Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Meeting the order for the Queen Anne's County Planning Commission on July 9th, 2026. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Public comments? Okay, updates, legislative and legal matters. Good morning, Amy Mordoff, Planning Director. I have a few updates.

uh... as you know we had a a long list of citizen sponsored text amendments three of them were approved on the ninth of june and will become effective on the twenty fifth of july those were amendments to the uh... airport ken island gateway district and the wbc had two text amendments those will become effective uh... in july as i said uh... two of them 2606, 2605, 2606 is the suburban commercial proposal to change the impervious surface limit from 45 to 80% and then the proposal to alter the supplemental gas standards relative to the setback from an intersection and how you measure that setback. Those two text amendments had their public hearing on the 30th of June and are potentially up for a vote at the commissioner's next meeting, which is on the 14th of July. The other two text amendments that are still hanging out there are relative to the open space provisions, both in the TDR and NCD districts. Those projects have had, those two text amendments had their public hearings on May 26th. And then on the 9th of June, when they may have been voted upon, the commissioners were considerate of comments that were received relative to maybe narrowing down a non agricultural uses that are permissible in open space, uh, specific to projects that have been subject to the, the lot line adjustment as proposed. So the commissioners requested that staff put forward an amendment for their consideration. So they are going to introduce an amendment that is substantive enough because we are looking to change what is permissible in the open space. So at their next meeting, which is the 14th of July meeting, that amendment to the two amendments which is really one amendment which will apply to both because the open space provisions are in one table. So the TDR and NCD provisions sit in the same place in terms of what is permissible in open space. So that amendment will be presented and introduced at the 14th of July meeting and will come back to you for recommendation. So that one's taking a little longer to go through the process. In terms of general updates, just to let you know, I had mentioned to you the Turning Point Energy case, which is three co-located community solar projects that total almost 10 megawatts and is sited in the town of Centerville's growth area. I had mentioned that we were going to intervene in that case, and Lindsay on our behalf filed that petition to intervene, which was entered into the record on the 8th of June. And we are just continuing to participate in the Public Utility Law Judge and the Public Service Commission's consideration of that case. There are several dates that are relative to submitting testimony and briefs, and Lindsay's just been keeping up with that. we will be making comments and going on the record as appropriate to represent what we feel is the correct interpretation of our code and the state's renewable energy provisions. Additionally, we had Canceled our August meeting for the maker conference There was a thought that we might hold a special meeting in August if we had any items for the agenda But we do not so our next meeting will be on that and the 7th in September I was trying to get the date.

So no August. Okay.

No, no August but at the Mako conference, which is the 12th through the 15th of August just to let you know that I'll be representing the county on a panel that is discussing building the bigger picture and that is the county's I'll be the county voice on a panel discussing a lot of the state provisions that impact development and how the county can leverage some of its resources and its own zoning to maximize some of the positive aspects of that partnership as we've seen a lot of legislation that impacts our local zoning codes. Additionally, the Mako Planners affiliate will hold a work session and I'll be chairing that session as the president of the planners affiliate for Mako.

That's everything. Miscellaneous stamp items. Those were my miscellaneous items. All right, major project.

Thank you.

Thank you. reliable development company. Steve.

