Saint Mary’s planning panel approves Evergreen transfer-station concept with traffic conditions

The Saint Mary’s County Planning Commission voted July 21, 2023, to approve concept site plan CSP23-0267 for the Evergreen Disposal transfer station in Charlotte Hall, contingent on several conditions including Department of Public Works & Transportation (DPW&T) approval of a traffic impact study and adequate public facilities (APF), tractor-trailer signage requiring right turns when leaving the site, and variances to County zoning rules.

The action implements language in the county Solid Waste Management Plan and clears a procedural milestone for a privately financed transfer station the applicant says will consolidate curbside loads for shipment out of the county. The commission’s approval is subject to the applicant obtaining variances and county permissions described in the conditions read into the record.

The planning commission’s decision followed a continuation hearing from June 23 focused primarily on traffic impacts. Attorney Steve Scott, representing the applicant, acknowledged errors in an earlier study and introduced a revised analysis by traffic consultant Michael Lenhart. “We dropped the ball on it and we apologize,” Scott told the commission before Lenhart presented new vehicle counts and a simulation of operations at the Route 5/Carpenter Lane intersection.

Lenhart said field counts were taken July 9, 2023, and compared to a permanent Maryland State Highway Administration station to check for seasonal variation; the consultant also applied a 5% summer adjustment consistent with practices in some neighboring jurisdictions. The revised analysis attributed most heavy truck and employee trips to off-peak hours: he told the commission the applicant’s tractor trailers and many collection trucks arrive and depart outside commuter peak hours. Based on those assumptions, Lenhart reported the site would generate about 15 trips in the morning peak hour and 42 in the evening peak hour—fewer than the county’s 50-trip threshold that typically triggers a required traffic study. “A traffic study is not required for this because it generates fewer than 50 peak hour trips,” Lenhart said during his presentation; nonetheless, the applicant provided the study at the commission’s request.

Lenhart’s model showed existing levels of service at the Route 5–Carpenter Lane intersection would remain better than the county’s level-of-service standard (C): he reported operations at level of service A in the morning peak and B in the evening peak after adding the project’s trips and background growth. The consultant described a northbound right-turn deceleration lane totaling about 500 feet (including taper and decel) and a southbound left-turn lane of about 450 feet, with more than 300 feet of actual queue area in each lane. He also said the median on Route 5 at that location is about 55 feet wide and can accommodate typical collection trucks (about 35 feet) staged for left turns; the larger tractor-trailers are roughly 67 feet long and, by agreement with haulers, would arrive from and depart to the north to avoid left turns across Route 5.

Applicant representative Larry Foster and other witnesses described the operation as a transfer station — a facility to receive and sort residential and commercial wastes for consolidation and transport to regional disposal facilities — not a landfill. “No hazardous waste, no toxic substance…commercial and residential household and business waste. That’s it,” Steve Scott said when summarizing allowed materials. Foster said most curbside trucks arrive early (some before 4 a.m.), load and depart before commuter peaks, and tractor-trailers typically leave northbound after loading.

Opponents’ concerns heard during public comment included traffic, noise and future capacity. Commissioners asked about noise and hours; the applicant said loading would occur inside a building, that the loudest activity is material dumping during the day, and that state and federal regulators will inspect operations. Commissioners and staff also noted the site is included as a recommended facility in the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan (references to pages cited in the hearing record) and that the transfer station is privately financed via a bank loan the applicant said was approved based on pro forma projections.

The motion to approve the concept site plan included conditions that the applicant obtain: any required state and county road improvements concurrent with certificate-of-occupancy issuance; variances from the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance related to minimum distance from the nearest home (proposed at 1,000 feet vs. the 1,500-foot standard) and the ability to locate on a minor collector (Carpenter Lane); permission from the Commissioners to create access from county right-of-way; signed APF documentation and DPW&T approval of the traffic study; and signage requiring tractor-trailers to turn right when exiting the site. The commission recorded a unanimous vote by members present to approve the plan with those conditions.

Next steps for the applicant include securing the zoning variances from the Board of Appeals, obtaining county permission for site access, and receiving DPW&T sign-off on the traffic study and APF. The conditions also leave room for any state-imposed road improvements to be completed before occupancy. The commission noted the hearing was a continuation of the June 23 meeting and that staff and county attorneys had been given the revised traffic materials in advance of the July 21 session for review.