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VOL. 1, NO. 3 | AUGUST 2, 2022
Frederick City and County News
of Interest
- The Primaries are Over!
- All City Picnic Summary
- Street Safety Gang
- Update on Neighborhood
Advisory Council (NAC) Revitalization
- Update on Downtown Late Night
Weekend Disturbances: A July 23 homicide
- Update on the City’s East
Street Redevelopment Effort
- City Mobility Fee District
- City Rental Registration Plan
- Visitation Academy
- County APFO Revision
- County Sugarloaf Treasured
Landscape Management Plan & 85-355 Corridor Plan
- 6-point Plan to Reduce Early
Morning Weekend Street Parties and Violence
Many
Frederick residents want to know — but cannot find — information about how
to 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.com),
Marge Rosensweig (marjorierosensweig@gmail.com),
or Steve Jacubczyk (jakubczyksteven@gmail.com)
for consideration of your issue.
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The Primaries are Over!
The primary elections have passed with several surprises of much closer
contests in some cases than expected, and we can only hope for brighter
times ahead. However, the very bleak turnout suggests much greater
participation is needed in November — so get engaged…
All City Picnic Summary
The All City Neighborhood Picnic was held July 17 at Kidwiler Park with ~80
participants attending to ideally create community-wide connections and
awareness. As the first annual City-wide picnic, both the Citizens for
Responsible Growth and The Street Safety Gang were encouraged by
conversations and comradery. More to come in the months ahead…
Street Safety Gang
The Street Safety Gang's mission is to create safer, slower streets
throughout Frederick City neighborhoods. People in years past have tried
unsuccessfully to rally neighbors and City officials to do something about
speeding on their particular street. When started in spring 2021, we too
were looking at only our street, Lee Place. It didn't take long to
understand that this was a City-wide issue needing the help and support of
residents over the entire urban area. With that in mind, the main goal
today is to be able to communicate to a broader audience. Like
all successful community activism has proven, it only works when the community
is engaged and part of the solution. So today I am asking for your
engagement and support. Please join in our efforts to be a
solution-based group working to make Frederick City neighborhoods
safer by slowing the speed. The big yellow signs around town are a symptom,
not a cure! Long term solutions include Street Stripping, Public Street
Art, and Personal Behavior! These are the things we’re working towards in
2022. If you'd like to help with the conversation and be part of the
solution, please email Gayle Petersen at streetsafetygangfrederickmd@gmail.com.
Enjoy the ride!
Update on Neighborhood
Advisory Council (NAC) Revitalization
As reported in the June 7 newsletter, residents across the 12 NACs continue
to pursue re-emergence of NAC influence in City decisions and policies.
Board member Derek Shackelford (dshackelford@cityoffrederickmd.gov)
promised to deliver a draft policy July 27 now postponed until September;
he has requested that anyone interested may contact him directly. Residents
have proposed that they be included in the discussions of the new NAC
design as it is residents that comprise these advisory groups and hence,
participating rather than being dictated to will result in the most
effective dialog/communication between City staff and homeowners, tenants,
and small businesses of our municipality. Stay tuned!
Update on Downtown Late Night
Weekend Disturbances: A July 23 homicide
The downtown very early morning street parties common to 4th and 5th street
blocks of N. Market have gotten out of hand, with loud crowd noise,
shootings, and a murder just one week ago. Police spokespeople state that
there is nothing that can be done, yet a 6-point plan (see bottom of page)
has been submitted to the Frederick Police Department (FPD), Board of
Aldermen (BoA), and mayor with multiple options to curtail these weekend
events. Several of these options were discussed on Monday, August 1,
at a neighbor/police/City official/business meeting. Residents stressed
that the downtown area must be made safe during the early morning hours
when rowdy crowds empty into the street and continue their celebrations or
alternatively move into a flat above Carmen’s Grocery Store for more
consumption and exuberance. Owners of Exhale and the new corner juice bar
introduced themselves and clearly stated their intentions of becoming good
neighbors and will work with residents and City staff to resolve the
expanding early morning street rowdiness. Mayor O’Connor and Chief Lando
indicated an enlarged presence in the area for the coming weekends, as well
as exploring options for minimizing the post-Exhale partying in the vacant
flat above Carmen’s. Without huge resident input in the coming weeks, no
change will occur, as we are constantly told that the number of comments is
critical to any action by the BoA or mayor. And importantly, the City is
run through complaint-driven requests, NOT proactive or reactive responses
to obvious City problems — so act with written and oral comment and calls
(non-emergency FPD number: 301-600-2102) when unrest is encountered!
Update on the City’s East
Street Redevelopment Effort
The City has completed a new study that reimagines the East Street Corridor
(https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/20208/East-Street-Redesign-Final-Report?bidId=).
