SNOW HILL – Officials approved plans for a new shopping center, which is expected to include a Giant grocery store, last week.
Last Thursday, the Worcester County Planning Commission approved a site plan for a large shopping center proposed at the intersection of Route 50 and Route 589. While it’s too early to say what stores will set up within the 120,561-square-foot facility, a Giant is expected to occupy about half the space. Commission members expressed excitement about the possibility of having a new grocery store in the area.
“It’ll be nice to have a choice,” commission member Phyllis Wimbrow said.
Attorney Mark Cropper and engineer Jeff Harman presented the site plan for Coastal Square Shopping Center to the planning commission last week. Renderings show a 66,454 square foot grocery store connected to additional commercial space. The development would be accessed by a traffic circle which would be connected to an extension of Racetrack Road just south of the existing Route 50/Route 589 intersection.
“We’ve put a lot of thought into the plan and we think it’s a great layout,” Harman said.
He said that while there were initially plans for an even larger shopping center, renderings have been adjusted now that the county had approved a text amendment that will allow high density residential along with commercial on property zoned C-3.
Harman noted the traffic circle had been recommended by the Maryland State Highway Administration. He said planners were in close communication the agency as far as access.
“We have been working diligently with State Highway on the roadway improvements,” he said.
While Harman said he’d been working with Giant on site layout, working in things like the store’s cart corral and mobile ordering spaces, he said it was too early to say what other shops would be in the center. The project’s architect said the developer would remain flexible, able to move walls based on tenant requests, as the planning process continued.
When asked about the project’s timeline, Harman said the developer was anxious to see construction begin.
“They want us to do it quicker,” he said. “We’re hard at work.”
