The long-languishing Clark’s Rest development in Leonardtown appears to be poised for a spring launch. The Leonardtown Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday approved a final site plan for the development’s residential section which will have 205 single-family homes and 125 townhouse units on the 127.3 acre property on Route 5.
The planner’s approval will now go to the town commissioners for a vote at their March 12 meeting. The development will also have a 17,000-square-foot commercial section in the front of the property. That section will come back to the planning commission at a later date.
The project received its initial approval by the town in 2006 and has been held up in part by the economy, but also by changing conditions imposed by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). “We have been back and forth a number of times,” said Rick Bailey of developer Marrick Properties of Prince Frederick. Final SHA approval still has not been received, but the project is being designed to cover any eventuality, according to Bailey.
The state may eventually require a traffic light at the development’s intersection with Route 5. That light would also coincide with the entrance into a development at Tudor Hall Farm, which also has been stalled for a number of years. In an earlier iteration that development was to include a golf course and conference center, which since have been scrapped.
Town Commissioner Tom Collier, a planning and zoning alternate member, expressed concern about the length of the deceleration lane planned for Clark’s Rest. Bailey said it was being designed to meet whatever standards imposed by SHA.
Bailey and representatives of their engineering firm, COA showed the commission members the designs of the town houses. They will be laid out in a traditional grid pattern with alleyways and garages to the rear. Collier expressed concern about the whether the turning radius from the alley into the garages would be big enough to accommodate pickup trucks, He was assured it would be.
The commission at the Tuesday meeting also approved the final site plan for Phase 5b of Leonard’s Grant. Clark’s Rest and Leonard’s Grant will have a road connection. Clark’s Rest also will provide a new road connection to Moakley Street. Leonard’s Grant will have an additional 100 homes when the new sections are complete, for a total of 335 homes.
The new section of Leonard’s Grant will be to the back of the property and include a 100 foot buffer for the wetlands of McIntosh Run. The sec ion will be built without curb and gutter and sidewalk and a partial gravel shoulder to prevent runoff, according to Jim Gotsch, a representative of developer LSA.
Marrick Properties, which was founded in 1984, has a number of developments in Southern Maryland, including Knotting Hill in Charles, College Station and Marley Run in Calvert, Ben Oaks, Cecil Mill and Leonardtown Farm in St. Mary’s and Beacon Hill, Hollow Tree Farm and Village of Melwood in Prince George’s. Marrick President Marvin Oursler also attended the planning and zoning commission meeti
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