Board of Appeals OKs buffer reduction for Cottage Apartments in Mechanicsville

The St. Mary's County Board of Appeals on June 12 approved a variance (VAAP 24-0345) allowing a reduction of the required 65-foot Type B buffer to a 30-foot Type C buffer on the west side of the Cottage Apartments property, adjacent to Parcel 178 Lot 1, permitting construction of a six-unit multifamily building on a roughly 1.6-acre site in Mechanicsville.

The variance was approved after the applicant, represented by Wayne Hunt, a professional land surveyor, described physical constraints on the parcel — an ingress/egress easement and lack of nearby public sewer — that he said left insufficient developable area under strict application of the county ordinance. Chairman George Allen Hayden Sr. said the proposed development “is a much improvement to that area than what's there now,” and the board voted unanimously to approve the request.

Why it matters: the buffer requirement is intended to separate higher-intensity uses from adjacent residential lots. Reducing the buffer changes where plantings and fencing will be placed and shifts long‑term maintenance responsibility to the property owner;…