Havre de Grace planning commission extends Harbor Shops site plan for one year

The Havre de Grace Planning Commission voted 4–2 on March 20 to grant a one-year extension of the site plan approval for Harbor Shops MD 2 LLC, permit 20240340, allowing the developer more time to address outstanding technical items and coordinate state reviews.

The extension keeps in force the conditions set when the commission originally approved the Harbor Shops site plan on March 21, 2024, and is the first of up to two one-year extensions authorized by city code section 155-25(c). Planning department staff said the applicant is entitled to request the extension under that section and recommended approval.

Commissioners split over whether to extend or require the applicant to resubmit a complete, final site plan. Commissioner Chip Place led opposition, saying the commission had been asked a year earlier to act on an incomplete application and that several threshold items remain missing. "We were presented with an incomplete site plan application," Place said during the meeting, naming absent stand delineation drawings, a code reference for preserving trees over 6 inches in diameter (section 102.6), architectural drawings and photometric studies as examples.

Planning staff said the applicant submitted the materials the department had requested for the…