New Park In Growing Anne Arundel County Town Center Seeks Feedback As Design Wraps Up

ODENTON, MD — A new park is about 30% finished with its design in Odenton. The design phase is expected to finish this winter.

The park will stretch from the Odenton Library to the nearby Odenton Train Station. This will neighbor the growing Odenton Town Center.

Dubbed the Odenton Library Community Park, the property will feature a playground and pickleball courts. Wetland observatory decks, wooded walking paths and a bridge over a stream are some of the nature-oriented highlights. The site will also have a picnic pavilion, parking and stormwater management facilities.

A proposed map of the grounds is posted here.

Anne Arundel County planners want feedback on this early design.

The county's Department of Public Works is hosting a forum with the Department of Recreation and Parks to hear input.

That town hall is scheduled for Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The chat will be in Community Meeting Room A of the Odenton Library, located at 1325 Annapolis Road.

The Odenton Library Community Park is one of several that got funding for construction or improvements in this year's county budget.

Two other new parks, Tanyard Springs and South Shore, are on their way. And major improvements are also slated for Bacon Ridge at Forney, Deale, the new Brooklyn Park Center and water access sites.

Together with the Odenton Library Community Park, these projects accounted for $7.8 million in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.

Andrew Pruski, the Democratic state delegate in District 33A, applauded the planned park during an Oct. 26, 2022 campaign event at the town's train station. The first-term delegate and former District 4 County Council member said residents near the station want more recreation resources.

"We want to bring in more to this area because the Odenton community is really asking for additional infrastructure," Pruski told Patch. "That includes the parks and rec."

Across the train tracks, the Odenton Town Center may soon get another mixed-use development and a new parking garage for rail commuters.

The town center already has one set of apartments and shops. The proposed $35 million project would come in addition to the existing mixed-use community near the train station. Officials expect to finish construction in 2025.

The county plans to build the garage and the development on the west side of the tracks.

Crews will construct the garage on the part of the parking lot closest to the train station. The garage will have at least 1,000 parking spaces, which is more than the roughly 850 existing spaces.

Developers will build the mixed-use neighborhood on top of the parking lot closest to Annapolis Road. That community will feature shops and residences.

"This place is going to be popping in the next few years," Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said during the campaign event last fall.

The Anne Arundel County government will pay for the mixed-use construction.

The county will finance the effort with "dedicated revenue from a tax increment financing district," Matt Power wrote to Patch last fall when he was still Anne Arundel's Chief Administrative Officer.

Power added that the County Council approved that funding source "well before this administration."

Years ago, developers built the first phase of the Odenton Town Center one block west of the train station. This community, dubbed The Village at Odenton Station, added some businesses to encourage commuters to stick around after their shifts.

Apartments now sit atop the commercial spaces on the ground level. There's a steakhouse, a coffee shop, a few salons, a daycare and a couple of medical offices. Some of the storefronts are still vacant.

A few years later, developers built an upscale townhouse community that neighbors the train station's east parking lot.

Four new single-family homes were also built within the past year along Odenton Road. Those houses sit about a block east of the train station, and their backyards will overlook the future park.

Related:

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• Anne Arundel County Passes 2023 Budget With Bipartisan Support