Planning and Zoning Commission - workshop

Good evening. And welcome to the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting of August 5th, 2026. And we establish a quorum.

Yes, good evening, everyone.

Mr. Payne? Here.

Mr. Robertson?

Here.

Mr. Huff?

Here.

Mr. Kirkner?

Here.

Mr. Swiston?

Here.

Mr. Lester?

Here.

Mr. Smith?

Here.

Mr. Gordon? Secretary Daley? Here. Thank you stand for the pledge of allegiance

All right. Has everybody had a chance to review and approve our agenda this evening?

Yes. Any changes to the agenda this evening? Can we make one amendment to the agenda? I think we need to add the approval of the minutes for our closed meeting on 7-21-26 that we had under the Open Meetings Act General Provision Article 3-30-305.

Second. We need to do a roll call.

No, you can do that. You're just revising the agenda right now.

We're just revising the agenda to put that on there, yeah.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. All right. Any opposed? Okay. Agenda's revised.

So now you move into item number five, which is approval of the closed meeting minutes.

I move that we approve the minutes that I'm referencing. for the meeting held on 7-21-2026 closed meeting second you can do a first vote for this too all in favor aye any opposed no okay accepted into the minutes

Mike, if you would just sign that at your earliest convenience and return those meeting minutes to me, that would be great. I'll get those posted to the website tomorrow.

Yep, they'll be published and posted on the website. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Item number five. Just six now.

Six now.

Tony Town Comprehensive Plan Update, a 60-day review decision. And is Ethan here? There he is.

Just to tee this up a little bit, you heard an introduction on this at the last meeting. Ethan's going to run through some of the primary observations about the Tawny Town Plan, and this will be your opportunity to provide additional comments that you want to convey to the town. We'll put those into a letter adjoined with the staff comments on the plan and forward that on to the town and I believe we have at least one representative from the town here tonight you have any specific question I'm sorry the city not the town the city if you have any specific questions for for the town manager

evening everybody it's going to be in front of you all again with this with this agenda item two weeks two weeks in a day after we had it in front of you during our day meeting so we what we want to focus on tonight to kind of backtrack an overview we are in the 60-day review period for the city of tawny towns 2026 community comprehensive plan update We have until Friday, August 7th, to provide comments back. We've actually circulated the comprehensive plan around to all county agencies to review and to solicit comments. And we have a large kind of draft comment memorandum that is currently being reviewed online. in the Comprehensive Planning Division that we're going to send to the city before the end of the day on Friday to get them their comments. And if we have any kind of issues that we want to discuss tonight that you think are particularly important to relay to the city, we can put them in that comment letter before we send it out, obviously. So what we heard on July 21st when we were in front of you last, we talked a lot about the agricultural preservation program and how the administration of that program impacts all of our municipalities across the county, but specifically in this instance, Tawny Town. The interaction of agricultural preservation easements and the city's growth area, the growth area boundary. the city itself we talked a little bit about water recharge and water recharge easements within agricultural preservation easements as a tool to be collaborative and helping and helping the city both in the past present and future with thinking about water allocation In terms of, I know that at that July 21st meeting, you had asked us to look for a list of agricultural preservation easements in the county that have a water recharge element. We haven't done a comprehensive deep dive into that yet. We will provide that with you at some point here in the near future. And we'll also kind of provide that as it pertains to if there are any that are specific to the Tawny Town region and their aquifer. So in terms of coordination, um, we talked about that on July 21st as well, coordinating, um, uh, agricultural preservation easements, uh, with the city of tiny towns, future growth. We talked about how there was a recent example of an easement on the south side of town where, um, that kind of. Jets right up against the growth area boundary and how that was coordinated with the town. Um, and we also talked about, um, the master plan and the master plan process and how this master plan process that we're currently going through gives us an opportunity. not only to look at everything, but to look at our Ag Press program and how we kind of coordinate with our municipalities where they're looking to grow, where their growth area boundaries are, and making sure that we're coordinating with them closely. And as a reminder, some of our most relevant sections, I pointed these out to you on July 21st as well. The municipal growth element and water resources element, I have printed copies of those here this evening just with me so I can reference if they come up. Those, in my opinion, were the two kind of most important elements from the county perspective that I was looking at to make sure I was scrutinizing and providing really constructive feedback and comments for the city. But also there's other chapters of their comprehensive plan, the intergovernmental coordination chapter, community facilities and infrastructure. Actually, up on the slide, the implementation steps here are from the community facilities and infrastructure piece. And if you see under goal number two, ensure adequate water, sewer, and stormwater management capacity to support sustainable growth. A medium priority implementation step there is to coordinate with Carroll County to identify and secure groundwater recharge area beyond city limits. There's the exact kind of topic we talked about on July 21st. In addition to these chapters, some of the important themes we've talked about, agricultural preservation and groundwater recharge, but also Antrim Boulevard extension, which is the Tonytown bypass that came up in conversation at our last meeting and is an important topic. For an overview of the municipal growth elements, I provided this summary at our last meeting as well. This figure is taken directly from the plan. It's basically the summarized version and bullet points of that entire chapter. And kind of an important piece to think about here, for this comprehensive plan update for Tonnetown, but for all the municipalities whenever they do comprehensive planning updates, the water resources element and the municipal growth element They both ensure that jurisdictions plan for growth in ways that align with available water and wastewater capacity, protect water quality, and coordinate future annexations and development between the municipalities and the county. There's that kind of municipal and county coordination we're talking about. Some maps, these were also shown to you on July 21st as well. The map on the right is the future land use map that is kind of current in the final draft of Taneytown's Comprehensive Plan Update, and that red line is the kind of proposed conceptual alignment of Antrim Township Boulevard of the Taneytown Bypass, obviously, you know, subject to future changes and subject to the ability to actually potentially build that infrastructure out. You can see there's a lot of different colors and moving pieces on this particular map. Tawny Town has a lot of medium density residential development. They have a pretty substantial commercial core and they have some industrially zoned areas too and some growth for industrially zoned property as well. So you reviewed, we talked about and you reviewed the Tiny Town Comprehensive Plan in advance of this August 5th meeting. We are now before you today to solicit any comments, feedback, or any kind of important things that you thought about whenever you were reviewing the Tiny Town Comprehensive Plan update and would like to discuss with staff. We will be preparing a letter which we already have in kind of a final draft form to then include your comments with to convey to the city your comments alongside all our county agency comments and we will be transmitting that letter here before the end of the week. So that's where we are today and we'll open it up for discussion for any of the important topics or anything that's on your mind as it relates to your review between July 21st and now of Tawny Town's plan.

