The Havre de Grace Planning Commission voted unanimously Oct. 16 to grant a one-year extension of site plan approval (building permit 2025-0058) for the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum's proposed 30,618-square-foot addition.

The extension was requested because the museum team has not yet obtained permits or started construction, but has continued design work and fundraising. Eric Lawrence, associate city planner, summarized the request and said the application sought the first of two extensions allowed by city code §155-25 for the site plan originally approved Oct. 17, 2024. "The applicant request is to hear a request by the applicant for a 1 year extension per §155-25 of the city code," Lawrence said.

The applicant, Michael Tarquini, identified himself as a board member of the Decoy Museum and told commissioners the project had made "significant progress" on planning but not enough to begin construction. Tarquini said the museum had raised "to near $500,000" so far and had recently received a second award of $100,000 from the Maryland Historical Trust, on top of an earlier $100,000 award. Paul Thompson, the project architect, told the commission the work under consideration would not change the building footprint or exterior renderings submitted previously: "We're confident the footprint will remain the same and the exterior renderings that we submitted during our last planning commission will remain intact."

Commissioners asked about timeline and readiness. Thompson estimated construction documents were "in the neighborhood of 75%" complete and said mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) and structural engineers were on board; he added the team planned a fundraiser in December and hoped to seek a shell-building permit by midnext year. The commission confirmed that the city code permits two one-year extensions and that the approval granted Oct. 16 was the first.

The commission closed the public record and approved the one-year extension by roll-call vote; each commissioner present voted aye. The chair instructed staff to file the signed rules of procedure adopted earlier in the meeting and to keep the planning department's copy on record.

The extension allows the museum another year to complete design, finalize fundraising and apply for required permits; if the project still has not begun after a second extension, it would need to restart the site-plan process under city code.