D-District 3] proposed an 80-15-5 percent strategy for future development, the 80 percent being single-family homes, 15 percent townhouses and 5 percent apartments.
He asserted the proposal was brought in after public comment and the commissioners slipped a card in the deck that will have profound consequences for the Waldorf project, as apartments and town houses were to be central to the plan.
“The proposed amendment was introduced after the public hearing had been held,” he said. “After five years of very contentious debate, there was no opportunity for public comment or in-depth debate. It was adopted in five minutes.
“The formula is applied countywide,” Hodge added. “It defeats the purpose of 10 years of work on the Waldorf Redevelopment Council.”
He is hoping the county will exempt the project from its new stringent directive.
“County staff is already working on that,” he said. “So we put a spotlight on it so it becomes clear that this needs to be fixed.”
The county is going to be tasked with rewriting the zoning code in the months ahead, Hodge explained. “Hopefully, during that process we can get this corrected.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com