The Vineyards site plan changes course: Bay Bridge Airport (W29), Stevensville, Maryland

CENTREVILLE— After receiving major site plan approval from the Queen Anne’s County Planning Commission for The Vineyards of Queen Anne’s at the Dec. 12 meeting, the commission approved an amended major site plan on Thursday, March 13, that will reverse the orientation of the project, get rid of vineyard orchards and change the site’s name to The Gardens of Queen Anne’s.

The site is a 15.86-acre parcel of county-owned property that is located at Pier One Road in Stevensville, just south of U.S. Route 50/301, west of State Route 8 and adjacent to the Bay Bridge Airport. The property is leased by developer Coastal South, John Wilson, principal and co-owner of the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club. It resides in the Airport Protection and Kent Island Gateway zoning district.

Significant revisions have been made to the original site plan due to financial and airport issues, said Holly Tompkins, senior planner. The plan involves a mixed use development of 67,129 square feet consisting of a 54-room hotel with a 20-room future expansion, a banquet facility barn, restaurant, bar tool shed and a market with an accompanying service hall.

“They are moving the location of the restaurant and bar facilities, which is why they are coming to the commission,” said Steve Cohoon, director of planning.

The project is to occur in two phases, and the overall scope of the first phase will be reduced by about 13,145 square feet. The 20-room hotel addition will move to the south side of the property; the restaurant and kitchen will move to the north side; a market will be added, while the tool shed bar addition will be delayed; the covered porch will be reduced with a larger garden patio; a small banquet facility will be created on the north side and the main banquet facility barn will move to the south side. The main hotel will remain in the same position.

The Federal Aviation Administration has oversight of the property, and, according to its regulations, vineyard orchards are not permitted within 5,000 feet of the airport because they will attracts birds. In place of the December site plan’s landscape proposal, the property will have hops for beer and lavender instead of vineyard orchards, Wilson said. The name of the site has changed to The Gardens of Queen Anne’s.

There will also be a 20-foot landscape buffer along Route 50/301 and a 15-foot buffer along Pier One Road to block noise from the airport and traffic, he said. The minimum required landscape area is 20 percent or 1.42 acres. The site will provide 53 percent.

“Because of (FAA) regulations you may see changes in phase two,” Cohoon said. “That would be a future approval. We can expect there to be adjustments as phase two comes along.”

These changes are inherently cosmetic and although a large amount of moving around and tweaking has occurred, there are no zoning issues and the parking no longer needs a reduction as the December plan had proposed, Tompkins said.

The parking required for phase one is 182 spaces, including the future additions. A total of 192 parking spaces will be provided.

No member of the public commented on the major site plan amendment, and the planning commission unanimously voted to approve phase one of The Gardens site plan.

The project is expected to begin this May, and The Gardens should open in spring 2015, Cohoon said.

Source:   http://www.myeasternshoremd.com