Anybody? First, I thought the plan is extremely well-written. It's a long plan. It is. It's 120-some pages or whatever. 220-some. 220.

Yep.

So I congratulate everyone who worked on that and put that together. It's well-presented, well-written. One of the things I didn't see was one of my first meetings with the Commission here four years ago, a little over four years ago, Tony Town was here presenting and the discussion was about water. I'll never forget it because there was a 12% waste factor in their water system. Because of the pipes. Because of the pipes. You remember it, too? Yes, sir. And I know they've addressed that because I've seen the construction on Main Street and all that kind of thing. What is that number now? Is it still thought to be 12%? Is it cut in half? What is it? Where is it?

I do not know specifically off the top of my head what that number would be. I know... to kind of expand on this topic that tonytown has really put a lot of emphasis on inflow and infiltration improvements in their wastewater system to improve the percentage of water going through their wastewater treatment plant that is um you know just entering the system through old terracotta pipes and such that would be a question that could be directly addressed in the water resources element but also potentially in our county water resources element as well And it's obviously a question that we can relay back to the city to see if they've made progress on it.

I think that's worth mentioning in the plan. Because I would hope that there's been progress made. I didn't see any mention in the plan about needing to address that specifically. But I'd like to see a little look back and say, since whenever XX, the city has done X with a Y outcome.

And that's to the potable water system specifically, right, as opposed to the wastewater system?

Yeah, because the discussion was that heavy rains happen and the system can't handle it. The capacity, the terracotta system couldn't handle all that and there was a lot of waste uh and and loss of water and as we know in carroll county and you know from me personally water is like pretty critical um the other thing i thought um so that would be good i think to to uh address uh of the future land use map there's a lot of ag in that future land use map the colorful map. What percent of that is ag on that map?

I believe they break down percentages within the plan itself on all of the categories that show up on this map on the left. Now, in terms of what is currently open vacant or open agricultural land, they may capture that in the plan, not as it relates to this specific map, but I believe I had commented on, I had a draft comment on something related to open urban land as it related to Bollinger Park in Tawny Town and some designations there and I could go back and look at that specific chapter because that chapter I think broke down what was open urban vacant land currently, which I think a lot of it would qualify, would be agricultural land that's currently within the growth boundary. And that's probably what you're referencing, right? Yes, exactly. Yeah, that would be, I would look back to that chapter and try to identify that and maybe ask Tony Town and try to relay that to them. There's a specific figure there.

Because that might not be usable in the future.

Yeah, yep.

And then the, well, you mentioned it already, the water and ag pres easements. That's a pretty. A recharge. Yeah, that's an important piece of all this. And last for me, there's a lot of coordination between the city and the county. Who is that? relationship with, is it with you, Ethan, or is it, it's a staff and you, I mean, do you attend their meetings and, and all that kind of stuff to, to make sure that communication and coordination is, is happening?

Yes. Um, I am the County liaison planner for the city of Tawny town. And before me, um, there was, uh, Tiffany was in that role and some other folks within the comprehensive planning division, but that coordination goes on a kind of across all County departments as well. And across the department of, um, planning and land management as well so it's more than just the county liaison planner whoever that person is attending their planning commission meetings or council meetings um it's it's pretty it it's pretty um far-reaching is what i was trying to say okay because there's a lot of action items here that we're going to require that and you know for that to happen that location is important it really needs to happen

And then there's also a lot of funding potentially here with the extension of Adrian Boulevard and so forth. And who writes those requests for grants?

I think it depends. I don't know, Daphne, do you have any kind of thoughts on that?

It would all depend on what the grant is for and who's going to be the administrator of the grant. Probably I would imagine the town would have somebody do that for them. But if it's a grant that... pertains to something that the county would be more involved in or that the county has some kind of already participates in a certain program we might have a bigger role in that yeah it all depends on what the actual grant is that we're talking about yeah you know michael you bring up a great point i mean one of the things we do the you know

we have all this information but i don't think at the end of the day we necessarily as a commission come up with a okay we think this year we ought to be going for this bypass and we would like to see our county's delegation our county as a whole really get behind this and Because we're paying taxes to the state, and we're not getting our fair share. Or maybe we are, right? I don't know. But let's go see what kind of state funding we can get for it. It could be a school. It could be whatever it is. But to your point, it could be sewer. It could be water. It could be this road. So once we prioritize, I think one of the things we can do as a commission, is encourage our county commissioners, hey, we think this is important. And it would be important for you, I think, to tell us as the liaison, hey, this is becoming critical to the city. This needs to be the issue for 2027. Help us help them. Because, again, I think that's one of the things that we kind of heard in the economic development small group was there is coordination, but we could improve it. And I think that's one of the ways we might be able to improve.

