St. John Properties just announced they’ve reached an agreement with locals to develop the Freeway Airport site into a neighborhood of only single-family homes, ditching the plan for townhouses altogether. This new approach aims to create a low-density community while also potentially shutting down the airport for good.
Here are the highlights:
- St. John Properties reached a consensus with local citizens to develop Freeway Airport with only single-family homes.
- The plan eliminates townhouses entirely at the Church Road site.
- The new development will focus on a density of less than 2.47 units per acre.
- The project will dramatically reduce the planned density at the 131-acre Freeway Airport site.
- The development was previously pursuing a mix of approximately 500 attached and detached units.
- The consensus plan aims to retain the RSF-A zoning and could potentially close the airport permanently.
- This plan offers the prospect of creating a low-density, single-family community.
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Freeway Airport Deal Reached
St. John Properties testified at a hearing last week that it has reached a ‘reasonable understanding and consensus’ with local citizens to develop the Freeway Airport with only single family homes.
The firm’s Andrew Roud told the Council and Planning Board at a hearing on the Bowie sectional map amendment (SMA) that, based on its ‘extensive dialogue’ with citizens, it will pursue a ‘new concept’ that eliminates townhouses altogether at the Church Road site.
Instead, the plan will focus on singles at a density of less than 2.47 units to the acre. “Zero townhouses on the property,” Roud testified.
With the towns gone, the new plan would dramatically cut the planned density at the 131-acre Freeway Airport, located along Route 50 at Church Road in Bowie.
St. John, in a joint venture with the Rodenhauser family that owns the airport and based on a text amendment that allowed towns, had pursued a mix of approximately 500 attached and detached units for some five years, including a high court decision last year that went in the developer’s favor.
The consensus plan still relies on retaining the RSF-A zoning shown in the draft SMA. But if it comes to fruition, the consensus plan offers the prospect of bringing the long-running case to an end, it would close the airport permanently, and it would create a low-density, single-family community.