Progress on New Developments
New housing will be coming to Walkersville over the next few years. Plans for 167 homes have come before the Walkersville Planning Commission over the past few months. Most have received preliminary approval, and the others will be heard by the commission in the near future.
The Bell Property most recently received preliminary approval for 103 homes. The property lies between MD 194, Fountain Rock Road, Walkersville Elementary School, and another farm on Fountain Rock Road. The developer will also include community gardens, and a walking path from Antietam Drive to the south of the property towards Sheetz and Discovery.
The Staley Property along Glade Road and across from Winterbrook won approval to build four condominium buildings with four units in each. “The Glades” will include sixteen homes served by on-site parking, garages, and form a quad with an open space between the buildings.
While still in the early stages or just in the consideration stage, two planned developments along Pennsylvania Avenue / Biggs Ford Road saw some action over the summer. From the street, the work may not go noticed or seem routine. In fact, a lot of planning and work goes into each of the developments by the developers, planners, and land owners.
The Mill Run development on Pennsylvania Avenue is farther along in the approval process. The property lies between the Walkersville Southern Railroad’s tracks, Walkersville Middle School, Maple Avenue backyards, and Glade Village. The developer plans to build twenty-two homes on the land with a cul-de-sac. The property was a farm with an old farm house and other buildings. All of the buildings were razed this summer leaving an empty lot. Two large trees at the planned entrance to the property were removed in the last two weeks.
In the early stages of planning, Parkside developers began some field testing on the property along Biggs Ford Road. While no application had been submitted for the development, the hopeful developer presented plans to the Planning Commission for a preview and early comments. The preview proposed twenty-six “up-scale” homes on two cul-de-sacs with no curbs. The plan to have storm water drain into the ground met some opposition from Planning Commission member David Ennis at the time. Tom Poss, Jr., one of the developers, offered to have engineers test the land and offer guidance on the feasability of their storm water management plan in Walkersville’s karst geology. Over the past week, the overgrown field along Biggs Ford Road was mowed, flags were placed, and holes were dug. The developers engineers will test the soil and the underlying geology before further plans can be made.
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