Good morning. I'm Steve Johnson, senior planner with Planning and Zoning. It's good to see everybody again. I want to thank Rob for filling in for me last month. I hope he didn't give you too much trouble. As stated by the chair, we are here to discuss SP 26-02-0172 for reliable development company LLC, who is proposing to construct a 40,040 square foot building for the design and fabrication of specialty vehicles and is requesting major site plan approval. This project did receive concept plan approval in December of last year. What you're about to see is essentially the same as what was presented then. Projects located in Stevensville, south of Route 50 and east of Pier 1 Road behind the Target. More specifically, tax map 56, parcel 20, lot 109 totals 4.411 acres and is located off Ellendale Farm Lane in Stevensville. The target is the large white building you see at the center of your screen there And as you can see by the aerial the property is currently utilized for agricultural use Property zoned urban commercial and it's located within Chester Stevensville growth area It is also located in the priority funding area, which is not shown on the screen Properties partially located within the RCA designation of the critical area. This is the dark green sliver of property on the east side there. That area is subject to an easement that limits use to passive recreation, planting, and landscaping not associated with the proposal. No part of this proposal encroaches upon that area as required. All Chapter 18 landscape requirements are met with this proposal. That includes on-site, parking lot, street buffer, and screening plantings. There are .189 acres of non-tidal wetlands and .52 acres of the associated buffer on site. These are the bright green areas at the center of your screen. The applicant is proposing to disturb .188 acres of wetlands and .435 acres of buffer. This disturbance has been authorized by MDE and a copy of that authorization was included in your packets. There are 0.40 acres of woodlands on site, of which the applicant is proposing to clear 0.15 acres. That is delineated on your screen as the hatched brown and white area. Forest conservation has been addressed with the original subdivision, and there are no steep slope streams, erosion hazard areas, endangered species, or areas of 100-year floodplain on site. Here's a look at the site plan. Access is taken off of Thompson Creek Road, shown circled in yellow on your screen. All UC District non-residential development standards are met with this proposal, including floor area and impervious area, which are both well below the maximum permitted. All Chapter 18 parking requirements are met with this proposal, and stormwater will be provided on site and has been reviewed and approved by DPW. Should you have any questions regarding the stormwater on site, there is a representative from DPW here to answer any questions you may have. Property will be served by public water and sewer and the project meets the requirements of the adequate public facilities ordinance. A copy of the APFO approval letter was included in your packets as well. There is a overhead flight easement that runs through this property which restricts structures and plantings to a maximum height of 35 feet. This proposed development will comply with that restriction as the building is proposed to be 34.8 feet in height and all plantings will be kept below 35 feet. It should be noted that the airport manager does support conditional approval of the project subject to the conditions that were included in the staff report. There are road improvements proposed as part of this development. They include milling, resurfacing, restriping, and minor widening along the south side of Thompson Creek Road there in the dark, dark gray that you see on your screen. That is to supply a full width shoulder and curb. During concept plan review, the Planning Commission had concerns with truck turning movements in and out of this site. To address that, the applicant has developed a truck turning exhibit that was included in your packets. This is a snippet from that. This is the inbound traffic coming into the site. The trucks are shown as light blue, and the paths they take are shown as purple on your screens. And this is what outbound turning movements may look like. It's my understanding that the applicant has brought their traffic engineer here, so if you have any questions, they should be able to address those. Here's a look at the renderings of the building. This is looking towards the south. This is the entrance of the front of the building. This is looking towards the northeast. Shows the west side and the rear of the building. This is looking towards the northwest, which is the east side of the building and the rear again. And this is looking towards the southwest. With that, before I turn it over to the applicant, I do want to thank them. They were a very good partner in this review. Both the applicant and the engineer worked really well with us, and I want to give them a compliment for that.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Tim Glass, Land Engineering. And to my far right is John Briance with Tech Ops. I remember seeing him before. And to my immediate right is Dorsey Schultz with Reliable Real Estate Development. Mark Healy, as Steve mentioned, is also behind me with Traffic Concepts. And Genevieve McFarlane is also here as well. Thank you, Steve. That was pretty comprehensive on what we could or discuss any further. I will just simply mention to you that, with regards to the SHA approval and access, we've checked all the boxes there. Essentially where we're at right now is submitting for final bond estimates for surety and submitting the actual application. I mean, we're through that process with them. And also, I think Steve just mentioned that we have the MDE letter of authorization for the little bit of non-tidal wetland buffer permits that we'll need for this. That has been issued. Quick note on drainage and stormwater management. The site's been designed to meet the needs of really the site layout, what the owner needs to have accomplished on that site to conduct his business effectively, as well as circulation and stormwater drainage features. So on site we have one microbioretention area, which is an ESD practice as required, and two submerged gravel wetlands to not only capture that runoff directly from all the impervious areas, But to store it treated attenuated and reduce flows ultimately in total off of the site per requirements so. That in a nutshell is as a stormwater it does provide more than required of the environmental site design volume which is a volume of water that you have to capture whole treat filter and then treat before it's released so we do comply with with those requirements as well. And as Steve mentioned also I mean we're prepared to essentially you know, take care of any minor technical. There's a couple of minor comments we got from Sanitary District about some notes and specs and pipe material and some things like that that's already listed in their, in their, um, standard details and construction criteria, but they wanted us to, um, kind of dot the i's, cross the t's on the plans. There's a couple of minor technical notes we've got to deal with there, and then we've got sureties and cost estimates that are that are produced and prepared, ready to submit back to DPW so we can get the maintenance and inspection agreements recorded for stormwater. These are all kind of the finish line items that have to be done on all these commercial jobs. Anyway, so we're prepared to wrap all this up, close this out, and help John get moving forward with what he intends to do with this site. And with that, I think, John, if you might want to say a few words about the project, who you are, and so forth, that would be helpful. Sure.

