St. Mary’s County planning commission approves staff zoning assignments for public lands in Lexington Park master plan

The St. Mary’s County Planning Commission on Jan. 28 approved a series of staff-recommended zoning assignments that map county-owned and nonprofit properties in the Lexington Park Development District to new zoning districts under the draft master plan.

The commission’s votes covered multiple land-use categories — industrial, office/business park, commercial, mixed-use and a range of residential intensities — and applied staff-suggested zoning to parcels the county and several public agencies own. Commissioners also approved one targeted change: one county-owned parcel identified as wetlands mitigation was removed from mixed-use medium intensity and directed to be zoned rural preservation (RPD-2).

Why it matters: the master plan replaces older land-use and zoning categories in Lexington Park, and the mapping of public lands and nonprofit properties into the new districts affects how those parcels would be treated if they were later sold or redeveloped. Commissioners and staff said the goal was to select zoning that aligns with each parcel’s surroundings so that any future transfer would not require immediate rezoning.

Staff presentation and public-agency input

Bill Hunt, director of Land Use and Growth Management, opened the discussion by telling the commission, “We’re here tonight to finish the examination of the zoning districts that have to be assigned to the land use categories.” Kathleen Easley (deputy director) and planner Laura Kay guided commissioners through online maps and a linked spreadsheet that lists the affected parcels.

Sabrina Hector, a representative from Patuxent River Naval Air Station, spoke about a 23-acre county parcel near Gate 3 and told the commission, “We don’t have a…