St. Mary's Planning Commission approves Bradley Brook concept plan and preliminary subdivision amid noise and traffic debate

The St. Mary’s County Planning Commission voted Jan. 12 to approve the Bradley Brook concept site plan (CSP24-04) and preliminary major subdivision (MJSB25-0216), a proposal for 223 homes (150 townhouses and 73 single-family lots), attaching conditions that require noise studies and mitigation for houses in mapped high-noise contours, roadway improvements coordinated with the county, and required buyer disclosures.

The project team, represented by attorney Chris Longmore and engineer Greg Hossendorf, said they had updated site renderings, driveway measurements and a traffic impact study after prior questions from the commission. Traffic consultant Nick Dribben (Lenhart Traffic) told commissioners the updated counts (collected Dec. 10) and additional intersection analyses show the required study intersections operate at level of service A under the county’s Adequate Public Facilities (APF) methodology even after adding the development’s traffic; he estimated the site would add roughly 67 AM-peak trips at the congested Willow’s/Shangri La intersection. Dribben’s SimTraffic animations showed existing queuing from a downstream signal at MD 246/MD 235 that, he said, explains much of the observed backups — and could be partly…