Developers, County In Tug-Of-War Over Odenton Master Plan

A little more than a year after county officials updated the Odenton Town Center Master Plan, developers are pushing for changes to allow for greater flexibility in what they can and can’t build.

The master plan, which was revised last year following input from community members, developers and Anne Arundel County planners, sets guidelines for turning the center of Odenton into a connected community with a mix of homes and retail. The latest update calls for each development project to contain a mixture of uses, but allows county planning officials some discretion on what to approve.

Developers have asked the county for even greater flexibility, going so far as to present projects with no retail mix at all. In their view, current market conditions will only allow for residential development, in many cases.

“It’s something we brought up to them early on, that they weren’t willing to make changes and are not responsive to the marketplace at all,” said Jay Winer, the president of A.J. Properties, which is involved in several projects in the Odenton. “I believe they need to be more hands on in making sure that plan is being responsive.”

The issue was highlighted last month when Koch Homes presented plans for more than 80 condominiums near the intersection of Becknel Avenue and North Patuxent Road. The proposal contained no commercial space, despite requirements in the master plan for a mix with no more than 80 percent of residential development.

In its presentation to the Odenton Town Center Plan Oversight Committee, Koch representatives asked for a waiver of the mix requirement, saying that commercial space on the site would not make the project financially viable.

The proposal was not received well by the committee, which is charged with ensuring development projects comply with the master plan.

“When I really looked at it, I was like ‘OK, this does not match what the intent of the plan is,’” said committee chairman Donald Price. “That was the first time we ever had a developer come in and say ‘we want to build what we want to build outside of what’s in the plan.’ Without them even realizing it, they acknowledge that they just don’t agree with the plan.”

County Planning and Zoning Director Larry Tom said the updated master plan allows for some discretion in approving projects without the required mix of uses. For instance, the county recently approved plans for an apartment complex at the former Nevamar site on Telegraph Road. In that case, developer StonebridgeCarras said retail and other commercial space will come in the future, once market conditions improve.

“We know that with a project of that scale, there’s going to be some phasing,” Tom said. “It’s an issue of monitoring how that goes.”

But, he said, that’s very different than approving a project with no mix at all.

“I’ve made this fairly clear: I’m reluctant to do that,” Tom said. “There’s got to be some mix. While I’m afforded that flexibility, it’s very clear in the plan that and in the desire of the committee that there be some kind of mixed use for each project. I hear of projects coming in without any mix, and we’re struggling with that a little bit.”

Members of the development community said that when they help update the master plan last year, they believed demand for retail would be strong enough to support mixed-used development in Odenton. But the economy has been slow to rebound.

“We have great vision for a town center plan, but in the short term we have a little wrinkle that the market is not ready for retail,” said Bob Eitel, an engineer with christopher consultants ltd., who worked on the Koch Homes plan. “The national retailers are saying ‘it’s just too soon. We need more homes.’”

Eitel, who is also a town center committee member, said the county should tweak the plan to allow for a bigger picture view, especially since new workers arriving at Fort Meade due to base realignment and closure (BRAC) activities are expected to create new demand for houses.

“What we’re finding is that there’s a balance that’s not being met, because the demand is for residential because of the BRAC jobs,” he said. “There’s a lack of housing, a lack of apartments and the retailers are saying there aren’t enough households in the area to support the retail. We’re out of timing relative to the influx of workers of BRAC.”

Whether the master plan could be amended so soon after it was updated is unclear. The county requires the town center master plan to be reviewed and amended only every five years, and there is language in the plan cautioning against “piecemeal alterations.” 

Eitel said the plan should allow for changes to address market conditions.

“Everybody wants to get the town center off the ground, and we should be able to make some little mid-course corrections as needed to make sure we’re allowing the town center to happen,” he said. 

Developers said they believe the very future of the Odenton Town Center is at stake. 

The county is going to have to work harder, in my opinion, to incentivize people to build in Odenton Town Center when it could be so much easier to build outside of what the town center plan requires you to do by developing other places in the county," Winer said.