There's coordination, and then there's execution. We need to improve the execution, I think, in most of the county, I would say, and I think that's a fair statement. I mean, all these are worthy goals, but right now they're written on paper, and making them happen is where the rubber hits the road.

What I'd like to know is, what is the number one goal here? Because if you've been through Tauntington, during rush hour, I could mention one thing that would be a goal. And here's a question. If there's a bypass around Tawny Town, who's responsible for the funding of that bypass? Is that a state issue? Is that a municipal issue? Is that a county issue? Is it all of the above? And so I'd like to see some, maybe what is the top priority in Tonytown. If they put more development in, they're going to have to worry about the water and the water resources and all that. But still, if they wind up with the locked up traffic control system up there which it's getting that to that point it is it's a kind of a mess up there and you know we missed a boat in the county here at different times by not pursuing bypasses where there should have been bypasses let's talk about manchester So maybe let's not make that mistake there and maybe prioritize this and then see who's responsible for getting something like that done, which would alleviate a future problem or an existing problem. That's what I'm sort of wondering about. Where do you attack this? it does it start at the city move to the county to the state then and then then how can we coordinate a delegate the delegation or somebody to help get this done and put a time frame on it yeah yeah i agree with you peter totally on this but i think that is a prime example of how we could all work together to get something done where there is an existing problem and a real problem.

I will say, I think, Ralph, one of the things you're saying here, too, is if we bring traffic, then we need water. So which do we do first? Do we do the water first, or do we do the road first? So I you know, it's kind of a chicken-and-egg thing I think that's the city needs to tell us what their priority is and then we need to as a county decide Okay within all the priorities that we have where does this rank and how are we gonna get get them done? Yeah Right. Is that right?

I'd agree Make things happen

Just a couple of observations there based on this discussion. We did, you know, in review of this plan, we did kind of make comment back to the city or are going to about how The county included the Antrim Boulevard extension and a request for concept engineering in its FY2027 to 2032 consolidated transportation program, the CTP letter. And then in terms of projects and discussions, I believe in terms of the CIP, there's an agenda item on the August 18th agenda. Daphne, for the Planning Commission in terms of, and that's just an example of staff coordinating and bringing project ideas to the Planning Commission for discussion.

Yeah, we'll have a, we'd like to broach the subject of projects that you'd like to include or like to recommend for inclusion in the CIP. Antrim Boulevard is kind of a tricky discussion because there's issues related to state ownership, developer funding for the construction of it. As Ethan noted, we're advocating for the state side of things to advance through um the county's priority letter and so there's a lot of partnerships and and conversations happening to try to get that moving forward but there are also things that um that the city needs to work through with respect to the the main development that is um is at the center of it definitely they're the same issues that happened in hampstead

And look what happened there. It was accomplished. They just didn't go far enough when they hit the next jurisdiction or the first jurisdiction, I would say. So that's what I'm getting at. You have to start somewhere and then keep pushing and pushing for it so that the issues don't grow larger and larger until they're so large that you can't overcome them. I think we're trying to do that on a lot of the things that we're looking at now in our comprehensive plan for the whole county. Let's tackle these issues now before they get bigger. And I think this is one of them.

And just to clarify, are we definitely responsible for – I mean, I know we sign off on stuff all the time. But are we responsible for identifying – okay, we've heard from the various municipalities – We know what we think is critical. We've heard what they think is critical. Who decides what's on that list and how they're prioritized? Are we the ones who decide that?

On which list? On the CIP list?

Yeah. Are we supposed to prioritize that? Because right now we get information and we approve it.

Right.

But where does the priority come from?

This is the perfect lead-in for our discussion on the 18th because I think what we would like to do is begin engaging you earlier in the process and so that you can have some more constructive input on those kinds of recommendations.

And just my last comment about that discussion about the bypass. Remember, Evapco, the largest employer up there, worldwide based in Tawny Town, huge company, 600 and some employees. That's who we do it for. I mean, let's say what it is. I mean, it's to make them happy. Certainly the traffic, the trucks, the things like that that go around the town, the noise, keeping the town the same to what it's like now and all that kind of stuff is important. But it's really about ABAPCO, I think, when it gets down to it all, which is important, really important.

Yeah, and ABAPCO and FlowServe are both featured prominently and mentioned as important community features in the economic, I forget which section of the plan specifically, but throughout the plan, amongst other businesses in Tawny Town as well.

Yeah, you can't ignore those. Okay.

Any other comments?

Thank you, Ethan. Yeah, thank you very much. I think I have what I need to. You need a motion to move this forward?

And a public comment first.

Oh, yeah, we should do that. All right. Any public comment? Seeing none. All right. So we need a motion to let Ethan continue his good work.

To convey his comments, I believe, to the town formally. Yes.

I move that we approve the City of Tane Town Comprehensive Plan update and move that forward as presented here today. I second.

So can I just make one clarification? You're not approving the update itself, but rather... directing staff to communicate your comments and concerns about the plan in the letter that is forwarded to the city.

It's so amended, Bob.

Right, okay. I'll second both yours and Daphne's.

Roll call. Roll call.

Mr. Lester?

Yes.

Mr. Robertson?

Yes.

Mr. Smith?

Yes.

Mr. Soyson?

Yes.

Mr. Gordon? Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect. We have six yays and zero nays.

Okay. So passed. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Good work. okay item number seven deferral code changes self-service storage facilities and introduction an overview of the recommendations from michael baker consultants it's one of our favorite topics so um we're joined by troy trucks from michael baker international

familiar face these days.

Yes, welcome back. Good to be back.

