Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Now I'm going to open this meeting with the pledge of allegiance. Please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I want to thank everyone who came out tonight, especially with the weather being what it is. And I want to thank those who are connecting to the meeting tonight virtually through the Carol Media Center. Thank you to them. Um the first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from January. As a reminder to the commissioners, uh we waved the meeting in February. Um, and so we are now addressing uh approval of the minutes or discussion of the minutes from the January meeting. So I'll pause and let you look those over. Um, as a general reminder, I believe there were two commissioners who are absent. So in approving the minutes um you know uh vote accordingly uh or I should say don't vote accordingly if uh if I'm too leading there. So with that pause uh do we have a motion to approve or disapprove the January 27th planning commission meeting minutes? Um, can I just make a correction on my name under number two? It's just it's just misspelled. We sure will, Matina. Um, we left out we left out an R. Duly noted. Thank you. Thank you. But I will I will make a motion to approve. Okay. A motion has been made to approve the minutes from January. Do I

have a second? I'll second. We have a second from Commissioner Buts. We have a discussion. Any further edits or comments or corrections? Hearing and seeing none, then all those in favor of the motion to approve the January 27 Planning Commission meeting signify by saying I. I. I. All those opposed abstain. One abstension. abstain and a second abstension. So the motion is passed with two abstensions. Thank you. Thank you, Deborah. And I'll sign that at the end as as we usually do. This is the part of the agenda now where we open the floor and the microphone to any citizen comments that uh that a citizen wishes to make. Um, and as I always do, I ask that those comments be on topics other than in the evening's agenda. Uh, when we get to those topics in the agenda, I will um allow and ask for any public comment relative to that topic. So, the floor is open. Do I see any interest in a public comment? Council member Deoter. All right. Good evening everyone. Steve Demoter, uh, council member, resident of 32 years of the town. This is this is kind of an unplanned stream of consciousness comment I want to make. Um, and it's not necessarily specific to any one agenda item. It's it's a generic comment. So again, I've been a council member for three and a half almost four years. I am the liaison to the economic development

commission and part of what I do as a member of the EDC. I I and a council member, I take it upon myself, you know, I walk around town, I talk to the small businesses, I see how things are going. Um, and some of the feedback I get is, um, since CO, a lot of our small businesses, they're they're hurting. They're they're they're still trying to recover and get their their customer base back. Uh, they're trying to make improvements to their businesses all the while. And my my main comment I I was a public servant for about 26 years in in government and I'm reminded of this myself and I and I'm not trying to be preachy but I just asked that you remind yourselves. You know, we we are we are the government for the town and our role is to support the citizens and support our small businesses and we want to certainly follow rules, follow processes, follow the code, but we need to be customer and assistance oriented. And so if there are ways to help facilitate our small businesses in making improvements to their businesses, additions to their businesses, maybe some of those improvements are safety related for the benefit of their customers. um let's let's try and give our small businesses the benefit of the doubt and see how we can work to accommodate their needs, help them improve all the while being true to our code and our requirements. So that that's all I ask is just to remind us all of you know we are the government for the town. We're here to support our citizens and within

those citizens we have small business owners and we need to try and nurture them and help everybody be successful. So that is my comment. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Is there any other interest in another public comment? Seeing none, I'll close the citizen comments portion of this evening agenda and move into uh discussions with our Carol and Frederick County planners. Um if I may, John, and you can certainly add on. Uh we usually start with our Carol County planner. That liaison with Carol County is uh is still open and I believe uh most recently they've indicated and John please correct me. they've indicated that they are actively hiring for that liaison to replace uh the previous liaison. Um in the meantime, I believe John reached out to the county bureau of planning to provide basically a fact sheet in lie of a liaison per se to give us basically what's going in the county via a fact sheet. So, I applaud John for uh getting some information to us relative to Carol County and John provided that fact sheet. Um it's the sheet on your deis here that begins at the top water and sewer. Um I'm not going to go down through this except I will elaborate on one particular entry after we've had some general comments on anything here. Um I turn to John if you want to mention anything, John. uh about Carol County. Sure. Again, so I know at the bottom here they do speak to the annual report, which if you don't if you didn't remember, we did go through this in January. Uh we feed them information every year for the annual

