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Planning commission advances Prince Frederick Town Center master plan to public hearing
Summary
Staff presented a December 2024 revision to the Prince Frederick Town Center Master Plan that trims expansion area density, proposes natural-resource protections in the Parkers Creek headwaters, and asks the commission to authorize a public hearing as soon as legal notice allows.
Tay Harris, the county's long-range planner, presented the December 2024 draft of the Prince Frederick Town Center Master Plan and asked the Planning Commission whether staff should proceed to a public hearing or make further revisions.
"Tonight, I am here to discuss with you revisions made to the June 2024 Prince Frederick Town Center Master Plan Draft," Harris said, framing the update as the result of work that began in January 2020 and resumed in early 2023 after earlier pauses. Harris told commissioners the new draft shifts from "incentivizing growth" to "managing growth" because roughly "800 plus apartments and townhouse units in the pipeline for the town center" have changed local development circumstances.
The December draft recommends reducing allowable densities in much of the town center (Harris said the draft reduces densities "from 7 units per acre to 4 units per acre") and would require five transferable development rights (TDRs) for each additional unit. The plan also recommends allowing the recreational excise tax to fund trails and bikeways that connect neighborhoods to the town center and focuses redevelopment on three areas: Armory Road, Main Street and Prince Frederick Boulevard.
On environmental protections, staff recommended applying the county's proposed natural resource protection area provisions to stream valleys in the Parkers Creek Headwaters, increasing buffers for streams, floodplains, steep slopes and highly erodible soils to limit development in sensitive areas. Harris said the draft removes several road-improvement references that were part of a previously reduced expansion area.
After the presentation, a majority of the commission voted to direct staff to schedule a public hearing on the December 2024 draft; Harris reminded the commission that due to legal notice requirements the earliest feasible hearing date would be February.
The zoning ordinance update and the master plan revision remain linked in staff's presentation: several recommended changes were framed as being consistent with the pending Calvert County zoning ordinance update. The commission's vote to schedule a hearing asks staff to return the draft for public comment and a formal hearing process before the commission moves to any final action.