John Briana some the president at Tech Ops specialty vehicles have been there for nine and a half years I'll echo what what Steve said you know I think working on a project like this in any County is is difficult and I think the amount of teamwork that's needed over time and it does take time is a important in the county both Steve and Rob have been great in coordinating with us numerous site visits a lot of engagement about how we comply, but also, you know, kind of meet the needs of the business and as we evolve. I'll mention just a couple things about the business itself, the physical location, the actual, you know, location itself and some of the people involved in the business. The best way to describe what we do, and I think most people know, but it's to just kind of talk about some examples of projects that we do. We do a lot of work for the US government in a lot of state and local, a lot of Maryland-centric work. Everybody kind of knows about FIFA World Cup and the fact that that's going on. Most of the first half of this year, our business was involved in designing and building three-quarters of the vehicles that are being used at FIFA World Cup for a lot of the drone defense nature and security aspects of what they're doing. That's an example of it. It's trucks and trailers, and they're being used to kind of track and mitigate threats from a security standpoint to high-profile events, national-level security events around the country. That's some of the work we do. Our biggest customers tend to fall within the U.S. government. Homeland Security is a principal customer of ours, and the agencies, the departments within Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Federal Protective Service, groups like that. So that's kind of a little bit of what we do. We have engineers, we have technicians, a lot of trades in the building, and then typical kind of front office administrative support. The physical location ends up being very important for the business, and I'll give just a couple examples of it. One, in dealing with our customers, you know, the U.S. government and kind of a lot of the management of projects like this tend to be headquartered out of the D.C. area. The ability for those customers to come to us physically, think about building a house. You want to sit down with an architect and look at the review, put your hands around it. As the house is getting built, you want to visit it, see how it's going. With the overall intent to serve the U.S. government and give them what they need to do their job, the physical location facilitates a lot of that progress. So being close to the DC metro area. In addition to that, we serve a lot of military groups. Aberdeen Proving Ground is a customer of ours. Pax River area, Webster Outlying Field is a customer of ours. So some of the military installations around the Maryland area also facilitate just good business practice and the ability to host customers when needed and have them be a part of the project and get what they need ultimately to support their mission. The business has been growing. I've been there nine and a half years and we've nearly grown every year I've been there. KRM has been an amazing host, they're great. The business park is in high demand. And the facility itself wasn't necessarily set up for what we do as a business. larger doors to bring vehicles in and out of the building. Efficient work that's associated with that. The height of the building inside in order to do some of the testing we do on some of the vehicles. And it just wasn't set up for that. So they have a backlog of requirements. We've been able to scale and grow there recently, but the reality is we need to find a new home. And this headquarters is in support of that. In addition, there's Sensitive nature in some of what we do. So the ability to secure vehicles on our lot, not have it be such an open area, things like that end up facilitating what we do and also allow us to consider. More confidential work with the, for the, for the government. The people in the building are critical to what we do. It's a, it's a Maryland business. It's a Maryland LLC. It's owned by Marylanders. Numerous Naval Academy graduates in that group. We are a veteran-owned small business. And then we pull from both the western and eastern shore of Maryland to support what we do. Head of Engineering is a University of Maryland grad. um our front office um you know somewhat comes from the western shore some from the eastern shore but a lot of our technicians and trades do come from queen anne's county and that's critical to what we do the maritime industry is a nice sister industry to what we do if you understand boats and working in engines and and tinkering with tractors and etc you tend to to be able to pick up what we do and that's important for us to be able to continue to grow to continue to find labor that we need to support what we do right here in the county. So I say all that just to say that we're a business that's on the move and successful, and it's in many respects because of where we're located. And it's as much a Maryland and Queen Anne's County story as anything else, and I think our ability to continue to be here to grow here is important and i think uh i think that's a large amount of pride that everybody can take in in the success of this business but a collective success of a maryland and queen's county business thank you john uh i guess at this point um you know we would we would entertain any questions you guys have uh we'll be happy to answer those otherwise you know we would

