(July 6, 2017) The long-delayed Summerfield development project in Snow Hill took another small step forward last month.
Mayor Charlie Dorman headed a group that met with the Maryland Department of the Environment on June 21 in Baltimore to assure sufficient water and sewer capacity existed to support future growth in Snow Hill.
Accompanying Dorman to the meeting was Town Manager Kelly Pruitt, Councilwoman Alison Cook, Town attorney Kevin Karpinski, property owner Matt Odakowski and Michael Glass, a developer based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
More than a decade ago, Mark Odachowski proposed developing a roughly 1,000-acre plot into a consortium of housing and retail shops called Summerfield, which stalled because of the 2008 economic downturn.
More recently his brother, Matt Odachowski, purchased 400 acres of that property and is once again working to launch a development project.
Dorman said the meeting was informative with state officials advising Odachowski and Glass to present plans how the 400 acre parcel, which falls under two different zoning classifications, would be mapped out.
“They submit drawings of how they want to lay out the houses,” he said. “That’s what we’re waiting on. The ball is in their park.”
As originally proposed more than a decade ago, the Summerfield project would have required Snow Hill to provide additional EDU’s for water and sewer service, with construction of a new wastewater treatment plant included in the plans. The reduced scope of the project should be far easier to accommodate, Dorman said.
“We’ve got 300-plus [EDUs] available right now and they’re looking for 800,” he said.
Once plans are submitted to the state, a determination will be reached concerning the EDU requirements.
“We’ve got an idea, but the state is the one who is going to dictate it to us,” he said. “We just have to know what they plan, what we’ve got to have for reserve, and then the state will say, ‘this is how you get to your end number.’”
Despite the previous disparity in EDU’s requested, Dorman said those numbers are not set in stone.
“They might not need that many,” he said. “They’ve got to see what they need – that’s the key.”
Regardless of past requests for hundreds of EDU’S to develop the Summerfield project, Dorman said the town is adopting a more conservative piecemeal approach to allocating said resources.
“They wanted all we have, but we can’t give them all we have, because we need to leave room for other developers to come in and do something,” he said. “Our plan was you start off and we’ll give you increments of 50. You build those 50 and sell those 50 and we’ll give you 50 more.”
The reduced EDU approach would also allow time for potential, as yet unforeseen, advances at the wastewater plant.
“At the end of 20 years or something the plant might go to spray irrigation [or] you may upgrade the plant and you could have 800,” he said. “Things might change, but you’re not going to build 800 homes at one time.”
With the potential for new business ventures in Snow Hill, both in the short and long term, Dorman said the town should keep its options open.
“That one builder can’t dictate to the town what to do,” he said. “We’re just trying to spread it even for everybody that wants to come in. We just need that one big boom and it will explode.”
Mayor Charlie Dorman headed a group that met with the Maryland Department of the Environment on June 21 in Baltimore to assure sufficient water and sewer capacity existed to support future growth in Snow Hill.
Accompanying Dorman to the meeting was Town Manager Kelly Pruitt, Councilwoman Alison Cook, Town attorney Kevin Karpinski, property owner Matt Odakowski and Michael Glass, a developer based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
More than a decade ago, Mark Odachowski proposed developing a roughly 1,000-acre plot into a consortium of housing and retail shops called Summerfield, which stalled because of the 2008 economic downturn.
More recently his brother, Matt Odachowski, purchased 400 acres of that property and is once again working to launch a development project.
Dorman said the meeting was informative with state officials advising Odachowski and Glass to present plans how the 400 acre parcel, which falls under two different zoning classifications, would be mapped out.
“They submit drawings of how they want to lay out the houses,” he said. “That’s what we’re waiting on. The ball is in their park.”
As originally proposed more than a decade ago, the Summerfield project would have required Snow Hill to provide additional EDU’s for water and sewer service, with construction of a new wastewater treatment plant included in the plans. The reduced scope of the project should be far easier to accommodate, Dorman said.
“We’ve got 300-plus [EDUs] available right now and they’re looking for 800,” he said.
Once plans are submitted to the state, a determination will be reached concerning the EDU requirements.
“We’ve got an idea, but the state is the one who is going to dictate it to us,” he said. “We just have to know what they plan, what we’ve got to have for reserve, and then the state will say, ‘this is how you get to your end number.’”
Despite the previous disparity in EDU’s requested, Dorman said those numbers are not set in stone.
“They might not need that many,” he said. “They’ve got to see what they need – that’s the key.”
Regardless of past requests for hundreds of EDU’S to develop the Summerfield project, Dorman said the town is adopting a more conservative piecemeal approach to allocating said resources.
“They wanted all we have, but we can’t give them all we have, because we need to leave room for other developers to come in and do something,” he said. “Our plan was you start off and we’ll give you increments of 50. You build those 50 and sell those 50 and we’ll give you 50 more.”
The reduced EDU approach would also allow time for potential, as yet unforeseen, advances at the wastewater plant.
“At the end of 20 years or something the plant might go to spray irrigation [or] you may upgrade the plant and you could have 800,” he said. “Things might change, but you’re not going to build 800 homes at one time.”
With the potential for new business ventures in Snow Hill, both in the short and long term, Dorman said the town should keep its options open.
“That one builder can’t dictate to the town what to do,” he said. “We’re just trying to spread it even for everybody that wants to come in. We just need that one big boom and it will explode.”