Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

you. Good evening. Uh the Hamstead Planning and Zoning Commission meeting uh tonight is Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026. May I have a roll call, please? Sharon Callahan here. Charlie Overer here. Deborah Painer here. Harvey Jagger here.

And Lou Conor could not join us tonight due to a work commitment. Okay. U the public is advised that members of the Hamstead Town Council may be present and in attendance at this meeting. All persons are reminded that this session is being recorded on tape as required by law for the preservation of records and are asked when providing comment to give their name and address. All persons in attendance are required were requested rather to print their name and address and affiliation on the sign-in sheet. Uh, first on the agenda, we need minutes approval for the March 25th, 2026 regular commission meeting. May I have a motion, please? So moved. A second.

Second. Any comments? All those in favor? So approved. Uh, next on the agenda, zoning administrator update.

Few things. Uh, with the water system project, pipeline side of the project continues to move right along. Mid-Atlantic Utilities. They've constructed completed four of the five new water manes for the project. They've now begun on the last new main which runs along Lower Beckley'sville Road from the existing pump house to the new water treatment plant which is to be built on the Chief Sites Pro Park property. Uh on the other side of the project, the water treatment plant construction. Uh grading should begin in the next few weeks. I know that they've now received the grading permits. Um once they begin, the main focus will be on the North Carol Farms facility and they'll get that one up and they have a completion date listed right now in early January of 2027. After North Carol Farms, they'll move on to Hamstead Valley, then Shiloh, and then Derry will be the last uh new facility. Uh they they're right now their schedule says they should be complete construction on all four plants by July of 2027. Uh as far as uh site plans TSC and uh Weiss Gingo, they uh they're still going through the planning process, review process with the county. Um they're both very close, but they've just got some different things they've got to iron out with the county. I can tell you next week we will have the introduction of a new site plan, a new development. It's known as 845 Main Street. I think we've talked about this before. It's a new little strip shopping center going in between Iliano 1 and Iliano 2. Um, basically what it is, it's a mixeduse building. Down the bottom, they'll have six retail commercial uh suites and above on the second level, it will have five residential units. So, we received

the plans uh the other day and we've started reviewing them. Um it's had a presubmittal meeting before with the county. So, it'll be here next month. Um as far as other things just around town, some of you may have seen it today either online or in the paper. Uh the town has hired a artist to p to paint a mural on the side of Rockos. Um Dominic Jones is the name of the artist. He's done different murals all over Carol County. He's very talented. Um, we've seen myself and Judy saw his first draft of it and um, it was impressive. We gave him some suggestions on how to make it more hamsteadish. Um, add some Hamstead landmarks to it. So, we um actually are meeting with him tomorrow afternoon. Um, he's going to show us his updated draft. Hopefully, everything's good to go. and he plans to start painting on Monday with the uh hopes of having it done by Hampstead day.

That's really exciting. It will be as you're heading north on the large open side. Yeah. I'm try right now I'm trying to picture I'm seeing window there's windows on that side, right? There's a few. Yes. They're they're more up top. He's going to stay basically the lower 19 ft. Got it. That's a lot of feet.

That's very exciting gym room. That's that'll be really fun. And speaking of Hamstead day, it's coming up. It's May 16th. Be held from 8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. along Main Street. Um, and also heads up that Main Street will be closed to traffic from M Avenue to Rhino Avenue from 6:30 a.m. to approximately 4:00 p.m. And that's it. Oh, one other thing. One other thing. Um, need to introduce Scott Graph. Scott is our new Carol County uh planning liaison. So, uh Carlilele had a very short time with us. Yes. Glad she could be with us for a little bit. One month to be exact. But Scott's our new liaison. Scott's been with the county 30 some year. How many?

27. 27 years. 30. Yeah. Almost 30. So, uh we're happy to have you. Yeah. Welcome. Okay. Thank you. Any comments, questions? Then we'll move on. Discussion and review of zoning administrators adequate facility study wise gas and go 721 handover pike um map 0503 parcel 0742. Uh discussion about that.

So with the adequate facility study, it's a requirement of the site plan review process. Um we do have to do it for every site plan that goes through here. We do it twice per site plan, once in the concept um part of the project and then also in the final plan review. So um basically it explains itself make sure we have adequate facilities um for the new development coming in. So Christina's gone ahead and compiled the information looked into it and uh she can give our adequate facility study.

So um the p the information is in your packet there. Um, basically the property received a conditional use. Um, being in the general business district, it needed the conditional use and that was granted back in in June of 2024 um for it to be a fueling station located there. Um, we also have gone through all the zoning requirements and made sure that it met all the the town's zoning regulations. Um, we also reviewed comments by the state, the county, and um, all of those were satisfactory. We'll be including those in the actual final site plan approval. I'll have those in your packet next next time that they're here for their actual approval, those review comments. Um and as far as the the public services including schools, police, fire, roads, sewer, um everything is sufficient. Um there's no inadequacies there. Um we also asked them to provide their estimated water usage and it was very low at 20 gallons per day. So we don't feel that that's going to negatively impact our water system in any way. Um, and it's also consistent with the uh comp plan and the county water and sewer master plan. So that was another note that we made on on your letter there. So we just are submitting this as part of your consideration when you guys consider the final site. Any discussion, questions? Okay, then we'll move ahead. Thank you for that by the way. Uh, next discussion and review of amended plat M lot 400 Roberts Field three miner subdivision plan.

