March 28, 2024

Rogers Drive in Lex Park to Be Extended

Route 5 Intersection

Rogers Drive will be extended from Missouri Avenue in Colony Square to Willows Road. The St. Mary’s County commissioners recently signed a contract with the St. Mary’s Community Development Corporation to design and construct the extension. County government was awarded a $330,473 Maryland Community Development Block Grant for the road extension project.

By extending the road, a second access into the Colony Square neighborhood in Lexington Park will be opened up. Rogers Drive will join Willows Road at the entrance to Lancaster Park. The project is scheduled to be finished in summer 2019.

Extending Rogers Drive is one of more than a dozen road extensions that have been recommended in the Lexington Park Master Plan, adopted by St. Mary’s County commissioners in 2015. Connecting roads are designed to reduce traffic bottlenecks by offering alternative routes, therefore improving neighborhood safety. St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Department COPS program and the Colony Square Neighborhood Improvement District have endorsed the opening of more access points to the neighborhood.

St. Mary’s County is waiving nearly $10,000 in construction fees in support of the project, and the CDC is providing more than $100,000 in administration and support of project management.

“It’s our goal to enable St. Mary’s County government to qualify for more community development grants and address as many of the infrastructure needs of Lexington Park as we can,” said Viki Volk, president and CEO of the CDC.

Up until 2014, the CDC was a branch of county government but has since operated as a stand-alone nonprofit. “The Board of Directors continue to transition from an advisory board into a working board with the expertise of overseeing public development projects,” said Board Chair Mark Pinekenstein. “We are very proud that our team proved to be of the high caliber needed for the state of Maryland to approve this grant application and for St. Mary’s County to contract with us to run the project.”

Community Development Corporations are able to leverage local government funds and gain more state and federal funding, plus attract private investment to community projects, said Ms. Volk. “Government can’t make a community’s economy rebound. It takes private investment to do that,” she said. “But government can build infrastructure to attract investment. The CDC can help with locating additional funding for infrastructure projects and can often deliver the finished product quicker and cheaper than government can do for itself. And that’s our plan for Rogers Drive.”

Questions about the Rogers Drive project can be sent to [email protected]. To leave a voice mail, call 301-863-7700.

To learn more about Lexington Park, visit the St. Mary’s County Community Development Corporation’s Leader member page.

St. Mary’s County Community Development Corporation

46940 South Shangri-La Drive, Suite 7

Lexington Park, MD 20653

Leave A Comment