Respectfully request your approval of the final site plan so that we can button this project up in I guess I get John moving in the right direction here I'd better go ahead then Steve can can you give us some sort of graphic of where the runway is for Bay Bridge Airport in relation to the building?

Yeah, I might have to pop out of my presentation real quick. I

I'm curious as to whether the building's directly in the approach path to use a pilot term or whether it's offset.

So the the property and questions here that's highlighted in blue And here you're that tells me what I know what I'm asking. Okay. Yep Yep, thank you.

Sure Question regarding your traffic patterns and if you want to bring up your traffic person or if you can address that and primarily it is And I'll give the county Department heads up that they'll be asked probably to weigh in on their opinion as well looking at the So we're calling this your traffic post sign for outbound trucks leaving the proposed project going westbound or eastbound on 50 and recalling the conversation we had about ingress and egress out of this particular property at that intersection with Route 18 or 8 south. And so why are the westbound traffic exiting your property crossing a thoroughfare that's in a car sometimes challenging. And why are we sending you suggesting they go left out of there, speaking specifically about larger trucks, tractor-trailer scale, and not going eastbound on that access road to the turnabout and coming back to get in the queue?

So we have 45% of our traffic trucks and passenger car vehicles traveling westbound over the bridge. So that traffic would exit the site, making a left and then a right onto Maryland 8 and using the interchange to access 50.

Right. But why not? Because that's a tricky exit coming off the property and onto that access road, whatever that name is. versus turning right, going down to the circle, coming back.

So if you go to the circle, then you're turning right onto US 50, and you've got to go down and... No, no, no.

You go around the circle and come back to get in the queue. I'm just curious.

Yeah, I mean... That's an... It's an alternate route. So turning right... Going around the circle and then coming back? Correct. Because the design of the access, as shown with the auto turn exhibit, shows that you can, WB67, I think was the truck that we used, which is the largest tractor trailer, can negotiate that.

I have no question about the engineering involved in a truck being certified to make a particular turn. Yeah, fantastic. Thank you for all that information and data. I'm just talking about logistically speaking. I come out of Target and I often wait several minutes in a car to turn left to go to that same intersection. And I'm just wondering as a tractor trailer driver under a similar circumstance that that would be that much more challenging. I'm just curious to why we're directing traffic to the left coming out of this facility versus going right.

Yeah, I just, I think that's, you know, a professional truck driver is going to take the easiest route. I don't think going down to the roundabout and trying to.

Well, there's easy and there's safe and practical. We talk about this a lot about, right, specifically case in point are. mining extraction facilities here in the county. We require them to go way out of their way, around about over the hill through the woods to avoid certain intersections or certain parts of town that are school bus heavy or business heavy or soft shoulder, whatever the reason is. I understand what you're saying. We can direct traffic where we choose to direct traffic. And I'm just wondering if we're currently under that yellow arrow that's proposed, if that's the safest egress from your property.

I get what you're saying. We're trying to eliminate left turns where we can.

It's a short run there, too.

But I don't think, and maybe John can answer, This is not really a large truck generator. I mean, the trucks come in and deliver parts. There's one a day or something was produced, I think. Yeah, and I'm not sure. So I analyze, traffic engineers analyze peak hour. I don't know exactly when your truck's coming in, but probably not during peak hours. I know deliveries try not to come to facilities during peak time period, so I would suspect your truck traffic is not gonna arrive during that 7 to 9.46.

Mid-morning, later in the morning, sometimes afternoon.

And I think that probably the small number of trucks accessing this site and then not being peak hour trips I would think mitigates any conflicts with the commuting public.

