By 2015, Grace Episcopal Church may be getting seven new neighbors.

During a meeting Tuesday at the Elkridge library, engineer Jacob Hikmat presented a plan for seven single-family homes in a community to be called "Landing Meadow" near the intersection of Landing and Montgomery roads.

The 4.8-acre Landing Road parcel is zoned as a residential environmental district.

Much of the property will be preserved, as 60 percent must remain open space, said Hikmat, per the environmental district regulations.

A forest conservation area will be at the end of the private road leading to the neighborhood from Landing Road, said Hikmat.

Seven homes will make up the Landing Meadow development, on quarter-acre lots. All will flow into one main street going out onto Landing Road except for one home, since Howard County regulations stipulate that only six driveways can run onto one street in a neighborhood.

“Landing Road is a scenic road in Howard County, which means we should try not to change it as much as we can,” said Hikmat, who said he may file a waiver so the seventh driveway can exit onto the neighborhood road to avoid interference with the scenic Landing Road.

In two to two and a half years, construction should begin, said Hikmat, noting that before then, his agency had to submit a complete site development plan to the Department of Planning and Zoning, conduct a traffic study at Montgomery Road and Bauman Drive and obtain a building permit. Dorsey Family Homes is the builder.

Daniel and Patti Medinger, the couple selling the property to Dorsey Family Homes, attended the public meeting briefly and said they were happy to hear there had been no opposition to the project.

The Ellicott City couple had considered building there themselves, but said they opted not to and so the nearly 5-acre property has sat empty except for some horses who have helped maintain the grounds by eating grass.

The Sept. 18 presentation was the only public meeting that will take place before development, said Hikmat.