(7/26) At its July 25 meeting, the Planning Commission hesitantly voted to accept a preliminary concept site for the planned Garnet Ridge housing development. Acceptance of the concept plan moves the ball forward to the next stage of review by several town and county agencies, which will further define elements of the planned 50-unit senior housing development.
Following the unanimous vote, Councilman LeRoy Hand made a point of saying, "To be clear, this motion is merely ‘we’ve received the information.’ There’s still a lot of work to be done."
Martin Rickell and Martin Hackett of CLSI, the civil engineering firm responsible for the project, presented a rendered image of the proposed development to the committee and public in attendance. The concept includes 10 duplexes and 10 triplexes that will compose the 50 residential units, a 24-foot-wide road that circles around the inside of the development with one combined entry and exit point, and environmental features intact.
According to James Wieprecht, Taneytown City Manager, the original annexation agreement for the property designated the area as Residential-10,000 and business commercial zoning. There was also an agreement that the development could not exceed 50 units of age-restricted housing. "The concept does honor what the annexation agreement required," he said.
Several citizens expressed safety concerns about the conceived plan as presented by CLSI. Both residents Steve Marsalek and Barry Garner questioned the wisdom of having only one entry and exit point.
"I’ve never known a township to approve of only one way in and one way out of a development. Too many things can happen at the beginning and you’ll never get back there for fire or ambulance," Garner said.
He added concern about the capability of a 24-foot road being wide enough to handle emergency vehicles.
Marsalek asked if the length of Route 140 adjacent to the plan would be widened. Wieprecht stated that would be decided by the state highway authority
There was some discussion about development’s potential impact on water and sewer management within the town. Wieprecht explained that the property is currently on the town’s water/sewer master plan in the long-range category. He expects the town to have enough water to serve the property, but the sewer side will be "the challenging point right now."
"We will need to do a water/sewer master plan amendment," he said.
Councilman Hand asked the engineers how much land and how many trees will be disturbed on the property under the current concept.
"We did not get into that with the grading and such yet," responded Hackett. "That’ll be our next step, to see how much is actually taken out. We do have to stay out of the wetland areas." He added that currently the entire property is one-third wooded, and two-thirds cleared.