Just to catch you all up, the presentation that you'll hear tonight is on the second use that Troy and his team have been digging into that are the subject of the deferrals in the Freedom Area. And this is on self-service storage facilities. So Troy is going to be here. uh in two different phases the first is to share with you the findings from tasks one and two of their work and that is basically a review of our codes and some findings related to that as well as some kind of high level areas for recommendations to improve them he'll be back next meeting on august 18th to present the first stab at those specific code amendments. And then we'll continue to revise those with you over the course of several meetings. So today is kind of the high level introduction to tee up the specific code amendment language that we'll start digging into on the 18th.

I have the floor then? Okay. Thank you everybody. So just some background up slides. I believe you probably have these in front of you too, but if you had a chance to review, if not, some of the upfront, we thought it was important to provide some historical context of the involvement of storage facilities as approved or permitted under your zoning code. So prior to 2019, when the commercial two and commercial three zoning districts were created, as part of your comprehensive code rewrite, self-storage facilities that time was called mini storage. That was allowed only in the business general BG zoning district. During the county, the zoning rewrite process, mini storage use was replaced with a new term called self-service storage facility. And the definition of that as it's in your code currently is in that red box. At the time, most existing storage facilities, in terms of their construction, were the typical drive-up, single-story, garage-style door. That was pervasive, right? But just like every other use, things evolve and change, and they get bigger and better. So accordingly, at that time, the Planning Commission recommended, as part of the code changes, that they be permitted by right in high-intensity commercial districts, conditional use in the medium and density districts, and prohibited in the low-intensity districts. Ultimately, through that process, the commissioners made self-service storage facilities a permitted use by right in both the C2 and C3, largely to avoid creating non-conforming uses because there were a number of those facilities already in place. But also they were permitted or are permitted as a conditional use in your industrial one district. But only if located in the sustainable community in Finksburg is your only designated sustainable community there. They're also permitted by right in the I-1 district when they are incorporated into business industrial park and that was approved prior to April 1 2019 so as a separate individual use in the i-1 district they're not permitted but if they're part of that business industrial park they would be they're expressly prohibited in the i-1 zoning district and in the business parks in the c3 zoning district and And also too, some background information we pulled in, got some context from your county's Department of Economic Development. They have consistently opposed the allowance of these facilities in zones designated for industrial and employment uses because of the limited land space. So they'd rather, these are low employment operations. So I think that's a very wise kind of policy direction there.

Just quick, do you want to go through this, or can we ask questions as we go? Yeah, absolutely. Ask questions. I'd be happy to. So at one point, did we not have C1 like a neighborhood? Did we not have a neighborhood commercial district kind of zoning?

Yeah, prior to 2019, we only had two commercial districts. They were Business General and Business Neighborhood Retail.

Business Neighborhood Retail, that's what it was.

Business Neighborhood Retail was previously also known as Business Local, so depending on what date you're looking at things. But they were the... general and neighborhood retail, which was smaller scale. Then in 2019, in accordance with the Freedom Plan and the amended county master plan, the those districts were expanded to three commercial districts. And this was when the zoning code was was basically redrafted. It was basically a complete rewrite of our zoning code, starting with the commercial and industrial districts. And as a result of going from two to three, everything that had been zoned to those business, general or business neighborhood retail, had to shift into the three new zoning districts.

Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. So, unintended consequences. So under this new self-service storage facility use and where they're permitted, et cetera, the Carroll Highlands self-storage facility proposal revealed some unattended consequences to the way that the code was written and permitted and how it was, those facilities were regulated or the lack of regulation. And what had happened is that, as you know, that particular proposal for that facility became the multi-story, more of a larger, big box type style. So the mini storage roll-up door, you know, is kind of, I think, was envisioned possibly when this code rewrite was done, as Daphne alluded to. That's what kind of set, like, ah, we've got maybe some challenges here we need to address. And so, of course, the neighborhood residents came in, expressed concern, et cetera, as noted there on the screen. So with that background, in January 2024, the commissioners then held a public hearing on the changes to the bulk requirements in the commercial zones. And ultimately, Per public concern, there was a deferral, temporary deferral placed on this particular use back in December. So that's what led to us to do this evaluation. So hopefully that's some good background context to how we got here. So given our tasks, task one and task two presentation tonight, um you know how the current you know in terms of this use um how the right current regulations in your code align with the adopted plans then evaluate the consistency with best practices and then daphne said on the 18th we're currently working through the third item here that will be coming before you on the 18th is actually a specific code amendment recommendations So the three plans, of course, are the County Master Plan, the Freedom Community Comprehensive Plan, and the Finksburg Corridor Plan. And relative to this use from a policy theme, economic development goals, what we kind of teased out here that was related to this particular use, We're related to economic development goals that prioritize employment, generating uses and provide services and goods to residents. So I think that economic development department policy that I mentioned before aligns with that. And desire for placemaking and connectivity along commercial corridors. So from a design perspective, that's where that's coming in to this conversation. So when we reviewed Chapter 155 and 158, some of the key findings, of course, kind of some known items here that we've talked about, permitted by right in the C2 and C3 zoning districts, you now have this new defined use self-service storage facility, inclusive of accessory outdoor storage of vehicles, So as you know, these storage facilities have indoor and outdoor. So it included that. It also included retail use only if it's associated with the sale of products like moving products, etc., boxes, tape, etc., but no other retail associated. But the regulations in the code are largely operational and functional based in terms of bulk and area. The only thing that regulates design is there's a specific standard where it says the front building facade shall be designed, constructed and maintained to be visually compatible with the neighborhood and surrounding properties. I've been at this for two weeks straight and my voice is starting to go, so I apologize. I started to crack last night, I could hear it. Issues in direction with our review. So things that we kind of focused our attention on is ensuring that we have the location of these facilities in those where they're permitted. Compatibility requires stronger design standards. And that's one thing that's clearly lacking in the code that we can make improvements on. And then also related to gaps in those design standards in terms of the layout, the way that traffic and circulation, architectural quality, et cetera. And also keeping in mind that there are evolving trends in terms of the roll up, drive up is still a use. You might have seen there's still brand new construction for those typical one story drive up. They're not as fancy or modern. They do have climate control, if you will, but the terms of size and scale, they're still relevant, if you will, both the one story and the larger big box ones. So some of our best practices we looked all over, if you will. So beginning with this, what these best practices demonstrate is that these examples demonstrate that this industry can meet local architectural design requirements. It's proven over and over and over again that if you require the design standards, these developers are accustomed to meeting those design standards. I drive down in Lancaster, PA, which I should have taken a picture. It's a classic case where they have no design standards in rural countryside Lancaster, PA, and it's a massive, massive U-Haul. And right behind it, silos. Beautiful farm country, and it's just totally out of context there. So that's a case where no design standards lead to whatever's being built as long as it's approved use or permitted use. Of course, these get sophisticated, like that example has even, I think, solar panel coverings for kind of open but canopied storage, indoor storage, outdoor storage, all types of amenities, et cetera, associated with them. They're being strategically placed. I'll give you one example of a redevelopment of a former shopping center that is like the mixed use, reuse, adaptive reuse, what I think is positive. And such, the last two there, urban integration is a really good opportunity that I think we can consider, and that's what we've looked at also in terms of your code amendments. So some of the examples here, a couple here are actually from Tennessee, where store local, Storage Bellevue in Bellevue, Tennessee. This is 72,000 square feet, and you can see it's designed to be like an office building. It has window treatments. front doors, but otherwise it says storage, you may not realize it's a storage facility. So some good kind of architectural detail here. They're regulated under this particular zoning code in Metro Nashville and Davidson County. It's permitted by right in the commercial zoning service zoning district. And if they're permitted by right, they obviously then have standards to achieve. So permitted by right, but they also have use standards. So in this case, many modern self-storage projects in this area use the specific plan zoning to allow for customized design. in site specific conditions. So it's not just, they actually have a lot more regulations backing up that use and I think that's what we want to kind of demonstrate in some of these other ones that compared us to other areas where we get these designs, Carroll County's code definitely has an opportunity to amend and add those types of design standards. Some of the things also evaluated here for Bellevue, this particular one, separation distance, minimum separation of 150 feet is not uncommon from any residential zoning district or residential structure. So they have that setback. The building heights you can see are regulated, also landscaping and buffering. even operations to ensure like for example loading and unloading is not facing any residential area so we have like a building that faces the the street frontage but you are trying to hide those operations from a visual perspective depending on the context that you're trying to treat that in again glazing and besides as you saw in that picture and of course environmental protection which you have really good storm water and fire protection standards here so that's not as much of a concern for carroll county on the environmental side Another example for store local, a really impressive building here. This is in horse country in Tennessee. As you can see, the design standards required them to develop this or build this, design this in the context of rural farm horse country. So this is really well done. I think it's interesting if you would kind of place yourself at the front door of that building at the front center, it's a massive structure. So just imagine a person standing there and how tall that is. It's massive. But again, it really fits into the context. You would assume it's a barn for horses otherwise. So again, what zoning was the store local storage on? So perfect segue to the next here. So this is a permitted use regulated under Gallatin zoning ordinance as a limited warehousing. That's how they define it, limited warehousing.

So that's their zoning designation?

That's correct. Their designation for the use is limited. So we call your self-service storage facility. Their use there that allows these facilities is called limited warehousing.

Okay, so what's next door?

Next door, that's a good question. This is actually here in the commercial general district. This is where that store local Gallatin is located.

So that's a commercial area. That's correct. Okay. That's correct.

