Plans for a Dollar General market years in the making in Myersville could have a new twist, with a possible alternative that would add residential and commercial properties.
The mixed-use project along the town’s Main Street would be located on an area known as the “Waters Property,” and include 37 townhouses and 16 single-family homes, as well as two retail or commercial parcels, as well as two areas of park or open space.
Part of the site has already been approved for the development of a DG Market store, the plan for which is awaiting review of a hearing in the Appellate Court of Maryland.
A hearing in the appeals court has not been scheduled yet, Natalie McSherry, a lawyer for town resident Carol Eichelberger, who challenged the Planning Commission’s 2023 conditional approval of the project, said Friday.
The town’s Planning Commission approved a proposal to build a 12,700-square-foot DG Market store, with off-street parking for 54 vehicles, at 12 Main St. in Myersville’s Village Center zoning district.
The approval included a condition that the project’s then-developer either meet the town’s parking requirements — which would have required more spaces than the site plan requested — or have the town change the requirements.
The town council approved an amendment on Nov. 14, 2023, that allowed the parking requested in the site plan.
Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen D. English ruled in June that Eichelberger’s objection to the project’s approval came too late for reconsideration of the project.
DG Market stores stock perishable food such as produce and meats, in addition to the packaged and preserved food sold at retail Dollar General stores.
While the fate of that project is awaited, the Planning Commission has been asked to review another possibility for the property, Planning & Zoning Administrator Brandon Boldyga wrote in a memorandum to the commission in September.
The town will not be able to issue any formal new approvals for the property while the DG Market project still holds approvals for the same site, Boldyga wrote.
The project’s new developer, a company associated with Frederick’s Verdant Development Group, would likely develop one project or the other, or a combination of both, he said Friday.
Verdant has taken over the project from the developer Rowland, LLC.
Verdant President T. Wesley Poss could not be reached for comment Friday.
“I think naturally, one plan would dethrone the other,” Boldyga said.
Among other factors to be considered for the new proposal, each commercial use would need to have its own site plan approved, and the intersection for the access road to the townhouses is located too close to the existing intersection with Cedar Street, Boldyga wrote in the September memo.
The State Highway Administration will also probably require the project to limit road access to one access point, he wrote.
The new developer will also have to figure out with the Maryland Department of the Environment where the water it will use will come from, he said Friday.
The final design of the project will depend on the water allocation, he said.
