Andrew Meyer's family has worked the land near Grays Ford Road and Meyers Station Road since his great-grandfather bought the property in 1899, moving the family there the following spring. Now Meyer says the rural stretch of western Anne Arundel County he grew up in has one way in and one way out, and it is already overcrowded — a problem he fears will only worsen if a developer gets its way on 377 new homes.
The dispute, first detailed by CBS News Baltimore, centers on Parcel O, a 197-acre tract inside the Two Rivers community that residents say was promised to them as an environmental park with walking trails. Instead, developer Two Rivers Associates is pushing a plan for 182 non-age-restricted homes and 195 age-restricted homes for adults 55 and older on that same land, according to details shared in the West Arundel Development Discussion Facebook group on July 3, 2022. Bethesda-based Classic Group, LLC serves as master developer of Two Rivers, a community spanning more than 1,460 acres between the Patuxent and Little Patuxent Rivers.
A Covenant Residents Say Is Being Broken
At the heart of the fight is a 2016 agreement, negotiated after years of discussion about development size and community impact, that caps Two Rivers at a maximum of 2,060 homes. Jim Holman, president of the Forks of the Patuxent Improvement Association, said residents feel they are slowly being pushed out. “Residents feel they are slowly being pushed out,” Holman said, per the station's report.
Jan Randall, a Two Rivers resident, said she moved to the community partly because of the promised environmental park on Parcel O. She described the developer's actions as a pattern of broken promises and advertising she called bait and switch. Ed Riel, chair of the Friends of Two Rivers committee, said the developer should honor the agreement made ten years earlier.
Anne Arundel County originally approved Two Rivers in 2007 as a Planned Unit Development capped at 2,060 home units, balancing active-adult 55-and-older housing with all-ages neighborhoods, according to The Business Monthly. Parcel O itself had been designated for a golf course under 2006 and 2013 county special exception approvals before the developer pivoted to promising the environmental park once the regional golf market declined.
One Road In, One Road Out
Meyer said the area has one way in and one way out and is already overcrowded, and residents say additional traffic generated by the new homes would travel through the Conway Road, Meyers Station Road and Patuxent Road intersection toward Route 3. Holman said local infrastructure simply cannot keep up with development.
Anne Arundel County's Department of Public Works has acknowledged the strain on that corridor, scheduling Project #H586801 to design Conway Road improvements including continuous shoulders, a shared-use path, and an evaluation of a long-term secondary access road to MD Route 3, according to county government documents. The county has not approved the proposed 377 additional homes.
County Executive Steuart Pittman has publicly called the original Two Rivers development an example of flawed land use planning, citing forest loss in the Patuxent River watershed, inadequate single-road access, and school capacity constraints, The Business Monthly reported. Pittman has noted that building homes on Parcel O would require a new special exception from the county. Two Rivers Elementary School, built off Conway Road as part of the community's infrastructure plan, opened near student capacity, a factor residents say will be tested further if the new homes move forward.
Court Fight Set for October 22
Beyond the county's land-use process, the Forks of the Patuxent Improvement Association is locked in a separate legal battle with Two Rivers Associates over alleged violations of the 2016 agreement. The association has accused the developer of building homes closer to existing properties than the covenant's 600-foot separation requirement allows. Two Rivers Associates is now seeking to have the agreement invalidated altogether, arguing that the association itself breached its terms.
A court hearing in that civil dispute is scheduled for October 22. Holman said the association plans to continue the fight until the court rules, and noted the group relies on donations to cover its legal expenses. CBS News Baltimore reported it had not received a response from the developer or its legal team after requesting comment.
The standoff echoes other recent land-use fights in the county. Anne Arundel County was ordered to pay $492K in legal fees this past July after a years-long battle over a proposed rubble landfill on Conway Road, which state regulators denied in 2024 over health concerns near Two Rivers Elementary School and the WB&A Trail. The county has separately been working to preserve farmland as development pressure continues to mount in western and southern Anne Arundel County.
Fort George G. Meade is located roughly five miles from Two Rivers and is home to U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. The surrounding area has experienced growth. For residents like Meyer, Randall, Holman and Riel, that growth is now colliding directly with a promise they say was made in writing a decade ago.