I think that probably answers your question specifically, right? It's permitted by right. It has a building height of 60 feet. So I would assume that building's probably 60 feet, if you will. But also they have areas, other districts, as you can see, plan general commercial. industrial general, industrial restrictive. So they allow multiple, but again, I think the bottom line is it's either commercial or industrial areas where they're permitted in, okay? And then they also, of course, have applicable design standards and compatibility standards that obviously are getting that. I mean, you might have a great developer that actually has good intentions, but having design standards to meet those requirements is really necessary and appropriate. Oops, I'm sorry. Okay, this is the next one. Sorry, I thought it was back again. So this is out in King County, Washington, the city of Duval. Duval is a very rural area in King County. This is about a 90,000 square foot storage facility, and again, well designed. You might have thought it was some type of commercial building or barn, but it's a storage facility. It's classified in their zoning code as a self-service storage use, permitted by right under the city's light industrial zoning district. Among the multiple purposes of that district, it also, interesting, in that industrial district, they also promote high-quality design that meets the rural context and character of the city of Duval. In their code, there's also specific guidelines and standards that include a requirement that new non-residential development should provide architectural variety, pedestrian scale, and features that enhance its connection to the natural environment. And also the last bullet there also includes standards that require building massing and composition. One specific requirement, a strong overall building composition along with a clear pattern of massing changes and modulation of building forms. is required to create interest to support the building's integration in the overall context. So if you go back to that picture, they've really done that. It's not just one block of a building. It actually has, you know, eaves and peaks. So it looks like a barn, some type of rural countryside barn structure, if you will. This is local. This is up in my backyard in Carlisle. This is actually in my township. I wanted to give you a couple examples of the traditional roll-up, drive-up types of units, and this is it. This building here was a former UPS office owned by a single landowner that has multiple commercial industrial developments at this intersection near Interstate 81. But the bottom picture, aside from that building that he owns there, he converted that into the office now that services those storage facilities. And you can see they're traditional, aside from maybe some elevation change. There, if I could cut my pointer here, this Second building here, there's an elevation change from this level to this level, so it's really kind of a two-story building. But one, this is just down at a lower level. It's all for intensive purposes, all roll-up. Very nice, well-designed for a storage facility. But I think it's another great example that these are very much still in existence. And I'll get to the reason why I'm showing that and the other larger big box ones. There's a reason that I think we have four in our amendments. Again, this is kind of quintessential. South Middleton Township, they actually regulate two types, mini storage slash self storage facility and just plain storage facility. One thing they really preclude, because we have a lot of warehouse trucking in our area, is that these facilities are not like transportation distribution type facilities. So that's clearly written into the code. We only allow them in the industrial and our airport development zones. if you will. One thing we wanted to bring up too is that making sure in terms of regulations that we don't allow these types of uses to become what's called contractor bays, where contractors are having, storing all the materials there, they're having almost like Home Depot style delivery, pickup delivery, or even actual fabrication going on. So that's really what this slide is getting at. And this little side-by-side chart I thought was a pretty good side-by-side comparison between self-storage and contractor bay. So one thing we think about your regulations is to make sure that we're prohibiting those types of uses in this particular, these facilities. Another example, this is in Mechanicsburg, PA. I think this is really interesting. It's like a live-work type situation. A lot of times, or a number of times, I don't know if it's still prevalent, but in this case, this is very much an active prime storage is the developer that owns and manages. That building is actually a residential house. So the manager of that facility lives there. So their on-site manager. It's not common, but it's a possibility to think about. These are all drive-up facilities, indoor and outdoor. It's not multi-story itself. The only multi-story part of it is that building, the office and the manager's residence. There's also outdoor storage included here. This is under the Hampton Township zoning ordinance. Again, they call it self-service storage facility. Just picking out, it's in the commercial district, commercial limited. That particular district also allows for residential uses, interesting enough. So getting that live-work type of unit in there, I think, is where that's allowed. And you can see some different types of regulations for building height, buffer yard, and also off-street parking area. Especially the outdoor storage would be considered the off-street parking. Definitely requires the vegetative buffer screening for that. Redevelopment. So this is the one also in Carlisle, South Middleton Township. This is the former Kmart shopping plaza. 143,000 square foot Kmart. Wow. Huge building, kind of like the monstrosity of like, what do we do with this thing? So ironically, I sit on my planning commission here and we were trying to be proactive to say the what-if scenario, writing is on the wall, Kmart's are shutting down, we don't have a plan for any of this area of what we want to see happen. And the time we were doing the master plan, U-Haul came about. and for good or bad they actually bought the facility so we worked with them and they re-adapted it so you can see it actually works out pretty well so it actually trends that we looked at there's definitely growth in demand it might be leveling off a little bit but as we get more stuff as we downsize etc we like to hold on to our stuff and we need places to store the stuff Oftentimes our garages are our own self-storage facility, right, and cars are parked outside. That U-Haul that I storage is something that we have to think about. It's almost a necessity for every type of storage facility these days. And then placement, strategic placement detail here on the 18th coming. Adopt clear objective design standards, I think in some of the best practice examples that are being recommended. Again, continue on with these design standards, some additional topics and how you place the buildings and lessen really the impact on the neighboring residential or other developments here. Site design and access management standards. Certainly, you know, the in and out of the users of these facilities isn't as demanding as like a shopping center or a Lowe's or something like that. But certainly we need to be cognizant of how people enter because they're usually gated, secure gated type facilities. And if you've got big moving trucks coming in, what the safety issues are of getting them. It's basically encouraging higher quality for your development overall. This might be a good kind of theme when you think about overall development you know a lot of communities are are requiring it if you don't require it you're not going to have it have street code amendments we're working with staff on those already and then those will be presented to you starting on august 18th so daphne did i miss anything i don't think so okay The existing so a little bit further. Add this right across the street is a huge mixed use center being developed. But that's after the fact. Yep, and right behind this is a huge, you would look at them, and if you'd have residential or non-commercial, non-industrial development around.

Would that building overwhelm anything in that residential area?

Not at all.

See, I think our problem here is not what we're dealing with, but where we're dealing with it.

Yeah, mm-hmm. for sure where yeah at that's that that that that's exactly right i think that's exactly right if you'd if you would put just you know in like an industrial district and where you had a lot of massive buildings lot of traffic you would expect that you should you include high-end design standards maybe not you know maybe not that may not be what you're looking for but i think you're exactly right you know when you think about if you're placing a warehouse style building next right adjacent to a an established residential neighborhood and it's right there i mean it's budding i'm not trying to point out the obvious but it's literally right there so it's it's you know you're back the um property was you know residential

And, you know, a use for us like an architectural, you know, somebody wanted to put an architectural, you know, somebody wanted to put, you know, in this stretch, specifically what we're talking about. And I think there's some other things that we should look at, too, where I think it's an area.

So I think there's ways to address that. The storage facilities and mine standard has to be front and center.

So I think design stand gentlemen gave the presentation to the county commissioners, but It does help to hear things a second time. I'm just here to reiterate what we're talking about Carol Highlands is, you know, 20 feet. What we're talking about Carol Highlands is, you know, 20 feet. Immediately struck by the beauty of one on that. It looks more like a haphazard array of.

you know buildings and structures and ingress the proposed um development um if i the proposed um development um if i can just say something i uh looked back at some i uh looked back at some of the have some of the happenings that have happened uh over the past few years our journey would be like a dimly person was the developer Since then, our journey would be like a person was the developer. Since then, it's been discussed multiple times by you all and by the county commissioners. And I looked back at the minutes and I looked back at the videos, and it seems to me that many of the concerns of the community, as well as members of our commission, have been disregarded setback. Mr. Lester, in one of the meetings, you had setback. Mr. Lester, in one of the meetings, you had mentioned community is important.