report they give back to the state. Um and again, we um we did fill out that information and it was signed and approved by the planning commission. So that sort of hits these bottom targets at the bottom here. We're always in communication with them. Basically, the 1 of January, I do a summary of what has happened in the town and how we move forward, any major developments, any major site plans, so they're aware of those changes. And then I would kick it back to you, Ralph, about our our uh meeting we had with the county related to our master plan. Right. So, in the middle of that fact sheet from John, there is an entry master plan update. And so um I put together a one-pager along with John provided the attached slides. And so on that particular issue, just some quick words. In January, we were contacted, we being uh John and the town staff and Martina and I were contacted to um provide a master plan overview to the county. And the rationale behind that invite which went to all the county municipalities was because they're on the threshold of creating their own update to the county master plan. And so um as you all know I believe it was in January the county set up listening or collaborative sessions with the residents of Mount Area up in the library. And so this is just another in my terms a good signal that they want to reach out as they begin doing that update that they have a sense of what the municipalities are looking to do in their 10year plans. And so as a part of that invitation we set up the date John me and Martina to go up to Westminster on March 18th and give them roughly about a 45minute presentation which is available to every commissioner under

that fact sheet. um at the heading of every slide that question and that topic was actually their question and topic that they gave to all municipalities. And so there are three specific headings. And so we met, we created a draft plan, we then vetted it through the mayor and the president of the council uh to make sure that we weren't going to get, you know, out of sync with their comments to those three areas. And so we delivered. Um, and then I'll close this topic by saying uh I think it went well. Um, we got uh some accolades for how comprehensive our plan was. And in the discussions afterwards with the Bureau of Comprehensive Planning, their equivalent of the county planners to us, uh we got a lot of interesting guidance as to helping us accomplish some of the things we mentioned in that brief. Um working with their economic development folks, the equivalent of our EDC, uh working with their wreck and parks, uh and so forth. So, it was a good it was a good sit down. It was a great engagement. Um, again, the signal that I get is that they're willing to listen to the municipalities as they bring together the Carol County master plan. Um, and I provided this to the mayor and the council president and to our council liaison uh for their information. Um, so we'll just have to see what happens per their guidance uh afterwards. But um, let me open now to anything on the Carol County rollup that John provided us. Are there any questions or discussions from the commissioners? I did. Yep. I did receive this this morning, hence it's why it wasn't in your packet initially, so I apologize. Oh, no, no, it's good. Um, so with that,

uh, I'm going to turn to the Frederick County planner and, uh, Miss Vanessa Moreno is here. Uh Vanessa, once again, thanks for uh coming through the bad weather uh out here and um and as we interacted in January, um a focus more toward the eastern side of Frederick County, so forth. Great. Good evening, Vanessa. Make sure your light has a green. Is your mic on? There you go. Oh, there we go. Thank you. Hello, everyone. So, just a couple of updates on what the county's been up to. Um, with similar to Carol County, we're also working on our annual report right now to MDP. We are planning on workshopping that with the planning commission in a couple of weeks. Um, we are also working on the five-year report to MDP as well. So, kind of juggling those two things at once. Um, let's see. Our team is also holding various um public outreach meetings uh to kind of gain some fe feedback and public input on um the various plans we have in motion um such as the green infrastructure plan, the housing element and um I'm sorry, what was that last one? Um oh our um update to the historic preservation plan as well. Um we held our first two in um in Thermont in Middletown in their libraries and our last one will be in Urbana Library on April 7th. Uh we urge you to all attend if you're if you're interested or um in passing the word along to anyone else you think may be interested in um providing any input um in regards to this area of Frederick County. Um, as previously stated, Cherry Run uh that development off of Green Valley Road. Uh, I think we're anticipating that going to the planning commission sometime in April or early May. Um, so uh we're gearing up for that um presentation. And then lastly, we actually do have a resoning application

