Developers propose changes to Lakeside at Trappe DRRA

Among the biggest changes proposed by representatives of Trappe East Holdings Business Trust include limiting the number of homeowner associations allowed in the development, eliminating the requirement for the developers to fund a police department, enabling larger community subdivisions and reducing the amount developers have to pay to the enterprise fund for town-related costs.

Lakeside at Trappe, a 2,501-housing unit development, is an 18-year-old project being proposed by Trappe East Holdings and Easton-based Rauch Inc. (which is the project manager and providing civil engineering and design services for the project) have resumed plans for the development. DRRAs, which are binding contracts between towns and developers, are typically good for 30 years.

The Lakeside developers are looking to approve an updated rewrite for the next 30 years. Ryan Showalter, the attorney for the developers, informed the Trappe Town Council of the changes on July 7. The town will now await further review from the planning commission before voting on the rewrite.

Developers will no longer be on the hook to fund a police department if the DRRA is changed as amended. Showalter said the developers had funded the police department beyond the obligation in the original DRRA, which required them to pay for at least one officer, a public communications system and two police vehicles for at least one year in anticipation of incoming development.

The Trappe Police Department was established in 2006 with one officer, George Ball. It reportedly cost $60,000 annually for the job. The development stalled during the Great Recession and the real estate market’s downturn, and developers paid for the officer’s salary until 2017, when Ball was found guilty of misconduct and removed.

If the DRRA change is approved as requested, any new police department or law enforcement costs would fall on the town or county.

Another proposed revision would reduce the number of homeowner’s associations to just one. The original DRRA required developers to allow three HOAs, and to further subdivide communities and neighborhoods into 300 unit districts.

Showalter said one HOA would prevent “creating a super political environment” in the new development.

There was “a concern that if there was a homeowner’s association, they may gain notoriety or publicity for being on that board, and decide they want to be a replacement town council,” he told the Trappe Town Council. “You govern the project and govern the rest of the town. It may very well be that a representative of some homeowner’s association becomes popular and is recognized as a candidate. But I don’t think he should ever become a substitute.”

The attorney said that the requirement was instituted because it would help facilitate better design and architectural control for Lakeside, but also said he was concerned about a lack of volunteers that could leave them “stuck with a big structure without leadership.”

Other changes to the DRRA include allowing developers to build larger communities. A restriction in the original DRRA capped developers at 260 lots for a subdivision. Showalter proposed increasing that cap to 300.

“I don’t think there was any real magic in the 260 unit number before,” said Showalter. “Having larger phases gives a more comprehensive review to the planning commission, so we’d like to bump it up.”

Finally, the town enterprise fund was created in the original DRRA to fund “revitalization” of an overlay zone, which facilitates growth management programs and initiatives. Developers will pay $1,250 per residential unit instead of $1,500 as required in the original DRRA.

Developers will also pay more money to the local fire department, for a total of $450,000, in incremental payments.

Some agreements in the original DRRA mostly stayed the same. For example, developers will still construct a new town hall after the construction of the 450th residential unit. And they will create a park, LaTrappe Heights, within 24 months of building within the land vicinity.

Bob Rauch, the president of Rauch Inc., attended the July 7 meeting and spoke briefly to the town, informing them that shovels have hit the ground and bulldozers have rolled into Trappe East, which the council called welcoming news.

The town has also moved on its own obligations for the incoming development, approving a more than $5 million bond for the project.

Contractors also got $7 million, a mixture of both grants and loans, from the Maryland Department of the Environment to upgrade the current wastewater system in town to enhanced nutrient removal technology (ENR), the current environmental standard.

The upgrade could cost anywhere from $10 million to more than $14 million, according to town attorney Lyndsey Ryan. Contractors are moving to submit a project schedule on the plant upgrades by December.

The first 120 homes are expected to connect to the current wastewater system before eventually transferring over to the new wastewater plant that Rauch will construct off Backtown Road, Showalter said at the meeting — in order to meet a required flow for the new treatment facility when it first comes online.