Bringing Smart Growth to Life

Residents of Smallwood Village Build Community

The great Roman orator, Cicero, once said, “We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.” Forty years ago, the community of St. Charles knit together the critical pieces to create a 9,100 acre, master-planned community but over those forty years, it has been the people of St. Charles that have truly defined it.

Prep for the holidays and the changing season

by Michelle Lerner

Whether you are a new homeowner bursting with excitement over thoughts of spending this year’s holidays in your first home or a long-time homeowner with dozens of holidays behind you, the approaching holidays should signal something more than a celebration. The changing of the seasons from fall to winter should be a time to take care of home maintenance before your home fills with company and the snow falls.

Open Your Hearts to the Less Fortunate This Holiday Season

As the Thanksgiving season and holiday season approaches, St. Charles and Charles County residents are again being asked to help make the holidays a happy time for those less fortunate.

Celebrating 40 Years of Smart Growth in St. Charles

(Note: This is the first is a series of posts about the development of St. Charles since Docket 90, our development agreement with Charles County, was signed in in 1972, and how our residents have made our communities thrive.)

In 1970, after more than a decade of planning and with the threads of home development underway, the community of St. Charles received approval from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as one of five “New  Communities” eligible for federal guaranties for private funding.  The next step for St. Charles  was to upgrade the existing zoning for the 9,100 acre property and in 1972, after the required public hearings, St. Charles received approval from Charles County as a “Planned Unit Development”.

Great Things Are Happening Here

Sometimes we can become so focused on our daily lives that we miss what is happening all around us. Can't see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes. But if we step back and take an objective look, we can see what a great forest--that is, what a great community--we live in. The best part is, other people who are looking at us from the outside are recognizing that.
It started when CNN Money recognized Waldorf and St. Charles as one of the best communities to live in America. "The welcoming vibe and safe streets attract buyers in search of home bargains too,” the article states, recognizing that our community is one of the best, if not the best, housing values in the entire Washington, DC market. That has always been true, but it is a distinction we have sharpened recently--and as the housing market rebounds, will become even more apparent.

St. Charles to Begin Construction on New Pump Station October 1

On approximately October 1 The St. Charles Companies will begin construction of a new pumping station at St. Charles Parkway and Billingsley Road, as well as the associated lines between that intersection and Post Office Road. The new pumping station is an upgrade to one that currently serves the neighborhoods of Carrington, Bannister and Huntington in Smallwood Village, the neighborhoods of Fairway Village (Sheffield, Gleneagles and Heritage), future commercial enterprises like the planned Competitive Power Ventures natural gas power plant and the current and future businesses along Billingsley Road, and future residential construction.