Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome to the town of Sykesville Planning Commission meeting for Monday, October 6, 2025. Um, welcome to all present. First order of business is approval of the August 4th minutes. Any comments or issues on those? And I understand we can call for a vote even though there's only four of us here. So, um, do I have a motion to approve the minutes? A motion. Ken's motioning approval. Um seconding Brandon all in favor I good to go with those. Okay so we're moving on to county updates our new liaison Carlile. Am I right? Carile. Well welcome Car. Oh yeah.

Hearing point of view. I don't get a podium at Westminster.

Okay. I have a few things. Um, okay. Water and sewer. Um, the spring 2025 amendment uh includes Hamstead, Tony Town, Union Bridge, and New Windsor. Board of County Commissioners voted to adopt the amendment, and the amendment was sent to MDE for final review and approval. Um, the fall 2025 amendments include Mount Ary and Tony Town. Um, so text minutes. This uh section was updated by Claire. Uh board of county commissioners sent zoning text amendments to the planning and zoning commission for their review and recommendation. Topics include the adequate public facilities ordinance and the use off the premises signs. The commission will begin and continue their discussions in October. Um, on September 4th, the board of county commissioners voted to amend the employment campus district. Revisions will make the planned development of properties in this district more flexible and simplified. A couple of master plan updates. Master plan workg groups on housing, economy, and agriculture met over the summer to discuss and make recommendations to the planning and zoning commission. staff from comprehensive planning will provide an overview of each workg group's meeting approach during the planning and zoning commission um that was held on October 1st. Um on November 5th, the workg groupoup reports will be shared with the commission. After receiving the workg groupoup reports, the planning and zoning commission will consider them as part of a broader effort to review, update, and recommend ch changes to the county master plan. There will be many

opportunities for the public to give feedback throughout this process, which is expected to continue through 2026. Um, any annexation questions should be forwarded to Javier Toro. Those are all my updates. Okay. I I have one question. You may not be able to elaborate. I don't know. Um, the adequate public facilities text amendment. You any idea what that concerned um in terms of changing that particular ordinance? [Music] It's okay if you don't know. I just

I don't know. Um, I'm wondering when that was reviewed. I'm I'm seeing if there was I think um I think if you wanted to reach out to Claire, she's the one who um was reviewing those amendments. Um yeah, and there so it'll be going through discussions in October. I'm wondering I don't know exactly when that will be like a topic for commission, but yeah. So yeah, I would I would I'll check in with Claire about it. Sounds good. Yeah, I'll get on that. All right. It's just purely information. I just like to know what it is that's Yeah. being shifted on that. Yeah. I'll I'll ask Claire. I can send you Sounds good.

Information about it. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well, thanks. Thanks again. Okay, moving on to our business agenda. Um and I'm going to turn that over to Kevin who can lead us through it. So, um, yes, so staff thought that this meeting would be a good time to just get the planning commission together and give a brief update on some town projects. Um, and then some board of zoning up applications that we received as well, which all pertain to the uh the BCA things all pertain to the Warfield property.

Uh, so for starters, the ongoing project, uh, the final plan for this subdivision is going through town county processes. feedback from some of these agencies did result in the developers proposing to eliminate the town park drive loop and I'll pull it up on the screen in a minute so we can take a look at it. Um but then replacing that loop with an enlarged neighborhood square green space. Uh this updated configuration again is attached to the staff report and the idea is it'll serve a couple purposes. One, it'll reinforce the community oriented design principles that are encouraged by the the pattern book that'll be approved for the subdivision. It allows some space for additional neighborhood amenities and landscape features. Provides additional uh sidewalks and improves pedestrian connectivity. It reduces the overall impervious area of the total project. So that would eliminate the need for any storm water infrastructure within the actual uh neighborhood square itself. And um because I know t parking is always a hot topic, this new design maintains the same number of guest parking spaces that were uh provided in the initial design. Um, so this was admittedly a late addition to the agenda. I just got this information last Thursday when I was putting this up together to send out to everyone. Um, which is why it's kind of just added into the updates. But the planning commission is encouraged to provide any feedback uh that you have just the proposed update and then I can pass that along to the developers or if there's any questions I can ask that of the developers. Um, and then that can be be used to inform the overall plan, which again we know be brought back before the plan commission for a review approval. Uh, so we'll pull it up. I know we got a chance to look at it.

