New spots to offer greenery, off-site parking, space to recreate, and picnic tables

The owners of Frontier Town requested the Worcester County Commissioners modify the code to allow the campground to setup special zones designated for recreational trailers and cabins with remote vehicle parking more than 600 feet away from the sites. The code currently requires all sites to have parking for two vehicles within 600 feet of the campsites.

By Greg Wehner

Worcester County Commissioners will soon vote on changing the code surrounding campgrounds after the owners of Frontier Town in Berlin asked to allow features not permitted under the current code.

Sun TRS Frontier, LLC, which operates Frontier Town, Castaways, and Fort Whaley, is proposing cluster design standards for a portion of a campground that provides for more open and green space.

Sun TRS Frontier said required off-street parking would be located at a remote lot, rather than streetside as required by law, and the area devoted to the cluster design will consist of recreational park trailers or cabin structures in rental and membership campgrounds.

The structures would not have a minimum setback or campsite area and won’t be permitted to be constructed within 10 feet of any other structure. The maximum density allowed in the cluster design is 10 campsites.

Current provisions require two off-street parking spots at the campsite, but this modification would allow the LLC to relocate off-street parking farther than 600 feet from the site.

According to a letter from Hugh Cropper IV, attorney for the LLC, the text amendment requests will require safe access for fire protection and other public safety equipment and eliminates the traditional campground design of a park model or cabin with one to two cars parked in between.

Instead, Cropper noted, there will be grass, picnic areas, and recreational areas in between sites and the vehicles will be parked remotely.

“The applicant, based on its experiences in Worcester County, and elsewhere, believes that there is a high demand for this type of scenario,” Cropper said in the letter. “It will have the feel of being in the forest, or in an environmentally friendly area. It will be low-impact, and it should preserve open space.”

The Worcester County Planning Commission gave the legislation a favorable recommendation on May 5 and the commissioners voted to setup a public hearing on the modifications during the regularly scheduled meeting on May 17.