After the Calvert County Commissioners formally voted to delete a scheduled joint public hearing from the May 1 agenda, Commissioners’ President Gerald W. “Jerry” Clark [R] had a few things to say about the events that led up to the cancellation.
The hearing that was to have been conducted at Calvert High School by the commissioners and the Calvert County Planning Commission concerned a request for changes to the Prince Frederick Town Center Zoning Ordinance submitted by a local developer.
In an April 27 letter sent to both boards, the developer, Bargo LLC, cited “overheated rhetoric” that occurred after a survey was mailed out to several households in central Calvert as a reason for withdrawing their request.
Bargo LLC members John M. Gott Jr. and Randy Barrett stated in their letter that nearly 89 percent of the residents who had mailed back surveys favor “placing a big box [store] outside of the 1,000-foot setback from Route 4.”
That stipulation would impact the future development on the site of the recently razed building that last served as Calvert Middle School.
When word of the mail-out reached the commissioners, who were New York last week, a county government press release was issued stating that the developer, not the county, sent out the survey.
“That did not come from the commissioners,” Clark reaffirmed at the May 1 meeting. He noted the proposed text amendment did not pertain to any specific piece of property. The flier did, however, include a picture of the demolished building and speculated on the future of the parcel, which the county currently owns.
Clark said “due diligence” is being done to assure what ultimately goes at the old school site is “correct and beneficial” to the county. He added the public will know that decision before any possible development occurs.
Clark called the flier “somewhat deceiving,” adding the developer “saw they were going in the wrong direction.”
Later, Commissioner Susan Shaw [R] labeled Bargo LLC’s tactic a “bait and switch.” Shaw recalled a similar mail-out was sent to Lusby residents when development in that town center was being discussed. According to Shaw, the flier depicted a beautiful village but instead resulted in “strip mall” development.
“It is important to note that although we have withdrawn the pending application for this text amendment, we still believe, as we have all along, that this text amendment is the right thing to do for Calvert County,” Gott and Barrett stated in their letter. “The amendment would allow for smart, planned commercial development within an area of the Prince Frederick Town Center which is ideally suited to such development.”
While the county owns the old school parcel, Bargo LLC does own a nearby tract on Dares Beach Road known as Magnolia Landing. Bargo currently has approval to build dozens of age-restricted homes on that parcel.
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com
