Vol. 1, No. 2 7/06/22
Newsletter from the Citizens for Responsible Growth
- Time to VOTE!
- ALL CITY PICNIC!
- Ft. Detrick Success!
- Update on Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) Revitalization
- Wayside Apartments, aka Overlook East
- Update on Downtown Late Night Weekend Disturbances
- Update on the City’s East Street Redevelopment Effort
- City Mobility Fee District
- City Rental Registration Plan
- Visitation Academy
- Banner School Property
- County APFO Revision
Many Frederick residents want to know but cannot find information about or
participate in discussions of important local issues. The City and County
generally hold meetings from 3-10 PM, making it impossible for most of us to
attend meetings or weigh in on issues of interest. Our mission with this
monthly newsletter is to highlight City and County activities so you can learn more
and, with your limited time, weigh in on areas of growth and development, City
and County policies, and other local activities. Occasionally, opinions or
longer stories will be offered by knowledgeable experts/readers. We welcome
suggestions for articles focused on specific topics. Contact Kevin Sellner
(kgsellner@gmail) or Marge Rosensweig (marjorie803@comcast.net) for
consideration of your issue.
Time to VOTE!
The primary elections are upon us, including Federal, state, and County
officials. Mail in voting (including via drop-box) has begun and continues
through July 14th and in-person voting is July 19th. It’s critical to help
determine your future so VOTE!
ALL CITY PICNIC!
Everyone is welcome at the All City Neighborhood Picnic, creating
community-wide connections one gathering at a time! SUNDAY, JULY 17TH from
12-4PM Kidwiler Park ~ 551 Schley Avenue, Frederick, MD. Bring your own picnic
+ lawn chairs. A local food truck will also be there. Ice cream and water is on
the sponsors, Citizens for Responsible Growth & The Street Safety Gang. For
more information contact Gayle Petersen, SSG at streetsafetygangfrederickmd@gmail.com
or Steve Jakubczyk, CRG at jakubczyksteven@gmail.com
Ft. Detrick Success!
For more than a decade, the City has
had a road planned through Ft. Detrick’s Area B, an area with multiple burial
sites of very toxic materials, from Agent Orange, to PFAS, other volatile carcinogenic
compounds, and pathogens. A determined group of residents has fought this construction
for years, with a final success just announced in this year’s budget: There
will be no road through Area B but, instead, around the toxic dumpsite, thereby
minimizing direct exposures of road construction workers and drivers across the
site. Huge kudos to this persistent, science-informed group! Just a caution,
however, for the future: Many of the toxic compounds continue to move in a
plume of material underground with potential exposures to down-gradient homes
and the families therein. The group continues to press for City-mandated installation
of prevention technologies in all new construction locales surrounding Area B.
As well, the City is being pressed to issue a written statement permanently
renouncing the Area B option.
Update on Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) Revitalization
As reported in the June 7th newsletter, residents across the 12 NACs continue
to pursue re- emergence of NAC influence in City decisions and policies.
Reportedly, there is a City plan for the NACs in the works, led by Alderman
Derek Shackelford, to be delivered by the end of the month. Stay tuned!
Wayside Apartments, aka Overlook East
The City has received an application for construction of 79 apartments in 2 new
buildings and renovation of the historic Schley House for 6 additional
apartments on E. Patrick Street along Carroll Creek in the Carroll Creek Linear
Park. The project is largely accepted except for a July 11th Planning
Commission (PC) workshop to discuss the new buildings’ exteriors, e.g., all red
brick consistent with the Union Mills warehouse and surrounding residences east
and west of the new apartments or a mixture of some brick and substantial upper
story white cement panels found in many contemporary apartment buildings,
complementing the HPC-mandated color of the adjacent Schley House. If
interested in future architecture in the Carroll Creek Linear Park east of the
Union Mills warehouse (location of Idiom, Steinhardt’s microbreweries), please submit
written comments by July 11th or provide oral input at City Hall on that date.
The staff report is available at https://cityoffrederick.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=12&event_id=4153&meta_id=128
600.
Update on Downtown Late Night Weekend
Disturbances
Previously, this newsletter reported on a shooting incident in the street and
alleys near Exhale, a hookah lounge with a BYOB policy that enables unregulated
alcohol consumption. In response, the FPD stepped up patrols in the area during
late night/early morning hours. However, another venue, Carmen’s Corner Store,
has entered the area’s unregulated alcohol sales/consumption arena. Residents
have lodged several complaints about both establishments in recent weeks,
culminating in a need for FPD to respond to two separate late night (1:30 am) fights
(in the 4th street block) over the July 4th weekend. The only way to stop the
unregulated/unlicensed sale and/or use of alcohol products and the problems caused by this practice is for the
residents to get involved: call in the FPD (non- emergency number: 301-600-2102)
when you see or hear something regardless of the hour and help us move legislation forward to regulate
these BYOB businesses. Let your City government know that they need to protect
their citizens and residents' quality of life. The FPD can only do so much
without total community support and maximum effort. Make a call or send an
email before something tragic happens—again!
Update on the City’s East Street
Redevelopment Effort
As briefly summarized in the June 7th newsletter, City officials, staff, residents,
and business owners are now meeting to define what East Street might look like
in the future. The design of the future East Street will be drafted through
City adoption of form-based zoning for the corridor, a zoning strategy that
determines/guides external building designs rather than specific land use (e.g.,
residential, industrial, retail, parkland, etc.) of a parcel dictated by
current City Euclidean zoning. The City has hired a second set of consultants
who have provided ‘what is and how to’ form-based zoning presentations to City
officials and residents in June. The consultants have multiple years of
experience and towns where they have developed form-based zoning and the key
point emphasized is that the building ‘forms’ for East Street must be derived
from local resident input. To accomplish this, a multi-day charrette (open
meeting) will be convened in August where residents and other stakeholders sit
at tables with corridor maps and draw out what they envision the future East
Street corridor to be. Thereafter, the consultants will compile the options and
present these in a report to City officials. The critical next step is
implementation of specific form-based zoning that depicts the building, street,
and parking designs that will be allowed in the corridor. These designs are the
only forms that will be considered for permitting and construction.