Okay. I see engineers representing the Department of Public Works and Roads. Can you reaffirm these comments or alleviate my concerns, Mr. Edgar or Mr. Moore, about egress of truck traffic on that stretch of road there that's pretty congested at most times? That's fine, I defer to you as to addresses the concern And it's not a major one It just seems like there's an alternate route that might be safer and better and why that's not being proposed as option a I don't know It's my question I Think you're gonna need to be on a mic sir if you don't mind I

I would add, just quickly, in support of Mr. Lay's reservations, I'd hate to be the sheriff that has to enforce unless enough space is there to clear the turn. I don't think that road sign that you proposed is particularly effective in support of Commissioner Lay's position. I'd like to see something that says no left turn for trucks.

Well, again, we ran the auto turn, and there's... there's adequate space for the largest truck to turn left.

If there's no other traffic.

Well, you wait for a gap. I mean, these are professional truck drivers. They're going to wait for a gap. I understand that. they're gonna proceed. I mean, you're also gonna have conflicts with traffic with a truck trying to negotiate the roundabout. So I think the safest way is to make, wait for a gap in traffic, it's gonna be off peak hour, make a left, and then use the state road to access US 50. I think that's the safest, most efficient route for trucks. Is that the state's position as well, sir?

To the best of my knowledge, yes. And like I said, I can take it back to our traffic engineers and traffic division in the office and ask what their thoughts are on trying to send tractor trailers up to that roundabout. That is a very small roundabout to try to make a U-turn within it, basically.

Well, if you're coming eastbound, you're cutting a U-turn on that. That's the proposed entrance route for eastbound traffic, right? Sure. You're not coming off. Again, it also suggests it's a little weird that you're going out one way, but you're not coming in that same way, right? So if you turn the page, you're suggesting that eastbound traffic go all the way down to that circle, do that hairpin U-turn that we just mentioned, and coming back into the facility. Why are you not getting off the exit ramp right off the bridge and turning right and then merging over?

Well, I mean, you're talking about going down and turning a truck, turning around the entire roundabout. If you're coming from westbound 50, you don't need to traverse through the entire roundabout.

But it's arguably a similar, if not tighter, turn, at least on the map I'm looking at.

If you're going all the way around the roundabout, the truck's going to be dragging its wheels through the center of the roundabout if you're trying to... Which I believe is built for that. Yeah, it's built for that. But again, you know, the analysis shows that and State Highway reviewed the study. They reviewed the trip distribution and the number of trips and they approved it. And then they asked for the truck turning radius, which we provided them. And then we're designing the access specifically for trucks to exit and enter.

Again, I understand all the design engineering and forethought. Fantastic. Thank you. Appreciate that. No problems, no issues. It's the simple logistics of why. You still haven't answered my question of why are we bringing trucks in one way but not the same way out. It seems to me that would be, if your argument is where you want to position yourself, that's fine. But it seems contradictory to me. This way. So I think what he's talking about is this here.

Yeah, we have distributed the traffic. There are 25 inbound AM trips from northbound. I'm on page 17. I'm looking at this exhibit here, this color-coded wrap mount. Yeah, that exhibit's not my study.

One page has you leaving one way, and the other way it's...

If I may add, this was an exhibit that we put together internally in coordination with tech ops to coordinate with that study, the count study that's in your packet as well. This is not meant for everyday traffic like we're talking about, the larger trucks. That's what this is meant for. This will be an internal kind of logistics plan just for... It sounds like, you know, based on the time of arrival, what we've done from the study, it's going to be off-peak hours. As Mark mentioned, that left turn out of the site isn't as much of a conflict because there won't be as much queuing at that time of day. Yeah.

Okay, fine, fine. Thank you. Addressed and answered.

still have waiting clarity on why inbound trucks coming from the bay bridge are going under the underpass to go to that roundabout to come back and instead of getting off at the exit that's not happening and i didn't do that in my study all the traffic um that's entering this site if if you i don't know if you have the study it's on page 17 they're arriving They use the interchange to access 8 and then they turn left onto Thompson Creek Road. So you're talking about the long run down and then...

