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... years later when they're looking at a busy intersection and thinking about how much a traffic circle would improve the situation, they wish they hadn't hastily thrown up an unneeded compact office building or medical center in space that would've been more valuable used for other things. This is what I meant about the development of Martinsburg lacking foresight. Being a civilian it's hard to say what the "grand plan" is for Martinsburg or how projects like the Commons, Weis Plaza, and the Foxcroft Towne Center will fit into it, but hopefully they've got some sort of cohesive plan for the city, otherwise west-of-81 Martinsburg is just going to be east-of-81 Martinsburg all over again: Stuck.
I think you hit that nail on the head.
I have never spend time in Boston but I have corresponded with a lot of their locals, and they say that anyone suggesting that Boston is a mess mostly because the roads started out as cow-paths and the rest of the city pretty much grew around the habits of Old Bossie, is someone that knows Boston. There's some fairly hilarious humor out there that derives from this, see the usual spots on the 'web if you want to find it. Honestly, we can't expect all towns and cities in the US to be developed on a standard grid pattern, but the thing is, Martinsburg had a really good start on that and it had its ups-and-downs. For much of the old town, the terrain is very well suited for that. In other parts, not so much. The modern school of thought is that streets are best laid out more or less following the terrain contours and you certainly see that outside of urbanized areas. You know, ridge roads, valley roads, etc.
Back to the West-of-the-Interstate: If you want to go search around the City of Martinsburg website you can probably find their Grand Vision from around 2007 or so. It pretty much focuses on both sides of the freeway between King Street and Apple Harvest Drive, and a lot of the plans on the east side are starting to form up and get built. Working from memory, and looking at the maps, west of the freeway it pretty much goes like this.
Part of the vision is a parallel road a short block west of the freeway, and frankly I can't see it as being anything but Legardo Drive extended south, which I believe would hook up with the planned curving access road to the west of the proposed "Weis Plaza". Additionally, Delmar Orchard Road would have to be extended south to an intersection approximately 100 yards east of where Apple Harvest Drive turns to the southwest. I believe that whole section of Apple Harvest will be relocated about 100 yards to the southeast of the present course and continue more or less to the edge of the parking lot of the Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, where it will turn westward and generally return to the existing course from there. I think that it's a toss-up as to whether Gauguin Drive in "the Orchards" off of Klee Road will connect eastward to the new southern extension off of the existing Delmar Orchard Road, or not, but I think that might be the way to bet and there's certainly precedent if you look at the new housing up behind the mall in Hagerstown. That land between Delmar Orchard Road and the freeway is generally flat enough for something approximating a grid layout, and all of the residents in the existing, and in the clearly-coming-soon, single-family detached housing would have easy access to the new development without having to add much traffic to either King Street or Apple Harvest Drive west of I-81. Additionally, any traffic from a development-connected Gauguin Drive, would not much be cut-through traffic, because on Klee Road extended west of existing Delmar Orchard Road, it doesn't connect to anything and does not appear that it is intended to connect to anything, other than potentially Applewood Drive which connects to the Arden-Nollville Road. But that's outside of the city limits and I have not the least idea of how the County might want to deal with all of that.
Please understand that I don't have any inside information or any such thing, I'm just looking at the lay of the land and reading the satellite map. I have a little memory of the Grand Vision from nearly ten years ago, as seen a year ago on the City website, and the rest of it is just my guesswork and "well, if it was me, this is what I guess I'd do". I do expect that the people actually in charge of all of this have other ideas, as do any potential consumers or future residents.
Are there any new interesting residential developments going up in Berkeley County?
It seems that NVR has updated their website for the Stonecrest project near Hedgesville. The development will be part commercial (DMV, Dunkin' Donuts, etc.) and part residential. The residential portion appears to mainly consist of starter homes.
Are there any new interesting residential developments going up in Berkeley County?
It seems that NVR has updated their website for the Stonecrest project near Hedgesville. The development will be part commercial (DMV, Dunkin' Donuts, etc.) and part residential. The residential portion appears to mainly consist of starter homes.
I'm not sure if this has been covered yet because I don't keep up with all the posts - but I was told the other day they are going to tear down the carefree Inn on the edge of North Queen/exit 16 and build another shopping center there.
I'm not sure if this has been covered yet because I don't keep up with all the posts - but I was told the other day they are going to tear down the carefree Inn on the edge of North Queen/exit 16 and build another shopping center there.
That seems like a pretty believable piece of news. The hotel was auctioned off a few months ago, so maybe a developer bought it.
I'm not sure if this has been covered yet because I don't keep up with all the posts - but I was told the other day they are going to tear down the carefree Inn on the edge of North Queen/exit 16 and build another shopping center there.
That's great news, hopefully it is true. That hotel has struggled for years. I have heard from numerous people who have stayed there and read reviews that it was downright awful. If they use the whole property, including the wooded area (which I know has been for sale for a while), it will have great I-81 frontage.
I'm not sure if this has been covered yet because I don't keep up with all the posts - but I was told the other day they are going to tear down the carefree Inn on the edge of North Queen/exit 16 and build another shopping center there.
That's definitely good news, that part of Rt. 9 could use some more *quality* dining/shopping options.
That's great news, hopefully it is true. That hotel has struggled for years. I have heard from numerous people who have stayed there and read reviews that it was downright awful. If they use the whole property, including the wooded area (which I know has been for sale for a while), it will have great I-81 frontage.
I am sure that 99% of those in the area more than likely would consider the tearing down of the Carefree Inn to be great news. Yes that hotel has struggled for years. A couple of years ago when it was a Roadway Inn I checked out some of the reviews on Trip Advisior since at the time I thought I would have to make a return trip to Martinsburg. I remember the review from a family who was traveling down 81 from New York state and thanks to an ad they saw at a rest area someplace about how the hotel was not only cheap but they even had an indoor pool too they unfortunately picked this place. When they got to their room..it was bad but the biggest shock was when they went to the indoor pool. Unfortunately when the family got there hoping to take a swim they saw several naked guys in the pool smoking pot and a camera crew nearby. They were shooting a porno !! When the father of the family complained to management apparently the hotel gave the ok for the filming of the x-rated flick and could care less about the family. Oh the hotel wouldn't refund their money either.
Good riddance to the Carefree Inn !!
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