Transit-Oriented Project Stuck in Neutral

It has been more than four years since developers and the state of Maryland first presented the notion of a major transit-oriented development project near the Odenton MARC station.

But that project, seen as a centerpiece to the Odenton Town Center, is still only theoretical, as a lack of utilities and a soft economy have left developers and local officials playing a waiting game.

The Maryland Department of Transportation and a team led by Osprey Property Companies are working out details of a master development agreement for a conglomeration of parcels totaling more than 24 acres. Early plans call for a mix of uses including homes and retail, plus parking garages to accommodate visitors and MARC commuters.

Construction can't begin, however, until Anne Arundel County completes the installation of water and sewer service to the site, and that won't be completed until 2013 at the earliest, officials said.

"We’re just basically working out the details of our agreement and waiting on utilities,” said Brett Guy, a vice president with Osprey. “You can’t build without that. Those projects that didn’t have capacity or weren’t grandfathered in are stopped in their tracks.”

The county reached an agreement to build the new sewer line last year, with developers paying a surcharge to help finance the construction. Completion of the sewer line could take at least two years and perhaps longer, officials said, due to the complexity of acquiring rights of  way and avoiding wetlands. 

The TOD project, as it is commonly called, is separate from the Village at Odenton Station project, which is also located near the MARC station but is under construction and not hindered by lack of sewer service. 

Osprey and the state first struck a deal on the TOD project in 2006, and presented concept plans in November of that year. Projections from that time suggested the parking garages for the site would be under construction by 2010. 

County officials and business leaders view the TOD project as an essential portion of planned development in the area known as the Odenton Town Center core. It is not the only one in Odenton held up due to lack of utilities. A major project planned by the Halle Companies on 128 acres near the intersection of Route 32 and Route 175 is also delayed, along with several smaller developments within the 1,600-acre town center area. 

Those with knowledge of the TOD project, however, said there are still questions about how the development can move forward even after the sewer line is in place. The requirement of structured parking on the site has made the project more expensive, and a recent push to add density to the development have increased potential costs further. 

"What it comes down to is that it's very expensive to build structured parking and the numbers never worked," said Claire Louder, President and CEO of the West Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce. 

Louder spoke at a meeting of the Odenton Town Center Plan Oversight Committee on Tuesday. 

Louder, who is a member of the committee, said the economics of the project would work better if the state agreed to begin charging for parking or of there were additional capital dollars available. But Osprey officials and a state DOT spokesman said no decision has been made either way on those issues.

Concept plans for the area call for parking garages with more than 4,700 spaces, with 3,500 set aside for MARC commuters. The rest would serve residents and the people frequenting the new businesses in the area. 

Specific plans for the site are still in the works, but published concepts have called for 572 apartments and condominiums, 250 townhouses, five single-family homes, 74,000 square feet of retail space and a hotel with 90 to 120 rooms.

The parking portion of the project is seen as crucial to the broader success of the Odenton Town Center. If structured parking is eliminated in favor of surface lots due to financial concerns, the overall vision for the area would be distrupted, town center committee members said.

"That MARC train station parking is the parking for other projects in the area as well," Louder said. "It's the heart of our transit-oriented development. It's essential to everything that's going on in the town center. If that is essentially a hole of surface parking then the rest of the town center doesn't make sense."

Mike Fox, a fellow town center committee member and planner with the county Office of Planning and Zoning agreed, asked: "Do you want to see 3,000 surface parking spaces and a couple of buildings? That would defeat the purpose."

Osprey officials said they aren't giving up on the development, and hope to have more details on the specifics of the project by year's end. 

“We still are committed to the project and are still moving forward,” Guy said.