um in the Lake Linggonor area. Um it's it is currently zoned PUD, but I think they want the applicant wants to make an amendment to the phase one um application process. Um and um the applicant is looking to develop the property into 248 villa style dwelling units. It's in an age restricted community, so wouldn't have any effects to the schools and such. But um this property would also connect to the eastern I'm sorry the western portion of the future expansion of um Linggonor Town Center and bringing more um connectivity into that um area as well. And so right now the applicant is currently working through um the let's see traffic impact study and we're looking to take this through the planning commission at the end of April. So yeah, that's all I have for you guys today. to the commission. Are there any questions for Vanessa on either of those efforts? Cherry Run or the reasonzoning in Linggonor. Commissioner Wallace, you said that the the resoning application is taking them from PUD to something that would enable them. They're making a slight amendment to the phase one application process. It still will be PUD, but it's just a slight change. And um I'm sorry, I wasn't super specific. It's off of uh it's 6218 Eagertown Road. Um formerly known as a Resco Invent Investments property um and also known as a Bill Farm property. Thanks. Any other questions? And could you remind me um Miss Mareno, how many dwelling units are planned for Cherry Run? Do you Cherry Run? Let's see. Um we have 665 single family units and 164 town homes.

So that's 1,200 plus altogether. Is that um my math serves me correctly? Um 829 829. Gotcha. Okay. Wow. I do have a question. So when is the last master plan meeting at which library again? Oh, yes. That will be April 7th um from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Urbana Library. We have town council, so I won't be there. Oh, sorry to miss you. Any other questions? Thank you so much, uh Vanessa. Absolutely. Please be safe heading home tonight. Oh, absolutely. Thank you. In closing the uh county planners reports, we move on now to uh a topic on the agenda that uh references an objective that we have within our recently approved um town comprehensive master plan. And that objective is an objective that the planning commission um fair to say that we took on for ourselves to be the objective owner. And it has to do with updating the 15-year-old design guidelines that the town provides to developers uh when they do come forward with site plans, preliminary, final, etc. And the design guidelines are there to help guide those developers in um facades, roof lines, materials, sidewalk, landscape, sidescape, streetscape designs which are compatible with the town and with the planning commission. Uh so it's a great aid for developers to come in early knowing they are within the acceptance levels of such designs. And so again I

state that those design guidelines are roughly 15 years old and we took on during the development of the master plan the importance of updating them. In the January meeting, uh John, the zoning administrator, I believe, provided everybody with a copy of the design guidelines um with a kind request that um we look them over in the interim uh because tonight what I wanted to do was highlight that objective, which is going to be updating these guidelines via a fivep person committee. That's the wording used in the master plan for this objective. And so I provided a copy of that objective for everybody uh so that you could reference it if you need to. And you'll see that that fivep person committee uh is is constituted with uh John uh the town engineer Barney uh two volunteers from this planning commission and then a member at large because we felt inclined to ensure that a town resident was also involved with what was good ideas, bad ideas, again quality of what we want to keep in harmony with our town of facades, roof lines, materials, so forth and so on. Um, before I focus on trying to get two commissioners to join that committee, I will say with respect to the town resident, um, I'm confident that we have identified that person um, and that person has made application to the mayor for consideration. uh as it's written in our objective uh much like we are here by appointment through the mayor with approval from the council, we wrote that citizen at large to also follow that

same process. And so that form was provided to that interested resident and um she has completed it. As to whether uh that appointment will appear in the April 7th council meeting, I I do not know if it's too late to get that in there. Um, council member Evans, I haven't seen the packet yet. Gotcha. But it it it it may be um it it's of course dependent on uh Miss Holly, I think, you know, building that agenda and um and so forth. Um but tonight, again, coming back to why is this being mentioned? It's because it's work that we called out and there are two members of this day is here that uh that uh I'm asking to step forward and do that. Um as I've said to every owner of the objective and this is what we discussed in making the master plan. The way the objective is described in the plan sets about a goal and then underneath it, it gives suggested implementing tasks and reference materials. And it's no different for this particular task. And so you can see that it begins with forming that committee, looking over the available material, including the outdated design glide guidelines, including other municipality design guidelines for examples and inspiration. and then building a timeline or a schedule within those five members as to when they can meet, how they can meet to go ahead and start crafting an update to these these old guidelines. Um, so with that, um, and again with a copy of it, um, I'm going to open to anyone who wants to ask any questions or throw up

