Staff presents Prince Frederick Town Center draft chapters; commissioners press for clearer housing and traffic counts

Tay Harris, long-range planner, presented draft Chapter 1 (countywide Town Centers guidance) and Chapter 2 (Prince Frederick Town Center update), saying the Department restructured the December 2024 draft to align with the county's town-center format and to prioritize the oldest plans first. Harris explained that the plan's recent revision accounts for development approved, under review or under construction since 2020 and cited a pipeline estimate of "815 dwelling units, comprising of 339 townhomes and 476 apartments." Harris said staff will verify and add the existing-current dwelling counts to the plan for clarity.

Several commissioners pushed back on wording and data presentation. One commissioner noted the document's sentence that Calvert County growth "has not significantly contributed" to a rise in impervious surfaces in the Patuxent River watershed appears confusing; Harris said much of the watershed change came from other jurisdictions and agreed to provide clearer numeric breakdowns of the county's contribution. Commissioners also flagged failing intersections in Prince Frederick and that Maryland 24 widening remains on hold pending state funding; they asked staff to identify specific intersections referenced in recent project reviews and to return with consistent, apples-to-apples housing counts (approved/in pipeline/under construction) through a defined cutoff date.