Frederick City and County News of Interest Vol. 1, No. 2 July 2022

Vol. 1, No. 2 7/06/22
Newsletter from the Citizens for Responsible Growth

1. Time to VOTE!
2. ALL CITY PICNIC!
3. Ft. Detrick Success!
4. Update on Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) Revitalization
5. Wayside Apartments, aka Overlook East
6. Update on Downtown Late Night Weekend Disturbances
7. Update on the City’s East Street Redevelopment Effort
8. City Mobility Fee District
9. City Rental Registration Plan
10. Visitation Academy
11. Banner School Property
12. 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