The study is a high level planning document that includes conceptual design
recommendations for 1) reimagining vehicular traffic patterns for both
autos and trucks; 2) multi-modal options for pedestrians, bicycle lanes,
and transit; and 3) commercial development. This study will be followed by
a new iteration of the East Street Corridor Small Area Plan,
recommendations for Form-Based Design (informed by all stakeholders in
multiple-day charrettes) that will set the template for new commercial and
residential development, modify the Capital Improvement Plan for
implementing recommendations, conduct a detailed traffic study to determine
that the recommended road diet will be viable, and undertake a truck
traffic study that will recommend formal truck routes throughout the City
and minimize truck traffic on East Street. Identified issues include
representation of small businesses and lower income services in future
designs. Public participation in a multi-day meeting (charrette) will begin
at 7 pm on August 12 at the City Annex, 140 W. Patrick Street with a
Saturday morning open meeting to begin mapping stakeholder thoughts on the
future East Street design. Participate!!
City Mobility Fee District
Officials and staff are considering establishing a mobility fee for parts
of the City with the fee replacing required traffic studies for downtown
areas where no new roads, ramps, or lanes are possible, thereby not wasting
money on a study. Instead, fees would be collected for each building type
(residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) and pooled for transportation
improvements in the Mobility Fee District, estimated at ~$9.3M (a breakdown
of the costs, p. 13: https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/18343/FrederickMobilityFee_101920_PlanningCommission?bidId=).
General mobility fee details are available at the Mobility Fee tab of https://www.cityoffrederickmd.gov/1287/APFO.
The Mobility Fee will replace the transportation/traffic portion of a
development’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) fee, but payments
for the other components of the APFO, like water, sewer, schools, etc.,
will still have to be made. The fee will be discussed again in an August 18
City meeting with potential adoption by October 1.
City Rental Registration Plan
Alderwoman Donna Kuzemchak is advocating for a rental property registry 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 poor housing
that threaten individuals’ health, commitment of limited incomes to
repairs, and access to heating, cooling, water and sewage discharge to
ensure a reasonable quality of life. It will be discussed on August 4 at
City Hall, 7 PM, details to follow.
Visitation Academy
It appears that resident input and dialog with the Visitation Academy
developer have resulted in specific site changes to the proposed Building 2
of the campus to reduce some local concerns re: building height, setback,
and access to light. Building 2, fronting E. 2nd Street, will not be
set back farther from the campus retaining wall because
the height of the fourth floor has been reduced so that it will not
exceed the height of the adjacent and across the street historic homes. The
fifth floor infrastructure on the roof will be set back so as not to be
visible from the street. The key is that the developer, in response to
citizens, created a graphic that illustrated the relative scale of the
proposed building to its historic neighbors and demonstrated that there
will be no blockage of natural light. The historic Visitation Academy
building will remain the prominent architecture on the campus. Providing a quantitative
process documenting comparable mass and scale of new construction to
historic neighbors should become a standard for new construction projects
in the Historic District. The developer is commended for this
response, indicating that resident input at least to this developer and in
contrast to City planning staff, can result in positive responses that
protect the existing community character and streetscape of a
neighborhood. This process and outcome easily justify proposed CRG
Land Management Code text revisions submitted late in 2021 and early 2022
to staff, Planning Commission, and Board of Aldermen establishing
pre-application review (staff, developer, residents) of any application for
new construction in the City long before any formal City staff
recommendations have been made. Ideally, this will be reconsidered now that
the City budget has been adopted.
County APFO Revision
The proposed legislation on future development requirements for roads, by
County Council members McKay and Hagen, was passed on July 5 at the County
Council meeting; the next workshop is scheduled for August 23 at Winchester
Hall. 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 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.
County Sugarloaf Treasured
Landscape Management Plan & 85-355 Corridor Plan
As you may know, the County’s visionary plan for the future is described in
Livable Frederick published
three years ago. In it, approximately 8 primary growth areas were
identified and the first to be vetted with residents, businesses,
developers, and other stakeholders was Sugarloaf Mountain. The Sugarloaf
Alliance (http://sugarloafalliance.org/)
was formed to provide focused input from residents and other interested
parties on the area’s future land use so explore the site for more detail
of public input into this plan. After approximately 2 years, the County
Planning Commission forwarded the plan (https://www.frederickcountymd.gov/Document
Center/View/337082/Sugarloaf-Area-Plan-FCPC-Draft-2022-03-10) to
the County Council. The public can provide comment at all of the proposed
multiple Council Plan workshops planned for August (9, 11, 15, 22). Council
amendments to the Plan will be submitted in August-September with public
comment ensured on all amendments including for what will be considered in
the final Plan. The final Council hearing is scheduled for September 27.
An open house on the Sugarloaf Plan is scheduled for August 18 at the
Urbana High School. Public comment is encouraged at the meeting so plan to
attend to provide written or oral input. Additionally, the Rt. 85-355
Corridor will be the next priority growth area to be reviewed with a public
meeting planned for August 17, 9:30–1 PM at Winchester Hall; stay tuned for
a link to register.
Content Contributors: S.
Jakubczyk, E. Law, G. Petersen, R. Robey, M. Rosensweig, K. Sellner, S.
Trainor
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