So what we have here is this is basically known as Robert's field 3 and if you look at the large printout this is from a plat in 1989 which shows plat M of Robert's field. This is when they were developing basically Sunderlane and Oldfield coming up there. Lot 400 which I highlighted in red. That is left as one lot. Some of the reason behind that is basically when they were doing this and Carol County and all the different reviewing bureaus were reviewing it. There was a concern that this, which connects to Hampshire Drive and comes out onto Route 30 down there, would become basically a cut through for all these houses being built down in that section of Robert's Field. And basically the existing Hampshire and what is was would become Sunder was not built to accommodate that type of traffic. So basically what was done is uh the developer put up a wall a barrier at the end of Sunder so that no one can get from Sunder to Hampshire. What is down in Hampshire right now? There's four houses. Hampshire is also the divider between town and county. So there's four houses in the county. The other side is lot 400. Um so basically there was a note added in 1989 on this plat note number 14 that there shall be no further subdivision of lot 400. Basically the main gist behind that was for the traffic. So they alleviated the traffic issue with the barrier and basically now what they're going to do is looking to do is just subdivide that

lot 400 into thirds. So instead of being able to just build one house on it, which they can do now, they can build three. Um, so that's basically the background behind it. Uh Dan Staley, the engineer for the project, would you like to add and go through your comments that you

Well, I think you're explaining pretty well, Jim. I mean, again, back in 88, the concern was the original uh plan we had for field section one. Uh showed a road connecting out of section one all the way to Maryland 30. State Highway came back and said not a good idea. So, because they they thought it was going to cut through traffic at that time. Of course, Black & Deck was still in full full operation. Bypass didn't exist. So, there was a lot of traffic coming through town. So, since that time, we're now we're what 30 35 years later. And of course, the neighborhood has changed and and the biggest change is the construction of the bypass. Uh the report that that we gave you uh shows some of the traffic counts north of north of Hamstead coming out of Manchester and then south of Hamstead which is shows actual shows what comes through Hamstead and what comes out of the bypass. And if you look at the numbers south of bypass they almost match north of Hamstead and comes out of Manchester. So you know I I say back in the day Hamstead did an excellent job cooperating with state highways to put that bypass in. I think Manchester really shot themselves in the foot. So that's the big change and uh so we think you know right now with the condition with Black & Decker scaling back are no longer there. Of course what's in there now is scale back way far from what was there now and the and the addition of the bypass. You got you got a signalized intersection where the traffic comes out on the 30. We just don't see any any real concern. And the um the note that was put in the plaque was really suggested that can have a development review and amplant at that time based on state highways com state highways didn't make us do that they suggested and then she she suggested the uh the note that got put in the plat of course the planning commission at that time upheld it and that's how it got on the plat. So we're asking to resend the note and and give us approval to to subdivide lot 400 into three lots. We think it's it's a good fill in. It's uh you know

everything's adequate. It's it's it's a nice piece of ground. You got a you got green buff will be separate between the lot 400 and the shopping center. So it's we just don't see anything wrong with it. So the other thing to add is uh so the current plan has been sent to Carol County and it's gone through the initial concept review or preliminary review process and state highway had a chance to review the plan and they had no comment.

Yeah, I just wanted to add to just to put it kind of in perspective. This is like that that bottom corner of Robert's Field and and if you um drive out onto Oldfield and It's like it's almost like it was a dead end and then a couple shared drives added on to that and then that's where that physical barricade is. And and I can kind of see why they put that note because I would imagine people that live all the way down in that corner would have used it as a cut through to get to 30 to commute to work or whatever, but they physically can't. Um, you know, and it it now they have to go through Robert's Field and come out of the traffic light and all of that makes sense. Um, but these are on that other side of the barricade and and obviously the traffic cutting through is not going to be an issue.

The barricades not being removed. That's right. You can see the back. They're just coming in from Hampshire. It's a guard rail drive that you can't get from one one side to the other side. I actually included a picture on the back of that briefing paper where you can kind of see it's like this little private private private. So it's not going to be a cut through. They're not removing that. So people can't use because people would right, right? I think people would have. So it makes sense why they added the note back then because they're building all these houses and you know people would have been cutting through that road to get out into 30. Right.

