BLYTHEWOOD – The owners of a 10.4 acre property located at the intersection of Sandfield and Langford Roads and for years generally known as the Tom Boney cow pasture, applied to have the zoning of the property changed from Rural (RU) to Multi-Neighborhood Commercial District (MC) with Architectural Overlay District (AO).
“The property is located at an ‘activity center,’ a designation on the future land use map, which means a mix of uses, traditional town-scale walkability,” Williamson said. “The MC district has a medium land use density for residential, civic, office and retail categories. It’s one level below Town Center which is heavy for those categories.”
“Is there any indication what they are proposing or thinking about what they plan to use the land for down the road?” Commissioner Ed Kesser asked.
Williamson said it is supposed to be something that will be complimentary to what is coming across the street (Langford Road) which is the Blythewood Farms subdivision.
While Commissioner Malcolm Gordge offered up a motion to approve the rezoning request, there was a pause with no one second the motion.
“Mr. Williamson, everything behind this property is rural, right?” Commission Chairman Rich McKenrick asked.
Williamson confirmed that everything north of the property is Rural and residential.
“The applicant is not here, right?” Commissioner Erica Page asked.
“That’s correct,” Williamson said.
Asked by McKenrick whether the applicant, Jim McLean, gave any information to go on as to his plans for the property, Williamson said he (McLean) did talk about the benefits of the MC zoning district over Town Center District which allows some uses that are more intense than he (McLean) would like.
“Is he currently marketing this property for sale?” McKenrick asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Williamson said.
“It’s always disappointing when the applicant doesn’t represent themselves in their interest,” Gordge said. “This is purely a zoning request at this point.”
Kesser said he would like to talk with the applicant, and Page said she needed more details before she could make a decision to change the zoning.
McKenrick said he didn’t want to delay the vote, but that he would like the opportunity to ask the applicant questions.
The Commission voted unanimously to defer the vote until next month when they would like to be able to have the applicant in attendance to answer questions.