Do you know when that's likely to happen because we've been it seems it seems forever since we last saw these guys. Yeah. So, um, I'm not sure what the timeline is. I've gotten a few county comment letters so far. Um, but still waiting on the majority of approvals, including storm water, which we know is always the bare. Um, I don't think this round of storm water should be as intensive as the previous round.

Um, but they still have to get it and get several approvals before it comes back. So, it just depends on what the time, you know, how quickly it moves through the county process. And again, it's will most likely hinge on the storm water. So, this is um what we know is the what we currently approved uh preliminary plan showing the Town Park Drive loop right here with a small green space in the middle. And then what they are now proposing is getting rid of that loop altogether and just making this one big green space here and then all of these units will be accessed just through this alley in the back. Um so if plan has any thoughts we can discuss it this this evening or if you need more time to think about it certainly email me. Um,

so the unit the units are accessed by vehicle through the back, but there's pedestrian access through the front. Correct. So this is all going to be sidewalk pedestrian access to for each, you know, I guess front stoop and then, you know, they've always been rear loaded townouses. So So ve vehicle access was always um for the rear, right? I mean, there was some pedestrian parking along the loop here, which is then now been replaced with these guest spots up up here, as well as some parallel parking here and here.

Um, but yeah, so there's sidewalks go all the way through and then they said they anticipate adding in some um amenity packages and stuff in there, but they just wanted to get some feedback first before they went too far down that road. Uh, so I think this came as a result of feedback from one storm water and then two there was I know our engineers had comments on some of the pedestrian connectivity and sidewalks and crossings and stuff around that um green space because if that was actually going to be used as a pedestrian area um it just didn't seem great. So I think few different folks had had comments and they kind of led them to rethink their design there and this is what they are uh now proposing. Is this anything to do with makeup for the failures of the previous storm water plan on the public side?

I'm not sure. My guess I I don't want I don't want to speculate. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Um they they did not mention that. Um but again, they did say the additional impervious space will mean there there shouldn't have to be any storm water features in this area, which is nice. Yeah. In the sense of being able to use it as as an actual community amenity and gathering space. Is it is it the town's responsibility or the homeowners association responsibility for maintenance?

That will eventually fall on the HOA once once all that gets turned over. So, I think the only pieces that will be town responsibility are the village or this road right here and then this town park drive will be public roads and then these will all be considered alleyways that'll be maintained by the HOA and then the green space will also be HOA. Okay. It's pretty much the same. Yeah. So, if you have any thoughts, concerns, questions, um, happy point of view, I like it better. The other one was really crowded in there. It just seemed like there was more roads than they needed.

Yeah. The developers when they when they reached out to me about this, they actually seemed really excited about the idea and were were hoping hoping that we were excited about it, too. Um, so that's it. I'll let him know that you guys uh take hold, but we didn't want the first time that you guys saw this to be when the plan came before u review and approval. So, just have to make sure we got this before you before that. But all right. Yep.

Great. There are no concerns or questions about that. We will keep moving along then. So, next update regarding the sexual train station. So, this project's still moving along. Um, uh, representatives are still working with the Maryland Historic Trust on figuring out compromises on the changes they want to make to the building, uh, without harming the historic integrity. Right now, I think most of the discussions are about the enclosure to the rear platform area. Um, and just finding a way to do that that can work for the the business, but also maintains the again historic integrity and um, falls in line with the rules, the guidelines of the Maryland Historic Trust. Mhm.

Um the streetscape at the south end of downtown. So phases of this project that are either complete or nearly complete. Um and all these are basically I guess complete at this point are the the Baldwin Drive and the sexual station parking lot improvements, the Oklahoma Avenue improvements with the uh new pavers as well as the removable Ballards,

the visitor center. So some additional improvements have gone on around that. some new specialized pavements around the visitor center and then the rear of the French twist as well. There's some landscaping done. Uh some future phases include improvements to the south end of Main Street itself. Uh mostly focused on pedestrian infrastructure and then improvements to that shared parking lot uh that's used by the distillery, the vinyl main and 7611 Main Street which is a DSC building. Um and then so that phase is anticipated to begin early next year but we don't want to have that area ripped up during the holidays. There's only about four parking spaces there, huh? Yeah.