I'm talking about this exhibit right there that has them going past your facility, coming back to it through the roundabout that we've been talking about. Why is that the preferred means of entering for eastbound traffic instead of getting off the exit immediately coming off the Bay Bridge?

to reduce one left turn in that lane at the intersection of Route 8 and Pine Creek Road.

I'm hearing contradicting positions from an expert, a traffic expert, who says trucks are going to take the path of least resistance. And then the next comment is they're going to go down underneath this, go around, skip through Maloo, and come back. I'm still not super clear on why we're not doing same entrance and egress pathways.

When I do a study, I try to take the worst case traffic scenario because it's the easiest path for me to get Approved. Sure. Human nature. Yeah. So I had all my trips from coming across the Bay Bridge, using the interchange, and then, as I said, coming down south.

The shorter run.

Yeah.

Right. The more logical, direct route.

So then we did the auto turn just to make sure that truck traffic could do what I'm showing in the study, and they can't. And then I guess Dorsey had an alternative. I don't think it's a good idea to say no left turns. I mean, I think the best access is to keep the full access movement, because again, this is a very limited Generator in terms of tractor trailers and again those tractor the tractor trailer that will visit the site Is most likely not going to happen during the peak hour.

I Hear you I don't necessarily agree with you, but it's just from a presentation, but when I'm reading this it sounds like you're a posing two different scenarios and then saying they're both the best. But I'm not. I'm saying... Okay, your team is.

Yes, yes.

And that's confusing to the people sitting over here who are trying to interpret your intentions.

If I can just kind of summarize and bring back. We've got four inbound, two outbound. Sure, sure. two inbound, two outbound. The only route that differs from what was in the traffic report was this one where I show further down at the circle. Coming back through, yep. Yes, that was only to reduce any left turn at the intersection.

That's not necessarily your preferred recommended route. That's just simply an alternative route. Simply like turning right turn only would be an alternate route. Yes, sir. Understood.

For the one tractor trailer that comes each... Once a day during off-peak hours.

Now that's clear. Sorry for the confusion. No, no. When you leave room for interpretation, you get different interpretations. But I appreciate you. Thank you. Unless the county department has anything to add or subtract from that testimony on behalf of Department of Public Works, because you've been involved in this, I'm sure.

Good morning, Lee Edgar, Chief Engineer with the Department of Public Works. I'm not quite as intimately knowledgeable with regard to the exhibit and how that all came together and such, so the applicant is really best to speak to that. But I am hearing the discussion and understand your question and concern and want to provide some insight with regard to that. Commissioner, you're always good to ask the question. As always, we're concerned about the safety and movement for our motoring public and such. In this case, as you brought up the matter of extractions and mines and such. In the review of this project, the trucks coming in and out serving this are very, very few in number. Whereas with a mine, that product is you have a vast quantity of vehicles coming in and out. I would tend to agree with the applicant that not restricting this and leaving the access to and from the site to the discretion of the truck driver would be the best scenario in this case. For example, a tractor trailer, and I don't know how many tractor trailers they would really have, indicate that was kind of the worst case scenario. Making that right turn out of the site, going back to the traffic circle and coming back, The vehicles entering that circle, even though it is marked with a deceleration speed and such, would, coming off of the state highway, would be presumably coming at a much higher rate of speed than, for example, vehicles coming off of Route 8, making that turn onto the road from that light. They have very little time to bring up speed, so I think if I were driving the truck, leaving that site, I would likely opt to wait for a clear movement to make a left turn out of the site. To your point, it may take a little while, depending on the queuing of vehicles and such, but I think it is very situational, and in this particular instance, the proposal as it is, which does not have signage or restrictions on how those vehicles which are delivering materials to or from the site would utilize their discretion. It would probably be a very challenging thing to implement, unlike a mine, for example, where that is the business and the drivers are very much trained to adhere to a haul route. When you have a manufacturing facility and occasional deliveries which may be coming in and out, Different drivers and everything. It would be very, very difficult, if not really logistically impossible, to enforce a haul route and could enter some confusion into that for the drivers who are doing it. So you're very good to ask the question. I think there are valid questions in the terms of the motorist that's going to be pulling out, but I would agree that it's best to be left to the driver for that particular delivery.

