Approved - O’Reilly Charlotte Hall
New Location Approved by Planning Commission
With a unanimous vote, the Planning Commission voted on September 22 to approve a new location for O’Reilly Autoparts in Charlotte Hall. No public comment was given during the meeting, though one person emailed to request a department store rather than a new autoparts store. The developer of Charlotte Hall Commons was present to explain the buildout of the commercial center and what benefits it brings to the county.
John K. Parlett, of Parlett Affiliated Companies, told the commission he VA Clinic has been operating for a while now, and Sheetz recently opened on September 11th, on Lot 6 of Charlotte Hall Commons. Next door, Lot 7 is intended for a 3,200 square foot restaurant with a drive thru. O’Reilly’s is on Lot 8, with Lot 9 planned for an 8,000 square foot building that could be split between a restaurant and retail shopping. Lot 10, furthest to the south, can accommodate a 70 room hotel. There is a study supporting the need for a hotel in the area, Parlett said, however no company has expressed interest in building.
Several other lots, towards the rear of the development, are also available. Lots 2 and 5 are designed to support 10,000 and 25,000 square foot medical office buildings, respectively. East Coast Construction, a local company, planned to build on Lots 3 and 4, which they own. Previous approval was granted for the office building/construction company use, however Parlett was unsure when East Coast planned to build.
A 2023 traffic impact study for Charlotte Hall Commons included all of these uses, and identified improvements needed to mitigate additional traffic from the center. Those included a new traffic light at Charlotte Hall Commons, restriping lanes at the Golden Beach Road intersection and the Route 5 & 6 intersection as well as new safety signage at Three Notch Trail where it crosses Route 6.
Parlett addresses the Planning Commission
Discussion migrated to concerns raised by the community about the amount of development happening in Charlotte Hall. Parlett acknowledged those comments, saying people “stop me in the grocery store.” Having spent his career in local development, Parlett said businesses build based on identified needs in the market. He went on to say allegations of improprieties between developers and county government couldn’t “be further from the truth.”
The reality, according to Parlett, is Charlotte Hall wouldn’t make a company’s list of easy places to develop. Park Place, where restaurants like Red Robin, Olive Garden, and Texas Roadhouse are built, was developed by Parlett. His connections with restaurant chains have led to conversations about building in Charlotte Hall, but there is not enough population in the surrounding area to entice them to build.
Large scale residential development in Charlotte Hall is difficult because public water and sewer access is not widely available. A state law requires any subdivision with more than seven lots to connect to public water and sewer. If the infrastructure isn’t available, a developer would need to install their own and turn it over to MetCom for continued oversight and maintenance. Because of the cost associated, there hasn’t been “a single new subdivision proposed in the north end of the county” Parlett told the commission. He hoped people would “look at the bigger picture” when development occurs, saying Charlotte Hall Commons will generate $40-50 million and over 200 hundred jobs when fully built out.
Project details for the O’Reilly location were reviewed by an engineer, and the Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the development.
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