Terracing triggers new Town Center stop-work order

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

A new stop work order was issued in Clarksburg last week.

The issue this time is the elevation of apartment buildings.

Developer Newland Communities was creating 8- to 10-foot high terraces on which to build apartment buildings when John Carter, chief of the Planning Board community based planning division, and Rose Krasnow, chief of the development review division, toured the area Aug. 13 with members of the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee.

Carter is looking for ways to return the Clarksburg Town Center to its initial vision and Krasnow is identifying the developer’s and builders’ violations of approved plans.

The developer has been told to stop work until the board can rule on whether the terraces should be allowed.

Height is normally measured from the ground level. If the apartments buildings are built on such high terraces they will tower over adjacent single-family homes, said Amy Presley, co-chair of the advisory committee.

‘‘We’ve got lots of erosion and runoff,” Presley said.

She questioned whether the developer changed grading throughout the project without county approvals.

‘‘They have definitely raised some issues that are worth looking into,” Krasnow said.

Carter and Krasnow are comparing the vision and amenities promised Town Center homebuyers with what has been built or is still expected to be built based on recent plans.

Problems in the Town Center were uncovered through thousands hours of research by the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee.

‘‘Clarksburg people certainly have reason to be following this carefully,” Krasnow said.

However, not all of the issues raised are problems, she said.

‘‘Our strategy is to make sure we’re comprehensive in documenting things that are violations,” Presley said.

On Monday the committee discovered another potential violation.

According to the approved plan, alleys behind townhouses should be 20 feet wide. However, committee member Lynn Fantle measured the alley behind her house and found it was only 14 feet 6 inches wide.

And members of the committee have long said the entry to the community lacks the architectural touches they expected and trees and streetlights are missing.

The main street and the streets leading to it are supposed to have special landscaping and lighting, Carter said.

‘‘We’re going to get back to that,” he said.

The connection between the Town Center and historic Clarksburg appears to be lost. According to the master plan, the Clarksburg United Methodist Church steeple was to be the highest point in the town center and a pedestrian path was to connect the Town Center to the historic district near the church.

‘‘We need to work on the relationship between the church and the development,” Carter said.

A row of townhouses has been built where the path was to be and a berm separates the church from the new community.

‘‘We need to improve the landscaping and pedestrian connection and make that a central feature,” Carter said.

The grading between the church and the development has to be fixed, he said.

‘‘It’s doable –- we’re going to have to get them to do it,” he said.”

advisory committee questions whether any home construction should be allowed to continue.

The approved site plan specifies community amenities that must be built before the 541st building permit is approved. Many amenities, such as the pedestrian path and tennis courts, are still missing, but permits have been issued for more than 760 homes, Presley said.

The amenity requirement applies to homes built under phase one of the approved site plan, Krasnow said. The developer began constructing phase two homes before phase one was finished, Krasnow said.

‘‘This clearly just refers to phase one,” Krasnow said. ‘‘They haven’t gotten 541 permits for phase one.”

Krasnow will present a report on all issues raised to the Planning Board Sept. 15.