So, the the improvements are going to be focused more on making it more accommodating to as a community gathering space because they have their Friday events down there. There's there's a lot of people that go down there, especially in the spring and summer obviously and congregate in that area. So, it's um and it's the the parking lot for Apache could could use some some work. So, that is mostly going to be focused towards the community gathering aspect as opposed to trying to wedge in additional parking where there's not really any space down there. The Oklahoma Avenue um removable ballards, they're there for town events. So that town that can be closed off for Yeah. So the idea there is to turn that into a pedestrian only corridor during certain events. Um

and even events where Meat Street might still be open, certain merchants can hold smaller events right there on that corridor. We could put the ballards up and and kind of close that off uh during certain times of the year. So that that was the idea there.

Yeah, makes sense. Okay. uh for the French twist. So, if you guys remember the um applicants representatives brought I guess an idea to the planning commission a little while back just to get some initial feedback for a um addition to the rear of that building that has since gotten approval from our historic district commission. Uh so since then they've just been work with architects and engineers to produce a formal site plan um to bring to planning commission. So uh we we've been in in conversation with them. So they are actively working on that. So, um I'm not sure how much longer they need to produce that plan, but as soon as it's done, we'll have it uh before you guys.

Good. Uh the service garage up the street, 7306 Springfield Avenue, aka the Joy property. So, I did reach out to the property owners there. I was told that they still anticipate moving forward with the approved site plan. Um just with a different tenant now. So, I guess the there were some I don't want to say issues that just the current tenant didn't work out or I guess the former tenant now didn't work out. Um, their lease just recently expired. So, I was told that they're going to get back in there again, clean up the clean up the everything around, clean up the inside some more um and then get a new tenant in there. We'll then go with the approved site plan, but they are um they're adamant that they want to they want to try to go with the the site plan that we approved.

Okay. Well, we're all good. It's just that there was such a fur about that at the time. It seemed like so, you know, insistent how many things on it and then it just stopped. It seemed right around the time we approved everything. Yeah, it looks worse now than it ever did. I looked at it, but I did reach out. The sidewalk's nice. It is. I did let them know that um you know, people have reached out to staff about the current conditions. I I passed that message along to them and they said that they will be out there. They said as soon as the tenant got all this stuff out, they'll be out there doing deal doing deal doing deal doing deal doing deal doing deal doing deal doing deal doing deal doing deal doing.

Good. Uh and then the last one is Maryland 851 dedication request. So following all the uh construction improvements and repaving for Maryland 851 which is Springfield Avenue from 32 down to Main Street and then Main Street from that same intersection down to the bridge. Uh the town did put in the request to the Maryland Department of Transportation to take over that road um to turn that into a town road. Uh that request did also come with a request for additional funding uh to the town so that we can do some other improvements to in the rightway improve excuse me some sidewalks itself uh other infrastructure improvements around the the road itself. Um I I anticipate that request to be granted um not imminently. So probably you know at least a few months before there's any real movement on that. But the request has has been made um now that none of the infrastructure works done. It's got frustrated and hopefully shouldn't need a whole lot of work for quite a while.

Um at least on the actual room itself. Uh so before I move on, I just want to check any questions on projects current projects that we got going on. No, that was good. Thanks.

So then we'll move on to some pending board of zoning appeals uh request and applications. So these hearings uh all three hearings we had scheduled right now for the same date for October 29th to try to get all three applications in there. Um, and I just want to note that I don't want to go into too much detail on these yet just because we're still working on putting together staff reports and packets to send to the board members. Um, but obviously wanted to keep you guys updated on what's going on there because a lot of what's happening in these appeals will would potentially likely have an impact on and you guys you guys would eventually have to weigh in on some of this at some point. Mhm. So the first is an appeal of planning commission determinations. So they the applicant submitted a request to appeal various determinations made by the planning commission during the July 7th 2025 hearing. So again that was one where their most recent concept plan was denied.

Um if you remember the motion was you know was to deny the plan because it was inconsistent with the town code and then along with that were some recommendations for future plans. Um it seems like a lot of uh this appeal focuses he excuse me heavily on those recommendations and then also on some stuff that staff actually uh noted in the staff report as well. Um so again that's so we we'll see um there wasn't a whole ton of whole lot of details in their application so we'll hopefully get some more information either before the hearing or on the hearing date itself. Mhm.

