Residents Hear Latest North Patuxent Proposal

Odenton residents on Tuesday heard the latest proposal from a developer looking to build townhomes on a site near North Patuxent Road and Becknel Avenue.

The latest concept presented to the calls for as many as 58 townhomes with garages. That would be about two-thirds of the density of previous plans that had called for more than 90 homes.

Steve Horne of said the townhomes would be three stories, with a few two-story homes located closer to the street. There would be a new single-family home on the site, and two other historic homes near the lot would remain in place.

Elm Street Development has contracted with The Hogan Cos. to develop the 5.7-acre site, which is just to the east of the Odenton MARC station.

To help satisfy requirements for commercial space on the site, Elm Street will design four or five of the homes as live-work units. While that would fall short of the 20 percent commercial requirement outlined in the Odenton Town Center Master Plan, Horne said the developer would make up for that through a series of proffers.

Horne said Elm Street would install benches and public art along the walkway of Becknel Avenue to the MARC Station, and would also install a “conservation easement” to prevent development to the south of the site.

Horne also said that the project's density would provide a good "transition" from and to the less dense portions of the North Patuxent neighborhood.

“While it’s not fully satisfying to the requirements of the plan, we feel this is a good compromise,” Horne said.

Committee member Teresa Birge said that if the economy were better, she might urge a stricter compliance with the commercial requirements outlined in the town center master plan. But, she said traditional retail probably wouldn’t make sense for the site.

“This is definitely a situation where we have to work with them, because we’d have empty storefronts sitting there if we made them put in storefronts,” Birge said.

The town center committee did not issue a recommendation on the project Tuesday. First, Elm Street must consult with historians in the county Office of Planning and Zoning, who will assess how the project fits in with the character of the Odenton Historic District.

Horne said Elm Street would work to ensure the townhomes are designed to mesh with the neighborhood, and was aware that the with more dense development.