Under the development instrument of White's Heritage Partnership, the other partners are Coastal South, developer of the Chesapeake Bay Club at the Bay Bridge Marina; Elm Street Development of McLean, Va., also the principal in three other Mid-Shore communities; and Koch Homes, a regional homebuilder based in Annapolis.
 

Bozzuto Development, along with other partners, has developed two other such neighborhoods in Maryland, Kentlands and Kings Farm, which are both seen as pioneering efforts in TND development.
 

Development Issues
 

The vote for concept plan and the water-sewer allocation revealed a split in the commission, with members David Clark and Peter Lee voting against those two issues. The motions carried with the votes of members Loring Hawes, Patti Miller and Rodger Weese. Ex-officio member John McQueeney, also a member of the County Commission, voted in favor of the concept plan but abstained on the water-sewer allocation.
 

This is because as a member of the County Commission, which also sits as the County Sanitary Board, has the final say on water-sewer allocations. The issue has not yet been placed on a future County Commission agenda.
 

In two unanimous votes, the planning commission approved reducing the shore buffer on the Chester River to 100 feet and 13 technical comments, which will eventually be part of a Critical Area growth allocation petition for slightly more than 12 acres of of the parcel.
 

A 300-foot shore buffer along Macum Creek will remain in place and the developer proposes a public-access nature park in this area on the west side of the parcel.
 

The Critical Area growth allocation petition will first come before the County Commission before being referred to the planning department and planning commission. After a recommendation from the planners, the County Commission will have final say on the matter.
 

Slightly more than 70.3 acres in the Critical Area will not be part of the growth allocation. As part of a proposal for a golf course that did not move ahead and redesignation before the Critical Area program took effect, these acres were changed from resource conservation (RCA) to limited development (LDA) area.
 

As a result, state Critical Area law allows those acres to be remapped as intensely developed (IDA) area without any further additional growth allocation process, according to the staff report.
 

A total of slightly more than 103 acres of the 132-acre parcel - all part of the Chester Community Plan - are within the Critical Area designation, and slightly more than 26 acres (the Macum Creek shore buffer) will remain designated as RCA.
 

In the presentation of the staff report, Sue Ann Morgan said that Gibson's Grant met 11 of the 13 design criteria for a TND development as set forth by the creators of this concept, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, architects headquartered in Maryland with a worldwide client list.
 

Duany is the lead designer in another Mid-Shore development proposed by Midland Corp. in St. Michaels.
 

Public Comment
 

While comments from the general public were subdued in tone, many had concerns about the size and impact of Gibson's Grant.
 

Robert Foley wondered if a new neighborhood was worth the loss of landscape and waterscape. "And even though developers are doing a full-court press, I would like to say that elections are coming up," he said of potential local political impact.
 

Mike Koval, a leader of the Kent Island Defense League, said he would rather see Gibson's Grant in Bowie, not Kent Island. "We need some economic development to keep us going, but not thousands of new homes." He also said that at the rate new schools are being built, all will be at capacity as they open.
 

Jack Broderick and Rick Moser wonder if public officials are keeping in mind the intent of community plans for land uses in the growth areas.
 

"Densities don't reflect the visions," Broderick said. "Kent Island has a unique quality and character, and I think another small town here is a mistake."
 

Moser cited some elements of the current Comprehensive Plan that emphasize pushing growth farther eastward from the Kent Island-Kent Narrows region and protecting open space in that region.
 

Although Carol Fordonski said that more children would create a negative cash flow for schools, a financial impact analysis of Gibson's Grant by Robert Charles Lesser & Co. shows a $14 million positive impact.

The only person to speak in favor of Gibson's Grant was Anthony Drummond, who moved to Kent Island and opened a design business a year ago. "Negative comments seem to be a concerted effort from a small group of people," he said. Increased traffic impacts were his major concern.
 

TND and Gibson's Grant 
 

The TND concept brings many aspects of traditional neighborhoods seen in Europe's small towns as well as examples in the United States, some that date from the Colonial period and others at the beginning of the 20th Century.
 

Morgan and Bozzuto vice president Charles Covell explained the general TND and "Smart Growth" concepts as they are reflected in Gibson's Grant. These concepts involve neighborhood size, streets, mixed land use and public open space.
 

"There is a discernible center and most homes are within a five-minute walk from that center," Covell said of the concept. Morgan said that this creates a human scale for the community, and provides both recreational and some commercial needs within the community 
 

Covell pointed out that there is one north-south thoroughfare, which is divided by a median strip, with key intersections for major east-west secondary roads. Although some homes are on major and secondary roads, most of them are on narrower neighborhood streets and all are connected by alleys that lead to off-street parking for each residence.
 

Mixed land uses offer every residence access to a recreational or commercial areas, the latter provided here with 10,000 square feet for such uses as a drugstore, beauty salon, convenience store or restaurant. These buildings at the Piney Creek Road main entrance offer retail uses downstairs and residential or office uses upstairs.
 

And even residential types are mixed on the same street, from large "Manor Homes" and smaller single-family homes on a single lot, to buildings that could contain from four to 10 residences, depending on home size and location within the community. In Gibson's Grant, Covell calls this concept "Charleston Homes."
 

He also pointed out that the lots are generally the narrow-deep concept with the residences close to the street, often facing a park, which could include the central park with a water feature, a riverside park/pier, the nature park or one of several "pocket parks."
 

"Homes that have front porches give residents a sense of place and create relationships among neighbors," Covell said of this concept. With varying lot sizes next to each other on all streets, he also pointed out that this gives the developer greater flexibility to respond to the changing marketplace in terms of actual homes that would be built on a certain street.
 

Although the number of homes in the development will remain near 750, from 230 to 400 single-family homes could be built; 120 to 165 attached townhomes; and from 150-350 multifamily units. Prices will range from $175,000 (multifamily) to upwards of $750,000 (Manor Home).
 

The landscape and open space area will total 53.08 acres, 38 percent of the total acreage. Stormwater management will emphasize the new state "bioretention" concepts, and flow inward to ponds on the site.
 

The neighborhood does not include a school site because current schools and county plans for new schools would include the children of new Gibson Grant residents, according to the staff report.
 

As with K. Hovnanian's Four Seasons, the developer will enter into an agreement with the county for its share of infrastructure improvements that will be necessary because of the new neighborhood, according to Covell and Mike Whitehill of McCrone Inc. engineers. This would include off-site improvements for water and sewer systems, public safety, as well as streets and highways.
 

Whitehill, Bozzuto attorney Joe Stevens and others also pointed out that the share contributed by Gibson's Grant will be based on the progress of other projects in the region by both residential and commercial developers. 
 

©The Star Democrat 2002