The critical concern for residents is our continued participation in defining the form-based code that City staff select. That decision must be a collaborative effort but our history with City Planning and Permitting staff is not of cooperation with residents but rather dictates to us, i.e., ‘this is how it will be’. We will continue to push for a collaborative design decision from all members of the community as the selected form-based zoning will define the corridor’s appearance for the next century.
City Mobility Fee District
Officials and staff are considering establishing a mobility fee for parts of
the City with the fee assisting transportation options in specific areas of
East Street. Details are available at https://cityoffrederick.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=12&event_id=4492&meta_id=128
462. The fee will replace requirements in the Adequate Public Facilities
Ordinance on downtown areas that have little option for expanding roads, etc.
Developers will be required to pay a set fee to meet the following Mobility Fee
District objectives: 1. Redirect private sector financial resources from
“studies” to “projects”; 2. Improve development review predictability; 3.
Generate funds for $9 million of identified multimodal project to accommodate
growth; 4. Promote desired private sector investment in Downtown; and 5.
Enhance public/private partnership approaches to Downtown. It is to be
discussed in a June 6 City meeting at 3 PM (Channel 99).
City Rental Registration Plan
Alderwoman Donna Kuzemchak is advocating for a rental property registration and
inspection program within the City. Its goal is to identify all rental
properties for inspection of building condition and options to ensure
properties are properly maintained to protect renters from poorly maintained
conditions. It will be discussed on July 7th City, 7 PM meeting (but it’s
scheduled late in the meeting so more likely 9 PM) so call or write in please (https://cityoffrederick.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=12&event_id=3491&meta_id=12
8573).
Visitation Academy
As everyone is likely aware, the Visitation Academy (VA) is under renovation at
an estimated cost of $20M. The campus will include a boutique hotel,
restaurant, and luxury condominiums. The redevelopment required agreement by
the MD Historical Trust, National Park Service, City staff, the Historic
Preservation Commission (HPC), and Planning Commission, with a required presentation from staff and the developer at
a NAC11 meeting prior to the pandemic. At that meeting, the developer assured
residents that the Academy’s exterior design would remain largely ‘as is’ and
that all new construction that would front E. 2nd, E. Church, and Chapel Alley would
complement the design and facade of the restored main building with red brick
and white, double 6x6 multi-mullioned windows. Promises made, promises not
kept. Under City staff Administrative Authority and encouragement according to
the developer, the designs and facades of the proposed buildings on the VA
campus are now ‘contemporary’, and no longer resemble the original VA building
nor the area’s historic buildings. Building #1, now under construction, has a
modern façade of gray fabricated cement panels, non-white double hung and
casement window frames, floor-to-ceiling windows on 3rd and 4th floors,
steel-supported glass panel balconies, and ground level garages, not reflective
of the charm and character of the historic district. Even more disturbing, the
modern façade is being used to justify a similar design and facade for a
5-story Building #2, again, dissimilar to the large VA building. None of this
complements the surrounding neighborhood residence facades, thereby ignoring
the surrounding character of the historic homes on E. Church and E. 2nd
Streets. Additionally, local residents on E. 2nd Street are very concerned
about local flooding of an adjacent property attached to the VA as well as
extreme reductions in natural light from the 5-story building with only minimal
setback from the street (once posted, letters detailing these concerns will be available).
Although difficult to assess, we are hopeful that there may be some suggested revisions
to this design by at least 2 HPC members at the July 14th commission meeting, perhaps
resulting in several required changes. Resident input may be needed to voice
concerns on the final campus design.
Banner School Property
The HPC voted unanimously to allow construction of a 4.5 story, ɪ-shaped multi-family
building on the north side of the open lot in front of the Banner School
Buildings. The buildings and front lot had been designated historic after
exploring the history of the Odd Fellows Home constructed early in the 20th
century. City staff and the HPC members elected to ignore City guidelines that
limit massing, scale, and height to those of the adjacent Banner School
Building, allowing construction of this massive complex in the coming years. It
again appears that development overrides even officially designated historic
property preservation, mimicking the recent new construction decisions for the
Visitation Academy on E. Church-E. 2nd Street.
County APFO Revision
The proposed legislation on future development requirements for roads, by
County Council members Mackay and Hagen, was passed on July 5th at the County
Council meeting. The goal of the legislation is to reduce likely traffic
congestion on local roadways associated with large new developments. These
would include funds for new signals and access lanes as well as placing funds
in escrow for roadway upgrades as development continues to increase in areas beyond
the extent of the new development. This forward-thinking legislation seeks to
reduce congestion that is more and more apparent as the County (and City)
continues new construction to accommodate the Metropolitan Washington Council
of Governments’ projection of 406,000 County inhabitants by 2040. The Frederick
County Building Industry Association objected, citing 1) the County commitment
to future development be built near existing roadways so why add this additional burden when roads are already
in place and 2) increased costs that would then have to be passed on to buyers.
The legislation is highly relevant to City decisions as well as the current
City policy is to review each development on a case-by-case basis rather than cumulative
impact of more housing and the accompanying vehicular traffic.
Content Contributors: S. Jakubczyk, G. Petersen, R. Robey, M. Rosenweig, K.
Sellner