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Less than a week after signing an agreement to bring a Walt Disney resort to National Harbor, the project's developer was sent back to the drawing board to redesign a fast-food restaurant and gas station it hopes to build in neighboring Oxon Hill.

During a May 21 meeting, the Prince George's County Planning Board told Fairfax, Va.-based Peterson Companies that the design was an eyesore and too ordinary for the upscale development.

The development would include a Wawa gas station and Wendy's restaurant on more than 12,340 square feet of commercial space along 49 acres of land on the Capital Beltway parcel of National Harbor, which abuts Oxon Hill Road.

The project has caused uproar among residents and preservationists because it would sit next to some of the county's most significant historic sites, including Oxon Hill Manor, a colonial home dating back to the 1700s; Oxon Hill Farm, a colonial farm operated by the National Park Service; and the Addison Family cemetery.

Peterson Companies had hoped to receive approval to start the project after weeks of working with wary community members and the county's Historic Preservation Committee, with whom it agreed to remove parts of the development closest to Oxon Hill Road and incorporate the Addison Family cemetery into future buildings on the Beltway parcel.

But talk of the historic sites faded during the meeting as members of the Planning Board and community called the development an "eyesore," "anticlimactic" and little more than a "rest stop" and not befitting of the $4 billion National Harbor project.

"Conceptually, we have been told over and over again that [National Harbor] is one of the premier developments in Prince George's County, and I don't think [the gas station development] is," said board commissioner Sarah A. Cavitt. "I had higher expectations of the project."

Samuel J. Parker, chairman of the board, said that the Peterson Companies can "do better," reminding representatives that the National Harbor encompasses more than just what's on the waterfront.

"It seems less-than," he said of the development. "I'm not against what's going to come, but you guys are going to set the mold of what's going up around the project."

Visibly disappointed, representatives for the Peterson Companies said they will explore redesigning the development to complement historic features found at Oxon Hill Manor.

"We are very surprised by some of the comments," said Andre Gingles, an attorney representing the Peterson Companies. "We would be willing to take some time to pay attention to the skin [of the development].

Jeff Parana, National Harbor's project manager, said the Planning Board's comments on the design were subjective but that he fears if the Peterson Companies does not change its design for the project, the board and community would start nitpicking.

"We've got to paint a better picture," Parana said.

The current rendering took six months to complete, and developers had hoped to have the development complete in two to three years, he said.

Some residents say they want more than just a redesign, hoping to have the project canceled or moved deeper into National Harbor out of fear that having a fast-food chain and gas station so close to residential homes would be a nuisance to the community and draw business away from the 10 gas stations and 11 fast-food restaurants within a half-mile of the development.

"No, never a gas station near Oxon Hill Road," said Joseph Henson, a Fort Washington resident. "I question the need for gas pumps [at the development]."

E-mail Joshua Garner at jgarner@gazette.net.