LEONARDTOWN — Drivers on Three Notch Road near Route 4 should have a continuous third lane by the end of November, the last major piece of nearly $5 million in road work tied to the Lexington Exchange development in California.
The update came Oct. 26 as the St. Mary’s County Planning Commission unanimously approved a preliminary major subdivision that creates five more lots for flex buildings at the project, which is drawing defense contractors and other businesses near Naval Air Station Patuxent River.
Chris Longmore, the attorney for developer St. John Properties, told the commission that the remaining improvements along Maryland 235 should be done in about five weeks, including the through lane from Route 4 to the project that planning commissioners have asked about at past hearings.
Why the developer built the road
Lexington Exchange is a planned unit development, a project with its own ordinance adopted by the county commissioners, originally around 1990, Longmore said. Its recorded adequate public facilities agreement required the developer to build specific road improvements along Route 235 as the project generated set numbers of vehicle trips.
Longmore said that staged approach gave the county larger improvements than it would have gotten from a string of separate projects, each paying only for its own traffic. Earlier phases added work at the Wildwood intersection, sidewalks, crosswalks and southbound lanes. In all, he said, the developer has spent just under $5 million on the Route 235 work.
The busy Route 4 and Route 235 intersection is handled differently. A county public works representative said that intersection was already failing and no single developer could fix it, so the agreement instead charges a fee in lieu at every building permit: $463.33 times the greater of the building’s projected morning or evening peak-hour trips. Commission member Joe Van Kirk questioned why the fee counts only the larger of the two peaks; county staff said the formula comes from the recorded agreement for this project, not the general zoning ordinance. Longmore said the developer will keep paying that fee with every building permit even after the road work is finished.
A neighboring property owner had asked that the lots connect to Oakcrest Road so residents could avoid Route 235. Longmore said that wasn’t feasible because the traffic agreements assumed no such connection, and pointed to a planned traffic signal at FDR Boulevard and Route 235 that should improve access for those neighbors.
Flex buildings fill up
Andrew Roud, St. John Properties’ regional partner for Southern Maryland, said he first came before the county on the project 17 years ago and that the first 12 or 13 years were tough. Now, he said, nearly all the built flex space is spoken for, with only about 2,400 square feet left.
Tenants he listed include Booz Allen Hamilton, American Systems, FGS, Platform Aerospace, a plumbing supply company, a pain management practice, a financial advisory firm and a State of Maryland office. Platform Aerospace has signed for two more whole buildings, he said.
At full buildout, Roud said, the project should have about 600,000 square feet of flex space and about 205,000 square feet of retail, support roughly 2,100 jobs and generate about $1.7 million a year in county property taxes. The retail side includes Aldi, Royal Farms, Chipotle, an RC Theatres cinema and the coming Home Depot, Southern Maryland’s first, at about 132,000 square feet. St. John Properties has said the 140-acre site sits within a half-mile of Route 4.
What the vote does
The approval, case MJSB 26-0119 for the Oakcrest preliminary major subdivision, creates lots 9 through 13 at the end of Oakview Drive, plus an outparcel. The commission approved the site plan for these buildings in 2022, so the vote mainly draws lot lines around buildings already allowed so they can be financed and sold separately, Longmore said.
Planning Director Jessica Andritz confirmed in an Aug. 19 memo that the subdivision meets the county’s adequate public facilities requirements for roads, water and sewer, fire suppression and stormwater. Commercial buildings have no school impact. Commissioners also confirmed that environmental reviewers’ notes on forest interior dwelling species habitat are on the plat.
Roud said the next two buildings will go up as soon as permits are issued, and that the developer hopes to return within a year with a site plan and subdivision for the last development area at the back of the property. Developers expect to stay well under the trip limit set in the original traffic study unless a traffic-heavy user, such as a school or church, moves in.
The Planning Commission’s next public hearing, on the county’s AICUZ study of air installation compatible use zones around Pax River, is set for Nov. 23.
