David Johannes sighed with relief as he left the Planning Board auditorium. His company, the Good Earth Garden Center, had just received preliminary plan approval from the Planning Board to upgrade their facilities at the intersection of Falls and Glen roads.
New retail and administrative buildings will appear at the Good Earth Garden with construction likely to begin sometime in November or December of this year, said Johannes.
The center had been operated by Allentuck Nurseries, but had fallen into disrepair before it was purchased by the Olney-based Good Earth Garden Center.
When Good Earth took over, they began selling items, such as stone benches, which the county thought fell outside the scope of their special exception to operate a garden center.
The center has gone through over a year’s worth of meetings to get the approvals it needs to sell those items and also to make some upgrades to the facilities such as a greenhouse and gazebo.
“It does allow for some additions,” said David Weaver of Park and Planning. “This new owner is now doing sufficiently well that he wants to modernize the facilities.”
Good Earth’s appearance on April 1 was largely a formality as the Planning Board had ruled favorably on the modification to the special exception, and was now simply changing the way the land is defined. “We have to take these parcels and combine them as a lot,” Weaver said.
In past meetings, the community had been largely satisfied with the way the center wants to make the additions. One neighbor had been concerned with runoff when the center waters its plants along one side of the property. “You solved the water problem?” said Commissioner Allison Bryant.
Garden center employees will water the plants along that border of the center by hand, said Norman Knopf, attorney for the center.