A 173-acre business park that could bring 7,000 jobs to Frederick County was approved by the county planning commission Wednesday.I think the project is great! Frederick needs more job opportunities. The only question I have is why the homes? Why not make it only retail and business space?
The economic development project, which could potentially cut the county’s already low unemployment by a third, received preliminary plan and adequate public facilities ordinance approval.
Jefferson Technology Park is a mixed-use development that will include commercial, residential, recreational and civic/cultural uses. It will be built between Md. 180 and U.S. 15 near I-70, across from the Hannover subdivision.
The technology park will have 1.37 million square feet of employment space, which may include general office space, professional office space, research flex space, live-work units and a hotel/conference center.
It will also have 125,000 square feet of retail space including restaurants, business services and supporting retail businesses.
The residential portion of the park will have 825 attached and multi-family dwelling units. Of these, 103 will be moderately priced dwelling units.
This document (PDF) contains more on the impact to roads and schools plus a basic map of the site (page 11 of the PDF).
