La Plata, MD – It was, on the face of it, what seemed a simple request by Linowes and Blocher, owners of a 491-apartment building located at the intersection of St. Patrick’s and Smallwood Drive in Waldorf, to revise 15,000 square feet of commercial space on the lower level of the building to nine residential apartment units.
For a while, however, the request languished without a motion to move it forward Monday, Aug. 7 after substantial discussion until Charles County Planning Commission Member Richard Viohl Jr. finally spoke up. The measure passed 3-1 in a meeting without members Gilbert “Buddy” Bowling Jr. and Wayne Magoon.
Planning Commission Member Nancy Schertler voted against the motion, after asking and being denied that the new apartments be converted to work force housing.
The applicant made the request after retail businesses on the lower level failed to attract customers and ultimately failed.
“One of the concerns I have is that the commercial didn’t succeed here, why did it fail?” Schertler asked.
“The location is a little too remote at this point in time,” Charles County Resource Manager John Mudd pointed out. “There were not enough people to make a retail opportunity viable.”
“Why not look at why it didn’t work out but find ways to make it work?” She said, decrying the notion of a mixed use designation for the site.
“The original developer had good objectives,” Mudd replied. “They didn’t have all the pieces in place to make it work. This is more of a compromise to find something different for that area. St. Charles is trying different types of development patterns to see what succeeds. They haven’t done any mixed-use development.”
Mudd said that 29 apartments in the building are for work force renters as part of work force housing. He noted there are currently 69 renters there, which he said was 33 percent of the building’s population.
Troy Fields, area vice president for The Bainbridge Companies, said there was not enough drive-by traffic and that there was a lot of competition on “the main strip.”
After waiting a considerable time before a motion came to the table, Viohl finally stepped forward and was seconded by member Rosalyn Daya.
“I am disappointed that the applicant would not agree to have the apartments be for the work force,” Schertler said after the vote. “This is an opportunity for a win-win here and we’re not taking it.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com