And you also raised the question about it goes forward is going to be, I think, about 35 feet from our property line. But on the final site from our house.

Any additional questions?

There is still a road potentially through my house that's on the plans. Laid in our little fake pool in the backyard. Laid in our little fake pool in the backyard. And we put up a pop-up film screen in our 10, 12, and 14. And we put up a pop-up film screen in our 10, 12, and 14-year-olds.

Yeah. This is focused on the commercial core plus with that assessment. And also to look at the potential creation of an overlay zoning district 2018 freedom plan. So.

But my name's Nathan for those of you who haven't met. But my name's Nathan for those of you who haven't met. I'm planning lead for downtown redevelopment services. I'm planning lead for downtown redevelopment services and the project manager. Lots of homework. So we'll be talking through some of the items. So we'll be talking through some of the items. But as we talk through it, you're welcome to just ask questions. So as Daphne mentioned, the purpose of the project is to really build upon the 2018 plan, looking at what the current conditions are. Both in terms of how development has changed as well as the market for a variety of uses and looking at those designated land uses for the corridor but other things like strip commercial development big box commercial any residential development that may occur throughout that entire corridor and So that may occur throughout that entire corridor. So we'll evaluate how the corridor has changed over the past eight years for those portions of the study area. And then we'll prepare an overlay zoning district, if that's applicable, to apply sort of those redevelopment standards and design standards. But also a stretch of 32 as well. So it's a much tighter area, which is the commercial core of the area. of parking lots in the area, which is slightly increased as the population's grown in the areas, and which is the largest to establish families. The apartment market's pretty slim, only a 4% vacancy, so strong demand there with just a few units compared to the overall number of households. conditionally allowed. But if the property owner does or does not want to, in terms of traffic capacity, access, things like that. Going into that access and circulation, the access, things like that. Going into that access and circulation, curb cuts, curb cuts along 26. So just having curb cut after curb cut right next to each other creates access challenges. It also creates a lot of conflict points. So the more curb cuts there are throughout the corridor, the more opportunities there are for people to turn left out of a parking lot onto 26th. It's dangerous. I did it today, and it's not the safest thing to do. Probably even more so at 5 p.m. or a rush hour when that corridor gets quite busy in a minute. Some of the lots throughout this corridor are quite shallow. There are some deeper parcels, for example, like the Walmart. Those are generally the ones that are marked for commercial heavy on the designated land uses, but there are also a lot of really shallow lots too. Typically, these are ones that were formerly homes and have redeveloped over time, but that does create challenges for providing access as well as transitioning to adjacent residential. And then just redevelopment feasibility with market conditions, market rents, that'll determine what can be built and go through. So the 2018 plan for this area really focused on business growth, investment in stronger commercial areas. Since then, the area's seen some new development. An office continued to experience high demand, so it's only gonna continue to make those development pressures more salient. And then those commercial buildings and shopping.

One of our first two questions are which economic development priority to preserve the other spaces and surrounding neighborhoods that are already exposed to continuing to just grow. Finish it in any way.

Finish it in any way. So how can we on here? So how we can consolidate some of this stuff. There was plans in.

But in terms of economic development for this corridor, always running the roadblock, always running. Some agencies that have to review every plan. Some agencies that have to review every plan.

The review is going smoothly, but there's a lag time between what, you know, review agency.

Quite a bit. It's not all the county. It's a lot of state mandates that we're working through the change.

there to be a marketplace. Key takeaways from the 2018 plan obviously emphasize protecting neighborhoods. Plan obviously emphasize protecting neighborhoods while supporting that continued commercial development along the 26th. Our big that we'd like for you to answer are should the plan encourage more redevelopment and infill? Where, if anywhere, the plan encouraged more redevelopment and infill? Where if anywhere should additional house rents train access is really limited not only between sites Nobody's going to walk. Well, some people may but most people won't walk through a parking lot to get from one point to another They're going to get in their car and drive And while it's unlikely to change significantly, there are opportunities for some pedestrian access. It also goes a long way to beautifying the corridor as well. Where there's pedestrian access, usually it's buffered by landscaping and trees. There's opportunities for multi-use paths. I think that's in the bike-ped plan along 26. So just creating a network for recreational users as well as people who may desire to walk, do their morning walk down to Tim Horton's, I think that's in our study area, right?

Until it gets developed, it's unconnected. I agree.

liberty high school liberty high school to Oklahoma I mean we garments in that environments and that overs and things like that when we get to the overlay standards but right now we're at a much higher level So the four we have here are big box commercial and commercial. Commercial makes use, I know there's only one example of this right now, the Princess Shopping Center. I think this deserves a fair amount of conversation. I think it's the planned commercial center only allows for one story of residential up top and for one story of residential up top. But it's ground floor retail with along the road, then a parking lot,

And then another purpose behind it.

So office is behind its uses, but each building is its own use. So they're not mixed vertically.

We might get more typically start to see an on-site leasing office, the pool, to see an on-site leasing office, the pool, the gym. Got it.

