Residents who are united against a proposal to bring 238 age-restricted houses to what they describe as a dangerously congested area in Ellicott City pressed the developer with their concerns about the project on Thursday night.
During the pre-submission meeting — required by the county before the developer submits plans to the county — Jason Van Kirk, a vice president with Elm Street Development, repeatedly assured an audience of more than 500 at Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville that the county will not approve the proposal for age-restricted housing along Bethany Lane unless it follows the letter of the law.
There have been mounting concerns about traffic, safety and the impact of the development on public facilities from area residents. In May, a turnout of more than 650 people at Bethany United Methodist Church in Ellicott City forced the developer to postpone the meeting to Thursday night to a larger location.
"There is nothing that is going to get snuck in. The Department of Planning and Zoning will obviously be doing their due diligence," Van Kirk said, adding that any impact on traffic would be closely examined by the developer and Howard County officials.
The proposed community, Bethany Glen, has drawn opposition from neighborhoods around the 66-acre property which is bisected by Interstate 70, leading to the formation of a citizens group to fight the development. Available to individuals age 55 and over, Bethany Glen plans call for 177 villas, 31 detached single-family houses and 30 elevator townhomes.
The citizens group, the Howard County Association of Responsible Planning (HARP), plans to fight the development, which Mike Thompson, one of eight residents behind the opposition said will strain already burdened roads and harm residents' quality of life.
Concerns about the impact of two other approved developments — age-restricted active adult condos at the Courtyards at Waverly Woods in Marriottsville and a new continuing retirement community at Lutheran Village at Miller's Grant in Ellicott City — have already pushed roads to a tipping point, residents say.
Donning red shirts, Thompson and other residents set up an information table outside of a gray mini-van at the Thursday pre-submission meeting.
"We have to stand for the little guy," Thompson said, pointing to an updated rendering of the project during Thursday's meeting. "We've been on these roads. We sit in this traffic. We've seen the accidents."
HARP recently changed its name from its former name — Save Howard County — after Elm Street Development bought the domain name for the Save Howard County website and redirected it to the developer's site promoting the development.
Kelly Bruns, an Ellicott City resident, said the "malicious redirection" of web traffic shows the "low-down character of some of the people the community is forced to work with."
But Van Kirk said the project team demonstrated its openness to address concerns raised by the community, citing the fact that Elm Street Development reduced the number of units from the 330 first proposed in April to the 238 now under consideration. Planning for age-restricted housing instead of single-family homes will produce less traffic and place no burden on the school system, Van Kirk said.
The revised plan calls for increased open space and more single-family homes and fewer villas on the north side of the property, a change that was the direct result of concerns heard about previously proposed clustered barrack-style housing, he said.
Roughly 50 percent of the proposed development is open space, although a significant portion of that space includes stream setbacks, Van Kirk said.
The county's Hearing Examiner will review Elm Street Development's proposal once it is finalized and submitted to the county, although development officials could not estimate when that would be.The developer is seeking a conditional use for Bethany Glen, which would sit on land zoned for single family units at roughly two units per acre. The conditional use allows the developer to build age-restricted housing in the current zone.
Based on current market rates, the estimated retail value is $500,000 for the villas, $600,000 for single-family homes and $400,000 for the townhouses, according to Van Kirk.