Planning commission OKs review for Dunkirk expansion

The vote wasn’t unanimous but a request to add less than 20 acres to the Dunkirk Town Center map is moving to its next stage following the March 20 meeting of the Calvert County Planning Commission.

The proposed designated planning category change would annex just over 17 acres into the town center and would give owners of the Dunkirk Gateway Shopping Center some additional land for its septic facility.

The entire tract — nearly 33 acres —is known as the Red Hall property. It is located on Ward Road.

According to Tay Harris, long-range planner, using the land as the site for septic disposal fields is the sole reason for the request, which will ultimately be decided after a joint public hearing of the planning commission and county commissioners.

Harris told the planning commission adding the 17 acres could be considered part of the Dunkirk Town Center Master Plan update, “however, the Dunkirk Town Center Master Plan must be consistent with the [county’s] comprehensive plan.”

The change to the comprehensive plan would change the zoning from rural commercial to town center.

A restriction limiting the land use to a drainage field would be placed on the recorded plat, per the direction of the county commissioners.

Harris said three maps would be changed as well. They are future land use, growth tier and functional road classification map.

Christopher Gadway, planning commission member, noted there is a pond on the parcel.

“That will be avoided,” Harris said.

Gadway also asked if state health officials have seen the plan. When told they had not, he added it would be “counterproductive” not to get the blessing of health officials before proceeding.

“What if they say no?” Gadway asked. “All of this will be for naught.”

“There are quite a few steps,” Mary Beth Cook, county planning and zoning director said, adding that the proposal will be reviewed for 60 days by state and county agencies before it comes back to the planning commission.

Wilson Freeland, planning commission member, said the land includes “steep slopes and wetlands,” questioning whether the parcel was “usable” as a septic drainage field.

Freeland also noted the Red Hall property has been deemed historic.

During a discussion a few weeks ago with the county commissioners, planning and zoning had stated the land will perk. However, during the planning commission meeting it was clarified that only soil samples have been taken at this point.

Gadway made the motion to approve county staff’s proposal to submit the proposal for agency reviews. Freeland was the lone voter opposed to the motion.