Uh the other one, so another one is they submitted a request to the VA for a zoning variance to allow for a modification to the required land use percentages that are established for the PEC zoning district. Um so they they did actually mention that I think during the July meeting that they thought that that was an avenue they could go down. Well, we recommended that as well, didn't we? Yes, we had. I think our our recommendation and I could be wrong, but I think our recommendation to them was to go to council for a text amendment. Um Okay. But I I could be wrong because I know there was at least discussions of both. Uh if they go to the BCA and the BCA says, "Oh, yeah, that's a reasonable request." It still comes back here. We're still allowed to set our own land use percentages regardless of what that decision is.

Yeah. So, this is this is an interesting one. We've kind we've been talking with the lawyer about what what the implications are, what you know, either way. Um, again, I don't want to get into too much detail about those discussions right now just because it's, you know, we're still kind of having that. But the request is the the the requested landings percentages that they are going to the BCA for. They don't match exactly what they proposed in their last concept plan, but it's it's pretty close. Um, so I guess you can kind of use your imagination for what they're asking for there because it is close to uh the percentages that they have proposed. We do some minor tweaks.

Mhm. And then the last one is an appeal of the zoning administrator's decision. So um the zoning administrator in this case our town manager um had made the decision that development on parcel B cannot proceed without an updated concept and preliminary plan which reflects the proposed changes to the overall approved preliminary plan. Um that decision was made based on the amendment section of the BEC section of our town code which basically states that any amendment uh to an approved plan needs to go through the same three-step process of concept uh preliminary and final.

Um so that was and so they are appealing that decision or I guess enforcement of that section of the town code in hopes of allowing the development of partial B the facility to proceed before getting um before actually updating the plan. Mhm. Uh so those are three applications we have so far. Again, we're still working on putting together staff reports and information to send out to the board. But as soon as all that's put together, I'm sure that becomes public information so we can send stuff out to you. And if you guys have questions about it, you can always reach out to me and I'll be happy to discuss as much as I can leading up to the hearing and then we can go from there. Obviously, I'll provide updates in the plan commission meeting following the hearings as well so that we we know where we stand on all of these. Okay. Um,

sounds good. Well, that that sounds like an interesting meeting. Yeah, we have a plan on that which should be Typically, we don't stream um live stream VZA hearings. I'm not sure if we're streaming that one or not, but I do know that uh the CMC folks are going to the very least record it for us and then it'll be available. That's on the 29th. That is on the 29th. Might make myself available that night. Say 7 p.m. on the 29th. Okay. So, we anticipate that potentially being a relatively long hearing three applications on the agenda, but uh fig better to get them try to get them all at least heard or on the uh on the agenda for one. So, sounds good.

That's all I got. Another question or concerns? No. So, so I love this like the summary. It's like it's really it's really helpful for me to like understand all the ongoing projects because every month we receive like the writeups, the staff reports. It's like a ton of amazing contacts. Like it sets you up perfectly for the month, but kind of like what I'm lacking is that overarching like view. And I'm wondering and then we even have the agenda center in the Sykesville like website with all the stuff you send us for all of the the commissions.

And um I'm wondering if like is there any way to um or who be who might be best to engage to like reconfigure some of the way this information potentially is like displayed? So like imagine like a spreadsheet that shows like all of the ongoing things and their statuses. So it's like we can achieve this bird's eye view that you walked us through like continuously. That's I mean that's something I guess obviously we don't have currently but I'm sure we could we could integrate that without too much without too much headache or at least having small blur or just small updates about these ongoing. I'm sure that's that's something we can put together. Yeah. Especially a lot of them like you were saying like they're direct like they're interconnected in a pretty in a pretty deep way.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No, I'll run that. Oh, cool. Cool. Thank you. Staff and see if we can get put something up on the website. Cool. Thank you. Continuously updates. Cool. Town updates. Is there anything? It's an agenda item, but I'm guessing cover. All right. That being the case, anybody got anything else they need to question say? All right. Um, I move that we adjourn. Do I have a seconder? Second. Brandon second. All in favor? I. And we're done. Thank you for that, Kevin. Good. Thank you, Carlile, and all that good stuff. That was relatively quick. And that's the best