And so, Mr. Edgar, thank you. Appreciate the greatly good points all. Would you, just to clarify your comments, you would not be in favor of a sign suggesting that in the application package, quote, attention all trucks, no left turns unless there's enough space to clear the eastbound drive lane. That seems, as Commissioner Tillman stated, silly to enforce, and a professional trucker should know that they shouldn't turn If it's not safe, right? I mean, was that whose recommendation? Was that a recommendation of the traffic expert for safety purposes?

That was our internal. Clarity? Just notify all truck drivers. We post a sign on the gate of the site as they're leaving. This wouldn't be an out on the road.

It's not a legal enforceable traffic sign. It's just a, hey, guys, you're gals. You're coming into a congested area. Be mindful. Okay. Does that work for you? Yeah, it does. Thank you, Mr. Edgar, appreciate it. You're very welcome. Thank you.

I would like to note that Art's been among us for a while.

And if he doesn't connect, he may do his vote through me if that's okay. Okay, sure. We've been emailing back and forth. As long as you're okay, Lindsay.

Yeah, as long as you announce it. Okay. Yep.

Okay. Any other questions? Other comment? Sure.

I arrived a little late and wasn't able to sign up. If I can, can I submit this? Commissioner is Jay Falstead, Queen Anne's Conservation Association. I'm not here to oppose this project, but I did want to raise just a couple of things for you all to consider and also hope to make an appeal to the applicant himself because there might be a couple of things here that could both be a cost savings and also beneficial for the environment. So I reviewed their stormwater management plan. When it comes to the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland's rivers and creeks, we're making a lot of progress in a lot of areas. But the one area where we continue to fail is stormwater. And the applicant is doing what's required right now, but there might be a better way to do this. And this would be with a pervious surface within the parking lot. And the document that I've just provided to you was generated off an AI search. What it shows that a pervious parking lot can actually be cheaper than some of the storm water management plans that we currently have in place. And so one of the things that I would really like to appeal to the applicant for is to consider that and look into it because it may be a cost savings and it would certainly be more beneficial to the environment. The other two things that I just want to mention also which again appealed to the applicant. When it comes to the landscaping of the property, if you all could make a specific note of planting only native species trees and shrubbery. Planting native is important for a lot of reasons, but especially in the trees. An oak tree, for example, harbors up to 400 different organisms locally, and that can be beneficial to our environment. And then very last, on your lighting fixtures for your buildings, there's a website called the Dark Sky Effort, and it's meant to reduce light pollution. In this area of Kent Island light pollution is a problem. There are fixtures online that are dark sky compliant which still provide businesses with the necessary light but they angle it downward and it's not like the big flood lights that you see all over the place. So three environmental things that I hope the applicant will consider and it could be something that we could all celebrate. I'd love to see more businesses do these types of things And it's a bragging right for Queen Anne's County and for the business. And a lot of times, many of these things are less costly than some of the other things that are out there. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Nothing, one line, okay.

Can I get a... Just one follow-up on that, Madam Chair, if I may. Based on Mr. Falsett's comment, I'm looking over at staff. Is this, are the landscaping plans not required, or at least in large part to be required to be native plants? I think the majority of these are native.

Their landscape architect is here.

he may be able to answer your question about from my review of the list they appear largely native but I'm looking to you guys that I think there's actually language in our code that requires we remember going through this with previous directors when readily available some loop in there that allows people to substitute if we can't get stock or something but that's the intent is to be if not all largely in part native plantings yes correct

Okay. Hello?

I'm allowing her to make comments, but no one

Hello. Did they hang up.

Hi Lauren if you're there you're you can unmute now I made you a. Gave you the ability to at least. Lauren are you there. I don't know. She's saying it won't let her unmute but. Lauren if you can type your comment I could read it for you I'm not sure why it's not letting you unmute. Need some elevator music.

Yeah, it's not allowing.

Yeah.

Sorry.

This is your only sole facility, correct?

This one that we're, yes. No other locations.

Fully relocated.

And how long have you been in the business park? Oh, six. That's 10 years. Since 17.

