Planning commission backs rezoning to expand Owings gas station, 6–1

The Calvert County Planning Commission on Aug. 20 recommended that the Board of County Commissioners approve a zoning map amendment to reclassify two parcels at 136 and 150 East Chesapeake Beach Road in Owings to the Owings Town Center core district, a change proponents said would allow expansion and renovation of an existing automobile filling station.

Will Hager, planner with the Department of Planning and Zoning, told commissioners the two parcels sit at the MD-778/MD-260 intersection and that the filing station at 136 East Chesapeake Beach Road is currently a nonconforming use under rural commercial zoning. He said the proposed rezoning would bring the parcels into conformity with the adopted comprehensive plan’s future-land-use map and allow reconstruction with improved landscaping, lighting, stormwater management, septic upgrades, and safer on-site circulation. “The proposed zoning for the subject properties in this application is town center core district for both parcels,” Hager said.

Applicant attorney Matthew Tedesco, representing the Wills Group/Dashing Food Store Inc., urged the commission to approve the amendment, saying the site (he said the primary structure dates to 1970) is outdated and cannot be modernized without additional property to the north. Tedesco told the commission his client has the adjacent residential property under contract and said the rezoning would allow a safer, modern facility and serve as a catalyst for broader town-center reinvestment. “There is a clear mistake in the property's current zoning classification as confirmed by the future land use map,” Tedesco said, describing the rezoning as a corrective step.

Mark Ferguson, the applicant’s land planner, framed the request as a potential trigger for investment: “Developers are like penguins,” he said, arguing one redevelopment can encourage others to follow and revive a quiet commercial corridor.

Several commissioners expressed concern about precedent and timing, noting the county expects to begin an Owings town-center master-plan update in roughly a year. Commissioners asked whether approving a town-center designation across MD-260 could encourage noncontiguous expansion and whether the commission should wait for the comprehensive plan chapter and master-plan process. Staff and the director of planning and zoning, Jason Brinkley, said the department’s policy and the timing of master-plan work influenced prior zoning decisions but that a map amendment may be justified where a substantial change or a mistake in the prior classification exists.

There was no public comment. A motion to close the record and recommend adoption of MA-25-01 passed on a roll-call vote with six commissioners in favor and one opposed; the hearing record notes the tally as 6–1.

The commission’s recommendation moves the matter to the Board of County Commissioners for final action. If the county’s broader Owings town-center update proceeds as anticipated, staff said that later process could alter the town-center boundary and related regulations, but the map-amendment recommendation would remain part of the BOCC’s record and deliberations.