Planning commission recommends rezoning 298053 Notch Road in Charlotte Hall, 4-3

The St. Mary’s County Planning Commission voted 4-3 on Dec. 20 to recommend approval of a comprehensive plan amendment and zoning map change for 298053 Notch Road in Charlotte Hall, sending the application to the Board of County Commissioners for a final decision.

Courtney Jenkins, speaking for county staff, described the application as a request to change the property’s split land use — residential mixed use and residential medium density — to a single designation of mixed use moderate intensity and to rezone the parcel from split Residential Mixed Use (RMX) and Residential Low (RL) to Town Center Mixed Use (TMX). Jenkins told the commission the property is inside the Charlotte Hall Town Center and that the amendment request was entered into the public record as exhibit 2 after required notices and agency reviews, including the Maryland Department of Planning.

The applicant’s attorney, Mr. Longmore, said the request is limited to map amendments and does not include any development proposals. "This is not a development request at this time. There are no entrances being proposed in any way," he said, and noted that any future site plan or access proposals would return to the planning commission for review. He argued the property’s split zoning is a disfavored situation under Maryland practice and said the surrounding area had seen substantial development since the last county-wide rezoning cycle.

Dozens of nearby residents and property owners spoke against the rezoning during public testimony, citing concerns about traffic, safety, stormwater and impacts on historic properties and neighborhood character. Property owner Carolyn Curtis said her family has owned adjacent land for more than a century and warned that "once there's a change in zoning that there's something more coming after that." Other residents, including Joan Waters, Michael McCauley and Jean Thomas Adams, urged the commission to preserve the residential character of Charlotte Hall Road and to require a master plan for the town center before allowing more intensive zoning.

Mr. Longmore and staff responded that the zoning change by itself does not authorize a specific development and that any future plan would be reviewed with conditions to address access, buffering and other site-specific issues. He also read aloud a corrected comment from the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration stating it had "no objection to the proposed amendment for both land use and zoning maps."

In deliberations commissioners emphasized two recurring themes from testimony: quality-of-life impacts for residents along Charlotte Hall Road and traffic/safety concerns tied to access and ingress/egress. Commissioners also debated the utility of resolving split-zoned parcels preemptively versus waiting for a concrete development application. The commission chair closed public testimony and the body voted to recommend approval of the comprehensive plan amendment and zoning map amendment; the vote recorded was Evans (Aye), St. Clair (Aye), Summers (Nay), Fazekas (Aye), Robrecht (Nay), Van Kirk (Nay), Chair Thompson (Aye), for a 4-3 recommendation in favor.

The planning commission’s recommendation does not adopt any site plan or approve specific uses. If the Board of County Commissioners approves the map changes, any future development proposals would be subject to separate plan review and conditions addressing access, buffering, stormwater and other public-safety and community concerns raised at the hearing. The application is identified in the record as case 60063 and will appear on the county commissioners’ agenda at a later public hearing.