Big Stuff Happening All Around Us

When my wife and I first moved into Odenton in 2006, we didn’t get very many trick-or-treaters on Halloween. We live in a fairly small neighborhood, and we assumed there weren’t very many kids who lived nearby.

This year, we were bombarded with candy-seeking youths. At first, we were surprised by the uptick in ghoulish visitors, but we quickly realized many of the new kids were coming from a nearby townhouse development that came out of the ground this year.

It occurred to me that these are the kinds of small changes that we’re going to be seeing around here. There are a lot of new workers at Fort Meade, and there’s a lot of new development in town as the vision of the Odenton Town Center starts to take shape. It’s going to have an impact on everything from traffic on Route 175 and the size of our school classes to how far we travel to eat and shop.

A showed off no fewer than a dozen projects either under construction or close to it. There are and There are , and even the old Nevamar complex is getting redeveloped.

It seems clear that all of this new development is something of a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s easy to get excited about the possibility of new amenities in town. Everyone knows we need a decent coffeeshop and or two.

But with the economy the way it is, most of the development is residential in nature. And that’s the kind of thing that sneaks up on you. One day, you see a company breaking ground on a new group of townhomes, and before you know it, an increase in trick-or-treaters is the least of your concerns.

One of the things about this job that I truly enjoy is covering the Odenton Town Center Plan Oversight Committee meetings each month. There, you get an interesting mix of people having some great discussions about how to make sure development in Odenton happens in a sensible, responsible way. And if a developer has plans to build in a certain area, these meetings are often the first place it comes to light.

Last week, the committee for reviewing plans for a without taking the town’s history into consideration.

The conversation could have gotten ugly, but instead, there appeared to be a genuine desire on both sides to work through the issues at hand. The project developer and the heritage society will present again on Nov. 29, and it promises to be an interesting meeting.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that the heritage society’s appearance last week was one of the few times members of the public have spoken before the town center committee. These meetings, which take place every final Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., are open to the public but usually have just a handful of attendees.

The committee has promised to do a better job of publicizing agendas and meeting minutes, both here on Odenton Patch and through other venues.  

But as the Odenton Town Center moves forward, the public should play a greater role in helping to shape what gets built. Because if you’re seeing a big bump in trick-or-treaters, it may already be too late.

The author is the editor of the Odenton Patch.