In January, the thoughts of Colonial Beach developers turn to dirt.
Two of them say they hope to start moving earth this summer for projects that could eventually add more than 1,200 new houses, townhouses, condominiums and senior-citizen apartments to the 2,030 residences counted in the town by the 2000 census.
John Netalson of Chesapeake Realty Ventures L.L.C. of Baltimore was in Montross this week getting county approval for a pier with 94 slips and boat lifts for future residents of Monroe Point.
With frontage on State Route 205 and Monroe Bay and Monroe Creek, the 50-acre tract was rezoned last year for 190 townhouses, 30 condos and an apartment building for the elderly.
Netalson said he hopes to start clearing the site this summer, building roads, installing water and sewer lines and grading drainage ways. He said he has hired a contractor "to start building town homes before the end of the year."
"The first step is to get the infrastructure in and get some town homes built and see what the market is like," he said.
At an October hearing, objections of Monroe Point neighbors led the Westmoreland County Wetlands Board to turn down Netalson's application for a small-boat pier on the Monroe Creek side of his development.
He responded by narrowing the 61 slips the board approved for Monroe Bay and increasing their number to 94. The new pier plan, which the board approved Monday, must now be approved by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
Another Maryland developer, Benjamin B. Bell Jr., said this week that his plans are "coming along" for Potomac Crossing, 512 acres of agricultural land rezoned for 913 homes around a golf course at the western end of Colonial Beach.
Bell said he was discussing the project with several companies interested in buying lots and building homes.
"We're studying absorption rates, how quickly the homes will sell, and doing marketing studies now," Bell said. "I'm looking for three or four national builders with the marketing and advertising ability to really move the product."
Bell has yet to file a Potomac Crossing site plan for approval by Colonial Beach. He said the home builders he eventually selects for the development might require "minor modifications" to the plan.
Nevertheless, Bell said he expects to begin installing Potomac Crossing's spine road this summer. The road will begin opposite Wilkerson's Seafood Restaurant on Route 205, wind a mile or so through the property and reconnect with Route 205 at the present entrance to the Colonial Beach wastewater-treatment plant.
The town Planning Commission will discuss Monroe Point's preliminary plat and another potentially significant Colonial Beach development Monday.
Steve Bassett and former Minnesota Congressman Thomas M. Hagedorn are requesting a conditional-use permit to build a 54-unit condo by the town boardwalk.
The five-story building would be the tallest in town and occupy most of a block bordered by North Irving Avenue and Hawthorne, Taylor and Dennison streets. Two old stores and an old home would be demolished.
Bassett has said that, to entice town approval, he and Hagedorn are willing to buy the town fire department a new $600,000 ladder truck and pay the town $200,000 for an easement to prevent high-rise development of town-owned properties between the proposed condo and the beach of the Potomac River.
Other development prospects for the town include:
Rebuilding the Riverboat-on-the-Potomac. Wrecked by Hurricane Isabel, the landmark off-track betting parlor, restaurant and bar on a pier in the Maryland-owned waters of the Potomac is still awaiting a permit to rebuild from the Maryland Board of Public Works. MBPW Wetlands official Doldon Moore said the permit might be issued in March.
Colonial Downs: Virginia's only pari-mutuel racetrack won a referendum in November to build an OTB in Westmoreland County, possibly in Colonial Beach. Track officials say they have not yet identified an OTB site in either the county or the town.
To reach FRANK DELANO: 804/333-3834 fpdelano2@verizon.net