Home Depot Concept Plan
Documents Filed for California Location
Home Depot has officially submitted a concept site plan application to St. Mary’s County, taking a formal step toward opening a new retail location in California, Maryland.
Filed on February 7, 2025, the plan outlines a proposed store at 44766 Oak Crest Road on a roughly 13-acre site. The development would include a 137,000 square foot facility, made up of a 108,000 square foot main building and a 29,000 square foot garden center. The store would fill the vacant space between Chipotle and RC Theaters, filling out the remaining portion of the old Lafarge Asphalt/Southstar Concrete plant. Royal Farms will soon begin construction at the corner of Route 235 and Oak Crest Road.
As part of the application, Home Depot is also requesting an administrative variance to reduce the number of required parking spaces. According to the St. Mary’s County Zoning Ordinance, the project would normally need 668 parking spaces, based on the formula of 5 spaces per 1,000 square feet of retail.
Close up of Concept Plan
However, Home Depot is proposing just 476 total spaces, with only 387 designated for general customer use. The remainder includes:
41 stalls for trailer displays, equipment rentals, shed displays, and cart corrals
48 spaces reserved for a seasonal sales area
In a letter from local land use attorney Christopher Longmore, Home Depot argues that based on its experience with similar store layouts nationwide, the proposed parking is sufficient. Longmore also cites the St. Mary’s County Comprehensive Plan, which encourages designs that reduce excessive paved areas and promote more open space.
A significant obstacle for the proposed development is sewer infrastructure. In its review, the Metropolitan Commission (MetCom) noted that the existing temporary sewer pump station — the Oak Crest Sewer Pump Station — is currently at capacity.
While a new, permanent pump station has been designed, it has not yet been constructed. More notably, the Oak Crest Sewer Pump Station does not appear in MetCom’s Capital Improvement Budgets for FY2025 through FY2030. Without a functioning sewer solution in place, building permits for the Home Depot project cannot be issued, which suggests the retail store could still be a long way off unless the pump station project secures financing.
The project remains in its early conceptual stages and will go through several rounds of technical review and planning oversight. Whether and when it moves forward may ultimately depend less on design approvals and more on infrastructure timelines.