their hand to become one of those two. Um, there may be a reward in it. Look at that. Why did he do that? Is there is there any interest? I don't have a copy of that. I wasn't at the January meeting, so I would love a copy of that. Okay. Uh, there's there's um extra copies on the table. Okay. In the lobby. Yeah. I I put mine in a notebook. Uh he provided them loose. Um I just stuck them in a notebook. Um, but yeah, they are they are available. Um, and I Ralph, real quick, I did pull some of these other guidelines up. They are enormous documents, so I didn't want to print them out for everybody. I figured we'll send them electronically. There you go. Right. If anybody needs a hard copy, I can make it, but I mean, we're talking 300 pages if I pull three of them together or so. No, a copy that's that's electronic is fine. It could be edited. So something that could be well I think back to how we we're going to probably pick one person be it me or whomever else would be the person would be holding that hard document right and then you know I think you know that that is critical in how we handle that. So the undocument has all the information in it. So that's that's a and footballs it would and and again um if I were on this fivep person committee it would be totally within bounds for the fivep person committee to ask for architects to come forward and give ideas you know what's what's contemporary materials what's contemporary designs that's totally within now that's that's an example of you know this is not lockstep objective guidance Um, but if I were on the committee, I would also kind of, you know, solicit not only what's out there written, but also architectural advice and and so

forth. Um, again, we're trying to help developers down the road with getting as close to the quality and harmony of our current town appearance uh as possible um in the realm of acceptable. So, any interest? So, great. Okay, so we have one. I um so I do have questions. Is this going to be virtual in person before our planning commissions? Uh great question. And again, I leave that to the five members as to what best fits their schedules. Okay. Um pass that down to Steve. Look at that. So, some town some town swag and um there's no uh there's I was going to say there's no burn. Give the gifts out till you have the second one. The second person is going to expect that cup too. That's right. Uh so, so um I hope hope I answered that. I again that kind of goes back to the committee once they form and get together they can ratify some of these steps. they can add to them. They can interview other people who are in the smarts on design guidelines. Um, and I can piggy back on that real quick. Sure. I'm sure myself and Barney, I can't speak for Barney, but yeah, we would make ourselves available. You know, if it's after hours, then so be it. Um, I mean, we I appreciate all the volunteers and your time. So, if it has to be in an evening and it's virtual or in person, um, I'd make myself available. And also the the six-month timeline, it might be difficult if we're soliciting uh some architectural uh advice and stuff. So I don't think and again we could meet whatever is coming in for everybody. It might be every other month. Who knows, you know? So just making sure we make

the good document for the town. Yeah, I I totally concur with that. And um no, if this work takes more than 6 months, I don't see that as a problem because we'll still as we always have been evaluate every plan that comes before us on its merits. This is to just get them closer to what we think is agreeable in design in design guidelines. Um well, I think we have another person that might be willing to chime in. Um, well, Bill, I think you've had a lot of pull in the previous plan. I think it'd be great to pass it to somebody who might be and I'm willing to help. Okay, Commissioner Walls, did you have a question or Oh, no. I was just going to say I'm willing to volunteer. Okay. Uh, I think we have them both then. And um, this is a limited edition folder. Put your taxes in it. Look at that. The the cut more and more glass. Well, well, listen, I I thank both of you and um and so for the rest of the commissioners, I would say help them wherever and whenever we can. ideas, suggestions or whatever because you know at some point they're going to have a draft that's going to replace these and I would imagine it totally reasonable in their schedule of work in their work plan. Uh we will be having somewhat of the first look on that. Okay. So there will be work for the rest of us for sure as as this effort matures. So again, thank you to Commissioner Omali, Commissioner Wallace, and