Are you bringing more jobs with this building? How many do you have now, and how many are you bringing?

It's, well, I mean, it depends on contracts, basically. You're best right that way. You don't have to be exact.

It's not past that.

I mean, it'll allow us to get.

All right, Lauren, could you try unmuting for us one more time, if you can hear me?

A fuller one shift of employees. Okay.

But how many would you, if you don't want to say how many employees you have, that's fine, I guess.

No, it's on site on a given day is probably around 40.

But you have people off site, too, that the business is supporting.

My mic's going through. Oh, it is possible she had muted on her end. I'm not getting any text response, and I've made the meeting available so anyone could unmute, and no one's unmuting.

Mr. Lee, in response to your question about landscaping, on-site encourages the use of native species. Encourages the use. For the on-site landscaping, yes.

Okay, she did send in a message. This is from Lauren Smuts. She said, sorry about that. I would like to know what the applicant is doing to adhere to the design standards in the UC zone guide, especially in regard to compatibility with surrounding development, such as residential. Apologies that it won't let me unmute.

So we've submitted the UCTC design guideline notes and memo along with the package. Through the concept plan review, the colored elevations that are included, and extensive review with staff, we're confident that we meet the standards within the design guidelines. It was a major topic of conversation during the concept plan phase and from that approval we've had no substantial changes to the design of the building and the associated memo and code okay does she have further comment she says if they can please share some of the elements integrated into that design I will go on record to say this does meet the TCUC design standards we work very hard with these the applicant to get to this design initially it needed some work and they've come a long way with it so I just want to put that out there

There was a memo in your packets that explains all this.

Okay. Any other questions? Any other comments?

I'm good.

Can we get a proposal?

Recommendation. Madam Chair, having considered the testimony presented and having reviewed the findings outlined in the staff report, be it hereby resolved that the Planning Commission, regarding the request by a reliable development company, LLC, for major site plan approval to construct a 40,040 square foot building for the design and fabrication of specialty vehicles between a 4.411 acre parcel in the Urban Commercial Zoning District, and as more particularly described in Department of Planning and Zoning File SP number 26-02-0172, Hereby finds the site plan does meet all requirements of Chapter 18, will not substantially increase traffic hazards or safety concerns due to traffic generated by the proposed use. The location or orientation of curb cuts or the layout of internal circulation does contain a layout of buildings, parking, roads, and utilities that does not substantially increase fire health or other public safety standards. is adequately buffered and screened to minimize potential adverse impacts to neighboring properties and public rights of way, will not substantially increase stormwater drainage or pollution, will not have an unreasonably adverse effect upon property values in the vicinity of the site, will not adversely affect the public welfare and will provide for public safety through compliance with the state fire code and with any applicable county or municipal fire codes, is compatible with the general character of the surrounding neighborhood and is consistent with the purpose, goals and objectives of the 2022 Comprehensive Plan and hereby grants minor site plan approval subject to the following conditions. All remaining edits and or documents required by the Department of Public Works, Planning and Zoning or any other reviewing agency be reviewed and approved. All remaining comments, edits and or documents required by the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration must be addressed. All required legal documents must be approved, signed, and recorded prior to obtaining final site plan signatures. All required bonds, sureties, review, and inspection fees must be submitted to the Department of Public Works and the Department of Planning and Zoning as appropriate. The conditions specified in the attached Airport Manager Review No. 3 email dated June 18, 2026 must be met. and the architecture and overall site design must substantially reflect the documents provided.

Can I make one point of clarification? The staff report notes minor site plan approval instead of major site plan approval.

Okay. I apologize. I read that and in my mind I was, okay. Just making sure. Yes, okay. So may I... amend my motion to make that major site plan approval. Thank you, Lindsay.

It's supposed to be major. Yep. Apologize for that.

Yep. All those in favor?

Aye.

Second. I'm sorry, second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Do we get Art's vote?

Art? He hasn't emailed me. And Board Member Ebersberger votes in favor of the motion.

Okay. So moved.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Public comment? There being none, can I get my favorite resolution? Second? Second. All in favor? Aye. So be it.

Oh, good. Nice and good short meeting. I'm going back to work. There you go.