By Guy Leonard, St. Mary's County Times
HOLLYWOOD—A local development venture that aims to put a new shopping center in the heart of Hollywood will soon find its plans going before the county’s planning commission. The project is known as the Hollywood Commercial Center and is being proposed by Dean Partnership LLC.
County planning staff have already stated in reports that the project does not meet all of the conditions for a town center defined in the comprehensive plan and needs changes in order to be compliant.
Bob Bowles, a senior planner with the Department of Land Use and Growth Management, said among the planners’ concerns were that the parking plan needs to be rearranged.
Also, planners wanted to ensure that several specimen trees—30-inches diameter or larger—were preserved at the site located at the intersection of Route 235 and the Sotterley Road portion of Route 245.
“We want to try and save those,” Bowles said of the trees. “If not they’ll (the developer) have to get a variance to remove them.”
The entire plot of land covers just over 22 acres of land on the north bound side of Route 235. The developer plans to use two of three sections of the land for their project.
Planning documents indicate the first phase will occupy about 2.36 acres and will consist of a pharmacy.
The second phase of the project would include retail business possibilities as well as gasoline fuel sales and a convenience store. The plans also call for a restaurant site, with about 120 seats of occupancy.
The second phase would be constructed on just under 12 acres of land.
The developer would reserve the rest of the site for future use that was not specified in the planning documents.