um once that fifth member is from the residence is um is appointed and confirmed by the council, then I think uh the group can go ahead and start working through the task. Fair enough. Any other issues on this task? Is it is it possible to have more than five? Um I I think uh so the objective calls five. Okay. Um, I I think it if you want to be like an alternate Sure. I'd love to be an alternate for that. So, it's not called out in the objective. Here's a piece of gum. I've got mints. I'm good. Okay. Um, so so John and Barney, um, just thoughts on that. Do you see a problem with a six as an alternate, a non- voting alternate in case either Steve or somebody doesn't show up or Commissioner Wallace? So, okay, I'm okay with that. I'm I'm okay, too. Let me run it by the mayor and Tim just to be sure, but I I think it's a grand idea. Uh, so if the five agrees with that, then they will have to keep Commissioner Bea informed, right? So that at any point he can ruck up, he can step up and um, you know, and join the effort. So, as a as an alternate. Okay. Um, enough on that item. Uh we're right into the end here with reports and other business. Um Councilman Evans uh from the council meetings. Okay. Um I will go back to February since we did not have a February meeting. Um it was a pretty short town council meeting for new business. We granted the sledge hauling contract to TEM for three years. That was unanimous. Um, for ordinances, ordinance 2024-24 was approved unanimously in regard to a budget amendment to move 95,000 over to Rails and Trails East for

covert and paving needs. Ordinance 2025-1 was approved to buy two new police cruisers. One was taken out of a commission and we also needed another one for the extra officer. And then resolution 2025-1 approving the town's 2023 2033 master plan was approved unanimously. Uh for nominations, Lucy Regal was appro reappointed to streets and roads. Elizabeth Poffo was appointed to EDC and Stacy Spearman was appointed to sustainability. That was it for February. Now on to March. Um before the meeting we swore in our new lieutenant uh Brian Hopkins uh to the Mount Airy Police Department. He comes from Baltimore uh retired Baltimore with over 25 years of service. For new business, we tabled the conversation about the PWA for Antidum Broadband regarding the fiber optics due to their lack of repres representation. April 19th, we will be holding uh shred event from 9 to 12 and the curbside bulk pickup will be on May 10th. For ordinances, we scheduled and held the public hearing regarding the ordinance 2025-3 revision and amendment of the zoning map. There was a lot of good feedback uh from concerned citizens regarding some of the proposed changes. Um we will be voting on that uh next week at the April town council meeting. For nominations, Michael Shippen was appointed to streets and roads. Austin Dich and Diane Bis were appointed to sustainability. And next town council meeting is next Monday right here at town hall. And that is all I have for my report this month. April 7th, right? Yep. Yes. Is there a public hearing? If Councilman Evans, I'm sorry. Is there a public hearing prior to the opening of

the regular council meeting? The public Yes. Why did I forget that? Yes, there is a public hearing. Right. Um trying to remember what that for the or was that the I don't think it's for the Oh, that was last time. Not for the reasoning. No, that already occurred. That was for the police station. Yeah. Thank you. There you go. For the for the bond. Police station bond. Right. Okay. Hey, thank you very much. Um the zoning administrator John has also provided two of his uh zoning administrator reports January and February. Uh these are before you. Um I turn to John. John, are there any highlights on either of these? Not really much to mention. It's uh pretty much their normal if anything a little less than we normally would have for um total permits. So I don't hope if anybody has any questions. I can clearly answer them hopefully. Any question on the zoning administrator reports January or February for John hearing? None. Then the last item is a reminder that our next planning commission meeting will be uh for April on the last Monday of April, which is April 28th. Uh here again in town hall at 7:30 p.m. Uh and as I always do, I quickly look left and right on the deis. Are there any last topics for a commissioner to introduce for this evening's agenda? Seeing none, it is roughly 8:02 p.m. and this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.