Meaning of economic matters.

Currently present are myself and Alderman Savage.

Alderman Alsif Johnson will be joining us shortly.

First, can I get a motion to before we begin?

I am going to add one additional item to the agenda, ID 926, a conversation on the market space leases.

Can I get the motion to accept the agenda as amended?

So moved.

I will second all in favor.

Aye.

All right.

So up next, can I get a motion to approve the amendments from our April 1st meeting?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Alright.

So first, ID 4026, the special exceptions process finding and recommended discussions with Director Kubiak.

Thank you for joining us today.

We appreciate you being here on your day off.

Thank you.

Good to be here.

Um so uh I instruct you some questions in advance.

Essentially, one of my concerns has been coming up over for a while.

Oh, I apologize.

I've just now noticed Alderman Thorpe is joining us as our guest.

Thank you for shooting me a text to remind me.

Uh too many boxes to track.

All right, so uh the special exception process for a lot of our small businesses and findings, uh, a concern that I have had seems, for lack of a better word, vibes based.

Um welcome Alderman also Johnson.

Uh, we are currently on ID 4026.

So it currently seems very vibes-based and a lot at the discretion of individual staff members.

Um as we all know in business uncertainty leads to high costs and lack of investment.

And I am essentially just trying to get a better understanding of how this is done.

And sometimes even vibes-based decisions help out of business, sometimes they hurt out of business.

What is goes into the process?

What are the checks and balances?

What goes into this?

If you wouldn't mind kind of getting into a little bit of the background, sure, yeah.

So a special exception is one type of permitted use within a zoning district.

It's uh not a permitted by right use, in other words, it's not allowed um by right, uh, it's allowed only after a public hearing and after some criteria are established.

Um it's a city council that makes the determination about what is a special exception and what is a permitted by right use.

So in many of the zones, there are some special exceptions.

Uh in um some zones, special exceptions are things like restaurants or restaurants over a certain size.

Um there the thinking is the logic behind the zoning ordinance is that certain uses have unique characteristics or potential impacts uh that require further review and evaluation and a systematic study by a disinterested body, in this case the board of appeals.

So a board of appeals conducts a public hearing, applies the standards that are set forth as in the zoning ordinance, and decides whether the special exception is approved or not.

Again, if it were permitted by right, there would be no special exception.

It would simply go through the normal site plan process and obtain a use and occupancy permit.

So um the there is a role for the staff uh in getting the board of appeals prepared for special exception hearing in the same way the staff uh provides uh information to the planning commission.

Uh and this is unique.

I mean, this is not unique at all.

This is what planning zoning staffs do throughout Maryland, in fact, throughout the country, is prepare some staff report.

Uh every board takes things differently.

Our board of appeals uh appreciates a detailed staff report that gives them the information that they can consider when making a determination.

So what the staff reports do on special exceptions is that they address each of the standards or criteria that's that are set forth in the zoning ordinance.

And uh to your point, Alderman, the the standards themselves are not um quantitative, easily measurable, precise.

They are in fact meant to be adjudicated, discussed, debated, their findings that are established after a public hearing and after the review consideration of testimony.

So they are by virtue of that, they're they do endow the level of discretion in the decision maker.

And the decision maker with respect to special exceptions is the Board of Zoning Appeals.

So to answer your question, there and for those folks who are kind of interested in going a little deeper, there are a series of standards that are set forth in 21 26, 050 of the zoning ordinance.