Residents go over St. Leonard Town Center inch-by-inch

County staff lead tour for master plan update

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The April 9 tour was the latest in a series of public meetings for input to an update of the St. Leonard Master Plan, which lays out planning visions for the town center.

‘‘Really, what we want to accomplish tonight is to walk the town and point out some things the plan says should happen, because some of these may not be possible now. [We want to] learn from you what you think about the town and what should happen,” said Planning Commission Administrator David Humphreys.

Humphreys launched the tour by showing a neighborhood of single-family homes on Calvert Drive, built closer together than the current ordinance would allow.

‘‘Is this the type of density that would be acceptable?” he asked.

‘‘Yes. It sounds like a question. Yes,” said Tim Grover, president of the St. Leonard Vision Group.

But the use of septic systems could limit housing density, especially because the systems, in practice, often require even more land than the law requires, Humphreys said.

Some participants, at the suggestion of the organizers, brought cameras along to take pictures of things they like and dislike about the town.

John Garofalo, a Vision Group member and owner of a commercial building in the town center, stopped to snap a picture of a derelict Sunoco station.

‘‘Is that a like or a dislike?” asked Rural Planner Jenny Plummer-Welker.

‘‘What do you think?” Garofalo replied.

Humphreys also led the crowd to the St. Leonard Polling House, a 1926 structure that residents have been using as a community center. Some residents have been asking for another building to serve that purpose.

As Humphreys spoke, or participants chatted among themselves, they sometimes had to strain to be heard over the voice of a lone man in a cowboy hat singing decent — but heavily amplified — karaoke in the parking lot of the Chesapeake Marketplace. But nobody seemed to mind.

Dotty Greene said she decided to come ‘‘because I’m a lifelong resident of St. Leonard and this is my town. We want to keep it kind of quaint and rural. We just want an attractive little town that has community spirit.”

But Realtor Linda Fadely came to keep tabs on the town.

‘‘Well, I’m with the Tourism Advisory Committee and I sell real estate, so it’s always important to know what’s going on in the community. I want to hear what plans there are for St. Leonard,” said Fadely, who does not live in St. Leonard.

She plans to go to all three walking tours planned for Calvert town centers this year.

‘‘Well, walking is good,” she said.