The Planning and Zoning Commission of Carroll County, Maryland, met on July 15, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the Reagan Room. The meeting covered three major agenda items: an introduction to the Freedom Community Comprehensive Plan Small Area Plan Amendment, an introduction to deferral code changes related to cluster subdivisions, and a two-part discussion (stakeholder input and commission review) on proposed text amendments for retirement homes and villages. The commission also heard two designated public comment periods and one general public comment.
And welcome to the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting of Carroll County July fifteenth, twenty twenty six. Uh can we establish a quorum? Mr. Kane? Here. Mr. Robertson? Here. Mr. Huff? Here. Miss Kirk here? Here. Mr. Soyson? Here. Mr. Lester? Here. Mr. Smith. Here. Commissioner Gordon? Here. Secretary Daly. Here. Mr. Chair, please let the record reflect that seven members are present and we do have a forum. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge. The agenda is submitted without changes. Second. All in favor? Okay. All right. Item number five, the Freedom Community Comprehensive Plan. Small area plan amendment. Introduction by the staff. I think Tiffany, you're going to leave this. Actually, Daphne's going. So we're talking about a small area plan amendment to the 2018 Freedom Community Comprehensive Plan. But it was around a concern that the commercial area in the kind of the core of freedom needed to be looked at in terms of the appropriateness of the land use designations and ways to further implement the freedom community comprehensive plan. Anytime we're talking about possible consideration for zoning changes, that sort of thing, we need to make sure that we first take a look at the comprehensive plan because everything flows from that. So if we wanted to look at some of the things that were talked about in terms of the appropriateness of the land use designation, or creating something like an overlay zoning district, that sort of thing, we need to start with the comprehensive plan and make sure that it is reflective of the current needs and desires of the community, and then kind of go from there. So that was the origination of this project. A couple of the whys that are shown up here include the fact that the comprehensive plan was adopted in 2018, the zoning designations followed in 2019, the new commercial zoning districts. And while those flowed out of the land use definitions, we want to be able to go back and make sure that everything sort of matches up. There's also been a desire expressed to evaluate things like a sense of place in the 2632 corridors, how circulation is addressed in that area, how the different particularly commercial land uses function and serve the community and try to create a more coordinated and sort of predictable development pattern there. So essentially what we're talking about here is undertaking something that is both consistent with the plan and serving to implement it. So you see on the on the slide here, the economic development goal from that plan talks about facilitating economic development opportunities that support the local skilled workforce and entrepreneurs and expand the county's employment tax base.