And I'm one of the guys who fights it, so I'll say I'll – the guys who fights it, so I'll say I'll – I guess I need to get therapy over this, but –

The operatives say we're allowing more density in this area to preserve multifamily. It could be your standard strip mall, but it has a nail salon, a Chinese restaurant.

the road to the back of the lot. Warehouses, which we see in the road to the back of the lot. Warehouses, which we see in the warehouses, which we see in the northeast part of the city area. So there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for small detached residential within the core of the city area. I think when we think about transition standards between the study area and some adjacent residential, that can be a part of the conversation. It wasn't the conversation about storage. It wasn't the conversation about storage. All right. to be implemented. And when we talk about transitions, that includes things like landscaping, buffers, transitional distances, setbacks. Transitional height planes is another buffering tool that we use sometimes. So as you move away from single family residential, then it can increase in height. So starting at maybe 25 feet and then going up to 35 feet or 40 feet, whatever it may be, but just making sure that The height, the densest part of the property isn't directly against that single family, but it has some buffer away from it. Density in the overlay.

You'll have to figure those things out, and a developer will figure those things out. We're just really trying to figure those things out, and a developer will figure those things out. We're just really trying to understand where you guys feel redevelopment supports exploring further.

So the first one is transition standards to neighborhoods. Those are the ones I just talked about with setbacks, buffering, landscaping, transitional height plans, as I described. New public access roads to support that commercial development, either the existing or new development. Shared driveways and cross-access. So when we think of shared driveways, that's four businesses that are on the same side, but cross-access, I think, what was that, Homelander Drive, where directly across from each other, two curb cuts, two access points were misaligned. So when we think about cross-access along 26 or 32, trying to line up those access points where possible to reduce conflict. The next one is shot redevelopment, architectural or design standards through the overlay. And I'll say here that these are not the only tools that are going to be considered, but these are on the overlays of sites, transportation improvements along 26-32 housing choice on those commercial sites, economic development to existing buildings, homes, et cetera. And then also with public spaces, it can be for more than them.

The one thing I

If you want to add any in economic development, certainly one that I accidentally left off, I apologize. But just write in the margins.

And there's also open space at the bottom to add any other comments you might.

And the final slide we have here, I believe, is implementation priorities. So top of mind are updating zoning regulations. We want to note where the county should focus its resources in this area to make those improvements. So zoning, capital improvements, whether it be state resources along 2632 or county resources. Similarly, transportation improvements, making for better multimodal access for vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists. I know there's some transit to some degree, but it's not a significant amount. Streetscape and beautification, this is on that placemaking item, making sure that there's a sense of place in this area. Incentives for redevelopment. So if the county is looking to provide incentives to achieve a certain type of development outcome, that's always an option where the county can. And maybe it includes a public park. Maybe it includes a civic facility in adjoining with the private development. So there's that as well. That concludes preparing draft land use and overlay zoning concepts. So based off of any amendments that we make to the plan, we'll make some zoning overlay concepts, present a preferred approach for the review. So that'll be in, I believe, mid to late October. That will be back before you. And then we'll release a draft.

Care area, medical doc concern. I mean, I would impose out there EMS. Is there an area of concern?

I mean, I would impose out there EMS.

Is there an area that we could have a medical campus in that area? That we could have a medical campus in that area that we could talk about? Because this would have gray hair like me. Some of them would have gray hair like me. Some of them are younger than I am, and a lot of them are older than I am, but we're all old. That's in there, and we're seeing...

The higher population, the call-out rate grows as well.

Oh, yeah, right.

Yes. I think there are quite a few, which you probably aren't aware of, doctors within an urgent care, but a lot of people are... travel into Columbia, Hopkins into Columbia. Hopkins is right over there.

Falls. Go to Carroll County for medical attention. You're talking about emergency? Go to Carroll County for medical attention.

You're talking about emergency?

I'm talking about the whole nine yards. I'm talking about the whole nine yards. I'm talking about radiology.

Story or something the next few days stations to this and to participate in because people want to be different municipalities and County and I just wanted to spend a brief moment to say that While I can only speak for Tony tap on a daily basis particularly in things related to development and construction and things of that nature so Here in Carroll we enjoy a very strong and collaborative environment, I think, between the cities, towns and the county government. And you may be familiar with the Water Resources Coordinating Council for your time in reviewing our our plan.

Thank you. Good to hear. Thank you for staying late.

Is it appropriate to ask a question, sir, while you're at the mic?

Well, it's not, but go ahead.

Since you since you weren't asked to come up or you weren't here,

what is your top priority our comprehensive plan is our guiding document right so everything we do is supposed to be advancing the goals and objectives of that plan so under that umbrella i will say there are three overriding things for me um vibe you're going to see failing levels of service at the intersection of route 140 and 194 within the next several years That's with a no-build option. With the Transportation Secretary, of course, we're here every year for the transportation tour, and very appreciative that the commissioners have added the bypass back onto the priorities letter, even if it is just a brief mention, because we realize we're competing with you know we're viewed more as viewed more as a safety enhancement in the safety enhancements involving some intersections with state roads involving some intersections with state roads that could all I would say actively so so I think the the road is a tremendous important movement with me okay thank you

Thank you. Any general public comment?

Offer more multi-family housing, which I'm going to refer back to Denver. There were three-story condos everywhere.

Beautiful homes, lots of windows, lacrosse fields, soccer fields. So that's it. Thanks.

Thank you.

So the three fields that are used to be a park, but it's not a park anymore. It's been a school for 25 years and you can't use school property during the day. And three of our elementary schools have no fields because they were given to us the property by developers years ago nicely, but they weren't really usable because they were like everywhere. And how are we spending and they're going and renting space and open space was open space was where all the field space and you can see right on the map you know and the towns have done a beautiful job of doing things in their town and having properties having pot down and having properties having pocket parks you know sykesville has like 13 pocket parks they've done a beautiful job good parks you know sykesville has like 13 pocket parks they've done a beautiful job but there's