By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The proposed new shopping center to be anchored by a Giant supermarket continues to move through the approval process and now awaits the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ assessment of its environmental impact.

To that end, the Corps is seeking comment from the public and federal, state, and local agencies and officials.

The Worcester County Commissioners in the fall of 2023 approved site plans the shopping center to be located at the intersection of Route 50 and Route 589.

As designed, the shopping center is expected to be around 120,561 square feet, with Giant occupying about half the space.

The Corps issued a public notice on March 31 seeking feedback on the project’s effects on the immediate area, which includes farm land, non-tidal wetlands and ditches to Mud Creek.

The notice describes the scope of the work as “to permanently impact approximately 37,513 square feet (0.86 acre) of palustrine emergent (PEM) nontidal wetlands for a mixed-use development and approximately 208 linear feet (2,107 square feet) of an agricultural ditch for construction of utilities and road crossings.”

The Corps said the applicant had reviewed alternative designs and that it will collaborate with the applicant in an attempt to minimize environmental issues.

One step already agreed to by the developer is to preserve wetlands, restore any disturbed wetlands restoration or buy or restoration credits from an approved mitigation bank. The latter option’s goal is to replace any lost wetlands on a one-to-one basis. This means that for every acre of wetlands affected, an acre elsewhere will be protected or restored.

The Corps’ evaluation of possible impacts on wildlife found that the center could have a negative effect on the endangered tricolored bat and the threatened monarch butterfly.

The document released by the Corps last week “serves as a request to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for any additional information on whether any listed or proposed to be listed endangered or threatened species or critical habitat may be present in the area which would be affected by the proposed activity.”

The organization will accept comments from the public, federal, state, and local agencies, Native American tribes, and other interested parties to consider the shopping center’s potential impacts on endangered species, historic properties, water quality, and other environmental effects. The Corps will use this feedback to determine whether to issue, modify, condition, or deny a permit for the proposed development and consider the need for a public hearing.

The notice confirms that the Baltimore District will receive written comments on the proposed work until April 30. Comments must be submitted electronically through the Regulatory Request System (RRS) at https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs or to Jaclyn Kelleher at jaclyn.k.kelleher@usace.army.mil.

Participants can also write comments to the Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, Attention: Jaclyn Kelleher, 218 Washington Street, Suite 304, Easton, MD 21601. The submissions must include the permit application number NAB-2024-60730-M53.

The Giant will be situated inside the new retail shopping complex by the Capano Management Company, referred to as the Coastal Square Shopping Center. The mixed-use development project is to include a grocery store, apartments, and retail buildings.