La Plata development project mulled
The Hub could bring mixed-use property to town
Just one week after a public hearing in the La Plata Town Council, representatives for The Hub at La Plata mixed-use development project spoke to the Charles County commissioners on Tuesday.
Sue Greer, attorney and representative for Hawthorne Rosewick Limited Partnership, led the presentation on the project. Greer said the development project would meet the vision laid out by Jay Hellman, a real estate developer that first purchased the 306.6-acre property to create a “telecommunity to enable people to work near where they lived,” according to a report about Hellman from The Hub at La Plata website.
“We’re finding now that people don’t want to be on the road for two hours a day,” Greer said.
The 1,594-unit development is planned to be broken into several neighborhoods designed to be walkable with inner neighborhoods connected to shops and recreational amenities and expanding out to larger, more open neighborhood lots.
Greer said the project would also help bring to life a plan from the 1997 comprehensive plan to extend Quailwood Parkway from Route 225 to the intersection of Rosewick Road and Route 301. The connection would be made via a “spine” road that runs through the neighborhood.
Bill Murray, project manager, said the development would be willing to turn permits for the road over to either Charles County or the town of La Plata in order to accelerate the construction of the spine road.
However, Commissioner Amanda M. Stewart (D) had concerns over the project related to school seats and water and sewer usage.
Stewart said she also had issues with how the development could change the feel of La Plata.
“These are major changes to an area that has been very calm and very re
laxed … People live in this area because they don’t want to live in a more suburban area like Waldorf,” Stewart said.
Stewart also brought up the issue of available school seats, which have become an important topic with the current construction of the Heritage Green neighborhood already underway.
Last week, La Plata residents aired similar concerns during a public hearing about the potential annexation of The Hub at La Plata into the incorporated town.
Some 25 letters and 14 comments were made at that public hearing, with all comments coming in opposition to the plan.
La Plata Mayor Jeannine James recommended at the May 24 meeting that the public record on the project stay open until noon on June 16.