Goodwill Erodes as Town Grows

The developer's plan to add 55 townhouses to the project's original footprint may be a harder sell. Opponents say Elm Street is guilty of "development creep" -- proposing one thing to start but asking for changes along the way that add up to a project that few would have supported from the beginning.

Richard H. Efthim, a former council member who voted in 2002 to approve Elm Street's original proposal, said that plan was Lovettsville's best hope for a property already zoned for residential development.

A previous owner wanted to build 50 to 100 townhouses, which residents and council members opposed because they feared it would irrevocably change the town's character. The proposal also called for a strip shopping center facing Lovettsville's thoroughfare, Route 287, requiring pedestrians from the original town to cross fast-moving traffic lanes to reach the new stores.

Efthim said Elm Street's proposal to reroute the road around a town square, build no townhouses and add plenty of pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and other spaces linking the old town with the new was a welcome alternative.

"It was a concession to public outcry on the part of the developers," Efthim said. "They realized they could create a much more collegial relationship with the town if they just basically listened to what town people were asking for."

What troubles Efthim now is that Elm Street is asking for the very features -- townhouses -- that Lovettsville did not want those years ago.

Adam Peters, Elm Street's project manager for Lovettsville Town Center, said he understands why some residents are unhappy with townhouse plan but noted that they represent a net gain of just 32 units, because they would replace 23 houses. The two new parcels, meanwhile, would add 53 houses, but existing zoning for those properties allow 60 houses, he said.

"I understand the 'creep' notion," Peters said. "They have some valid points. But at the end of the day, it was going to be developed by somebody."

That reality may not have sunk in for all of Lovettsville's residents, some of whom seem to want a lot: rural character, as few new neighbors as possible and good shopping. That's not all feasible, Efthim said. What is possible, he said, is to shape the growth -- and Lovettsville tried to do that. Now he wonders whether the town is ceding control after the years of hard work.

"The best way to cook a frog is to put it in cold water and gradually add the heat," Efthim said. "It never realizes the water's getting hot. I look at this project now, and I realize I'm starting to feel the heat."