The Historic District and the Town Center Plan

We’ve written a lot recently about , and its role in guiding development in town. It’s been a particularly hot issue in regards to plans for development

It’s probably a good time to take a look at the Odenton Town Center Master Plan, and highlight precisely what it says about the Historic District.

Let’s start with the basics. The master plan, which was last updated in 2009, essentially serves as a manual for what developers can and cannot build in the area, and provides guidelines for things like density, height, mix of uses, parking requirements and architectural style.

If you’re a developer and you want to build in the Odenton Town Center area, you need to follow the plan, and you need to bring your plan before the in order to build.

The plan is hefty, weighing in at more than 200 pages, and there are two sections that address the role of the Historic District.

The county Office of Planning and Zoning, which includes two historians on staff, was involved in the formation of the historic district. It has full control over which buildings are to be labeled as historic.

The first part dealing with the Historic District is section 3.4, which describes the area as “the most concentrated and cohesive area of historic resources within old Odenton.”

The section reads: “…for the purposes of the Odenton Town Center plan, any development proposed within the Odenton Town Center Historic District, and the designated resources outside the district, will be governed by the design requirements contained in this Plan.”

The section refers to a map, which outlines the specific borders of the Historic District, and features blue dots designating historic buildings in the area. (We’ve attached the map and the section to this article.)

The second section relating to the historic district is 9.1 (attached) which offers guidelines for the retention of historic buildings and preservation of the “cohesive character” of the area. 

“All structures within the historic area shown on Figure 3-11 that contribute to the general and architectural history of Odenton shall be retained,” the plan says.

But this is where things have gotten complicated. Figure 3-11 shows several blue dots to point out the location of historic buildings, and none of those dots fall in the area that is being slated for development along North Patuxent Road. Thus, The Hogan Companies, which intends to build there, recently assumed there was nothing on that property to preserve.

That’s when the Odenton Heritage Society, a non-profit advocacy group, stepped in.

What we’ve learned recently is that the blue dots on figure 3-11 are not meant to be an exhaustive list of all historic buildings in town. In fact, the county's list is much larger and includes at least two buildings on that North Patuxent Road property, the Journeay and Padgett houses, which date back to the early 20th century.

The full list of historic structures is not published in the Master Plan, but is maintain so from Hogan’s point of view, it had no idea it was doing anything wrong.

The county Office of Planning and Zoning maintains the full list of buildings that it believes should be preserved.

The heritage society has pointed to other language of the master plan that suggest Hogan should have paid closer attention to the character of the historic district, regardless of whether there were actual historic buildings in the area or not.

The plan reads that “all construction in the Odenton Town Center Historic District shall be compatible with the historic character and design of the area,” and talks about preserving “the character of a cohesive district.”  

In the eyes of the heritage society, early plans by Hogan for three- or four-story townhomes on the site were not in keeping with the character of the area.

The upshot to all of this is that The Hogan Companies now plans to consult with the heritage society on any plans it brings forward. But town center committee members said they hoped the master plan would be updated to make the references to the historic district more clear.

“The code could certainly be strengthened,” said committee member Bob Eitel, who also serves as a consultant to Hogan.

Hogan said it will spend the next 90 days gaining more information on the character and architectural style of the historic district, and will then present new plans to the committee.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to emphasize that it is the role of county planners to determine what structures are to be labeled as historic. The Odenton Heritage Society serves as a non-profit advocacy group and has no review authority.