A sprawling but sparsely used parking lot at Glen Burnie’s Cromwell light rail station looks like opportunity for Maryland officials, who are prepared to invest state dollars to transform the largely vacant space into a bustling housing and commercial development.

Anne Arundel County officials agree with the state’s vision — mostly.

But the failure of a recent rezoning amendment before the County Council to allow greater housing density on the approximately 16-acre, state-owned site abutting the end-of-the-line station puts the project at a crossroad.

While state officials wouldn’t say they’d abandon the project if the County Council doesn’t change the zoning, some county officials fear they will.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said in an interview that Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s administration came to the county with hopes of bringing so-called “transit-oriented development” to Cromwell Station, but that the state typically invests money “where the zoning is friendly.”

Pittman said the “the state will not prioritize that site” for transit-oriented development if the county doesn’t rezone it to its highest density mixed-use category, which allows up to 44 residences per acre.

And in a recent letter to Councilman Pete Smith, who’s blocked the rezoning, state Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld and Housing Secretary Jake Day said: “This can only occur if the site is rezoned.”

Under Moore, the state has ramped up plans to redevelop parking lots next to its transportation hubs with apartments, shops and offices. Such development, officials say, would reduce the state’s housing shortage, ease traffic by keeping cars off roads and bolster ridership of its underutilized trains.

Transit-oriented development also features throughout Anne Arundel’s general development plan, Plan 2040, with Cromwell Station identified specifically.

The state approached Anne Arundel about changing the property’s zoning to mixed-use urban near the end of the county’s comprehensive rezoning process for the area encompassing the station.

While Smith, a Democrat who represents the northernmost part of the county, had first right of refusal to introduce a rezoning amendment, he passed on it.

“I wasn’t necessarily enthusiastic about the request coming at the last minute,” said Smith, adding that he didn’t have an opportunity to discuss the proposed change with leaders of the Ferndale community around the station.

Smith said he wants mixed-use development at Cromwell Station, but he’s not sure it should be the highest density — adding that the community should have a say.

“I was surprised and a little shocked,” said Councilwoman Allison Pickard, a Democrat who represents the district just south of Smith’s, of her colleague’s decision. “Goodness, why wouldn’t we pick it up? We want to be able to take advantage of this moment in time.”

Debate and critical vote

Pickard eventually introduced the amendment. It came up for a vote at the council’s April 21 hearing. An impassioned debate ensued.

Pickard said she was advocating for her constituents, some of whom live within a quarter of a mile from Cromwell Station.

“The community has already waited two decades to see an investment from their government, from the state, from the county, in this part of our community. And they’re tired,” Pickard said. “I say, yes, let’s take the state up on their option. Let’s do the rezoning tonight. And let’s move forward.”

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien, a Democrat who represents the Annapolis area, urged Smith to vote for the amendment due to the county’s housing shortage and on behalf of “the people who don’t have an affordable place to live, who are couch surfing, who are living two to three generations in a single-family home.”

“We may not have another opportunity like the one that’s before us if we wait,” Rodvien told Smith. “This is why we’re elected to make the decisions at the time they’re presented to us when we can’t have the extended discussions we might like to have.”

Smith pushed back.

“This is what the constituents that I have been communicating with have asked me to do,” Smith said. “Those folks that are in there adjacent to this property who will be impacted in the Linthicum area, so on and so forth, all they’re asking for is a few months to have this conversation.”

The rezoning amendment failed, with Smith voting no along with the council’s three Republican members.

Through a separate amendment, Smith said he left the door open for the state to have the zoning changed by an administrative hearing officer.

But to change zoning, an administrative hearing officer must find that the council made a mistake in the comprehensive rezoning process, which happens every 10 years, or that the community around the property has changed. The properties surrounding Cromwell Station are being rezoned the way the state wants.

Councilwoman Julie Hummer, a Democrat who represents western Anne Arundel, said voting down the amendment was shortsighted and it would be difficult to get an administrative hearing officer to approve a zoning change. “Because he would see that our legislative intent was we voted down the legislation,” she said.

“This is an area that impacts the economic growth and health of the whole county, it’s not an individual neighborhood or something,” Hummer said. “We have an obligation as council members to consider our own districts but also the bigger picture of the county as a whole, so that means looking at what’s best for the long-term economic and social growth of the county.”

One last chance

After the council vote, Pittman’s administration arranged a meeting for Smith and officials from the state departments of transportation and housing and community development. Pittman, a Democrat, described the meeting as productive, saying the state laid out its plans for the community engagement that “the council member is rightly requesting.”

In the letter to Smith, Weidefeld and Day said that developers submitting bids for the project would have to submit a community engagement plan outlining how they would “meaningfully engage” with residents.

Wiedefeld and Day said it typically takes three to four years from a project’s inception to the start of construction. Their agencies were prepared to move forward on Cromwell Station in the fiscal year beginning in July, they wrote.

Smith told The Banner that there’s agreement “that property should be some kind of mixed use.”

“I just want to make sure Ferndale feels like they’re being heard and we’re not going to do anything in that area that’s not brought to their attention,” Smith said. “Now, I have better data to bring to them. Before, I had zero data. And that is a recipe for disaster.”

He said he reached out to community leaders for a virtual meeting to discuss a potential amendment to change the zoning. Thursday’s council meeting for Pittman’s budget address is the last chance to amend the bill.