The Harford County Council is expected to approve to a technical closure of a long-defunct stub road in Perryman to allow a developer to move forward with a large warehouse project.
A resolution was introduced before the council in February to complete the closure of Old Chelsea Road, subject to conditions of maintaining drainage, utility and other easments held by the county and the State Highway Administration. A public hearing was held on the resolution March 10, but it was not voted upon that evening.
The owner-developer, who is building a speculative warehouse distribution building called Perryman Logistics Center on the Hopewell Farm property of Chelsea Road, had long owned the site but the county had "prescriptive rights" to use the small section called Old Chelsea Road, county highways chief engineer Jeff Stratmeyer said Thursday.
Stratmeyer explained at the public hearing that the county realized the road was never formally closed. The road has been deteriorating for more than 30 years, since 1981, and does not really exist anymore, he said.
Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC and financial partner USAA Real Estate Company had originally announced last year it planned to build a 571,000-square-foot warehouse distribution building at 610 Chelsea Road. Called Perryman Logistics Center, the site is near the existing Rite Aid Distribution Center.
The county's planning and zoning department is still reviewing the site plan and traffic impact study for the project, development review chief Mo Davenport said Thursday. He said he expects those reviews to be concluded within a month.
This story is updated from an earlier version with a correction that the county council has not voted yet on the resolution to close Old Chelsea Road.