Clarksburg Town Center plans delayed

Developer gets extension but must continue to work with community over issues

The delay will set back construction of the community’s retail center until 2009 at the earliest. The 265,000-square-foot Clarksburg Town Center retail center is intended to serve all of Clarksburg. It has also been viewed as the site of a county library, but that also might change.

The board approved the extension unanimously, with Commissioner Jean Cryor absent.

‘‘We can’t keep waiting while the public good in Clarksburg is on hold,” said Rose G. Krasnow, chief of development and review for the Planning Board.

Newland Communities submitted a revised site plan for Clarksburg Town Center to the Planning Board last April and has been working with board staff on modifications since that time.

Two main issues with the plan are still not resolved, according to the staff report.

The vehicular connection from the retail center to Frederick Road through the Clarksburg Historic District is still not settled and the location and design of the future Clarksburg library is still in question, according to the report.

Numerous meetings have been held to discuss the connection and the possible relocation of the historic Wilson House, which lies in the path of the proposed roadway, and potential impacts to the affected area associated with the historic district, but a consensus has not been reached, the report states.

Likewise, the county Department of Public Works and Transportation is insistent that the library site is not big enough for the size of the facility needed, the report states.

The original plans for the retail district have changed significantly as a result of a mediated agreement between Newland and the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee, a group of residents that uncovered hundreds of site plan violations in the community in 2005. The mediated deal was incorporated into a Plan of Compliance approved by the Planning Board in 2006.

‘‘It is the staff’s understanding that the applicant and [Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee] have outstanding issues that cannot be disclosed to staff, making it impossible to recommend certain actions and provide an accounting of the review timeframe associated with the project,” the staff report states.

Planning Board staff, the developer and the advisory committee are meeting with the mediation judge today to discuss outstanding issues and timing.

Bruce Johnston, a division chief for the Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPWT), said his agency feels left out of the library plans while the design guidelines are being discussed behind closed doors.

‘‘We need to be a part of the development of those guidelines,” Johnston said. ‘‘We would like to have that opportunity.”

He is also concerned that members of the greater community have not had a chance to talk about what they want for the Clarksburg library.

Catherine Matthews, director of the Upcounty Regional Services Center, said she is also concerned that the design guidelines for the library are being developed behind closed doors because they might not be compatible with the executive branch’s vision for libraries in the county.

‘‘The community needs one, and we want to provide one, but we need to do it in a way that everybody is comfortable with,” she said.

The plans call for a two-story library on a 10,000-square-foot site in a central plaza of the retail district. Parker Hamilton, director of Montgomery County Public Libraries, said a 26,000-square-foot library might be appropriate and it might be tough to fit that size library on a 10,000-square-foot lot.

If the site proposed for the library is not large enough to meet the needs of Clarksburg residents, the executive branch of the government and DPWT, then it might need to be located in another part of the town, Krasnow said.

However, Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson and Douglas Delano, vice president of operations for Newland Communities, said every effort should be made to keep the library in its proposed location.

‘‘It makes a lot of sense to have the library at the town center,” Hanson said. ‘‘There is a great social advantage for that.”

A County Council committee recommended delaying the funding for the library for two years earlier this month because of questions about the project.

Library administrators have met with the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee at least twice, said Amy Presley, spokeswoman for the advisory committee. She is confident all of the issues can be worked out before the May 19 filing deadline and wants to meet with county officials to discuss the details of design guidelines for the library.

The library is expected to cost $17.1 million to build over a six-year period.