Odenton Loosens the Floodgates

Monday's Capital tells us that a plan to build more than 2,000 homes "earns praise", giving the sense that support for the project in the community is near unanimous. "Wouldn't you rather have an active senior community as opposed to a landfill or a jail?," offered a resident whose property borders proposed development, a gated golf community for affluent seniors.

The developer, John Stamato (along with Gary Koch), certainly deserves some credit for actively working with the neighboring community. He has been communicating with residents for the past 3 or 4 years, including shuttling about 30 of them up to Lakewood, NJ to see a senior community there. None of the homes will be built closer than a 1/4 mile from the Patuxent River, and the developer intends to set 400 of the 1,471.5 acres aside for open space. But, any way you slice it 2,000 new homes are going to be a huge drain on the County's infrastructure and resources.

The situation sounds remarkably like some of the previous dealings that have taken place in Crofton, with citizens between a rock and a hard place, eventually choosing the hard place. It doesn't have to be that way. We are in a position to elect a Council and Executive that will be responsive to our quality of life issues.

I would like to hear from some other Odenton residents, if they have opinions on the project.