Right. If I could add one other thing, as a result of creating these three lots, Wood Haven is contributing significantly to the water line that the town is now extending for the possible future connection of those four lots that are actually outside of the town. But if there's an issue, the town's going to be have to provide, right? we would be on the hook to provide water to those facilities even though they're out of town. That's the way that it works now. But but I think our contribution is significant towards that. Absolutely. Basically, if you don't mind, will you just for the record state your name?

Martin KP Hill, president of Wood Haven Building and Development, 4175 Hanover Pike, Manchester, Maryland. Thank you very much. Just so they know who was talking. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh, are there any more discussion or questions? Uh, Jim, this is not for approval tonight. This was just for discussion. Am I correct? No, we need basically what we're looking for is a approval to remove note 14. Correct. Okay. A motion to remove note 14 from that plat.

Okay. So, may we have a motion, please, to re to remove uh item number 14 from the plat for the 1989 subdivision plant, Robertsfield, section one. So, moved. May I? That's a first. May I have a second? Seconded. Any other discussion? So, approved. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Uh, next on the agenda, uh, introduction and adoption of resolution PZC 202601, a resolution approving and certifying the 2024 water resources element,

water resources element that just continues to show up.

I was thinking that I was like, didn't we already do this? So, uh, we basically, um, Brenda Denny came in, Brenda Denny came out over the summer, gave the presentation on it. Um, we later held a public hearing on it and basically we approved the information in the, uh, draft. The draft has now been all put together and going out. So now we're to the formal part where basically we need basically to adopt a resolution approving and certifying the water resources element. So that this resolution does two things. Number one, it does that. It gives you the formal approval from the planning and zoning commission. The other thing it does is basically it then recommends to council that they adopt the water resource element. And so that the next step in this process after tonight is that we will go to the town council and go through the same process with them.

Okay. Uh a discussion about this. I have read this and reread and then what you sent us today or yesterday whatever it was. Um so um so we need an a motion please. If there's no further discussion, a motion, please, to approve the resolution approving and certifying the 2024 water resources element. May I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I.

So approved. Thank you. Next, Carol County Department of Planning update. And if you would for the record, please and welcome, by the way, state your name, please.

Thank you. Uh Scott Gra with the Carol County uh Department of Planning and uh resource management. Um I had the chance to meet with uh town staff uh last week and kind of get briefed on the hot topics up here in uh north part of the county. Um, so I'm just going to go over having just now finishing my second week back with planning. I'm going to be a lot more detailed maybe next month, but I'll just touch on a few things this evening. As you know, the county has a number of deferrals and text amendments currently going on. I'll talk about data processing centers specifically this evening. Um, and they're not specifically addressed in the county zoning ordinance. I would imagine they probably aren't addressed to the town zoning ordinance as well. So the county put a deferral on any development of data processing centers until February of of next year. And in that time, we'll be working on text uh amendments to to address. Obviously, there's concerns about data processing centers, solar, all kinds of things that, you know, the state could mandate on on local jurisdictions. Other things going on, billboards, uh accessory dwelling units, self storage, those are all either text amendments or deferrals that are going on. and I'll get additional details back to you next month regarding those. Uh, as you know, we're also working on a master plan update. Uh, the staff uh is working on uh master plan workg groups uh with citizens and compiling data for housing uh the economy and agriculture. We also have started a youth outreach as well. I got the chance to go to Carol Community College last week and interact and the kids were surprisingly more engaged than I would have thought they'd be. We met with the student government association out there. Obviously, they're going to be pretty engaged in this. But we took it out to the cafeteria and that's where

I thought we would find some indifference, you know, kids walking by and giving us strange looks, but they walked right up and and got involved. So, what topics did you hit them up with? We took a uh board with an overlay like a paper overlay where they could see the picture underneath and the exercise was to take Westminster Town Mall and redevelop it. What would you if you could develop or redevelop the site? Wow, that's awesome. What would you like to see on this? And I'm sure we're probably going to maybe post some of the results. That's cool. That's exciting for them to be involved in doing that.

Yes. Uh water and sewer master plan. Uh the trienal update has been uh pushed off till 2027. So we've been given a year extension on that as you guys are probably aware that's the three-year update on on the full plan itself, but the spring and fall amendment cycles should still be right on schedule. I actually went over to the WRCC meeting today. Okay. And um I met Ethan. Yes. Ethan Strickler. Ethan Strickler who will be handling the water and sewer master plan evidently. Yes. And so I told him I will be reaching out in the very near future because we'll need a sewer amendment.

Good. Ethan has a pretty good background. Uh worked with a municipality in Frederick County as like the town manager and and also has worked up in Pennsylvania as well. Okay, good. And then the annual report uh has the town approved Yeah. your portion of that. Okay. Uh so a draft of that document uh should be before you in May for for a thumbs up so we can get that down to the state and get that approved. Any questions? No, not from me. Anybody else? Well, thank you very much. And again, welcome. Thank you.

Okay. Is there any other business? Any public comment? Well, then we need a motion, please, to adjurnn. Motion to May I have a second? All those in favor? So approve. Thank you for your attention.