Frederick City Council Public Meeting - December 5, 2024
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Frederick City Council Public Meeting - December 5, 2024
The Frederick City Council held a public meeting on December 5, 2024, at 7:00 PM in City Hall. The meeting included public comments, a consent agenda item, a resolution to adopt updated city council rules of procedure, and two quasi-judicial public hearings for rezoning properties. Key decisions included the approval of an electricity supply agreement, adoption of revised council rules, and rezoning for both a county government complex and a future county library.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Electricity Supply Agreement with Freepoint Energy Solutions: Unanimously approved (5-0). The agreement was the cheapest bid among 335 accounts.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Tom Newmark (Frederick resident): Opposed Policy 443, which allows transgender students to participate in sports and use facilities matching their gender identity. He argued the policy harms girls' fairness, safety, and privacy, and cited scientific evidence against affirmative therapy for gender dysphoria.
- Misty Lucente (Iamsville): Opposed abortion, specifically describing the procedures of second-trimester abortions. She criticized Mayor O'Connor's support for abortion access and called it "dismembering a baby."
- Shelley Aloy (City of Frederick): Opposed non-citizen voting, stating the RISE Coalition petition had only 132 signatures while her petition garnered over 2,300 signatures. She urged the council to reconsider or add guardrails to the decision.
- Jane Temania (Middletown): Expressed support for the rezoning of 501 S. McCain Drive from parkland to institutional for a county library. She thanked the city and county for the thoughtful process and noted the site has immediate access to schools and transit.
- Jim Smersall (downtown Frederick): During the rezoning hearing for 585 Himes Avenue, he raised concerns about visual impacts on the US 15 corridor, including a large communications tower, and urged keeping government jobs downtown. Later, during public comments, he noted the city had previously abandoned parkland (Sagner Park) and suggested the council may face similar decisions with Husky Park.
Discussion Items
- Updated City Council Rules of Procedure: The council debated and amended the proposed rules extensively. Key changes included:
- Section 5 – Standing Committees: Committees to be initially formed by February 1, 2025, and thereafter in January after each new administration. Committees will be formally proposed by the council president and adopted by the council after a public organizational workshop.
- Section 6 – Special Committees: Duration clarified: expire at end of term or at conclusion of work, whichever occurs first.
- Section 7 – Workshops & Business Meetings: Retained ability to hold workshops; business meetings allowed for consent agenda action at any time.
- Section 13 (Ordinances): Filing deadline reduced from 21 days to 10 days before introduction; council members receive copies at least 7 days before meeting. Mayoral veto: passage delivered within 5 days instead of 10. Unanimous vote of members present (not all elected) to declare emergency. Publication updated to "city's website and through contemporary communication methods."
- Section 14 (Resolutions): Mirroring ordinance timeline: 10-day filing, 7-day distribution to council. Mayoral veto delivery amended to 5 days.
- Section 17 (Reconsideration): Changed "chairman" to "council president" and clarified that hearing on merits is a full reconsideration without added language.
- Rezoning of 585 Himes Avenue (Prospect Center) – Ordinance G-24-22: The applicant (Frederick County) seeks to rezone 19.5 acres from Professional Business (PB) to Institutional (IST) for a government services complex. Discussion included concerns about alternative sites, visual impacts along US 15, and conditions (landscape screening, covered bike parking, communications tower restrictions). The motion carried 3-2.
- Rezoning of 501 S. McCain Drive (Hillcrest Park) – Ordinances G-24-23 and G-24-24: Two ordinances: one to remove the Open Space (PRK) floating zone, reverting to R8 residential; another to apply the Institutional (IST) floating zone for a future county library. Councilmembers expressed frustration with the loss of parkland but acknowledged the need for a library in the underserved west side. Both ordinances passed 5-0. The findings included consistency with land use policy 8 and municipal growth policy 6.
Key Outcomes
- Electricity Supply Agreement: Approved (5-0).
- City Council Rules of Procedure: Adopted (5-0) as amended.
- 585 Himes Avenue Rezoning (Prospect Center): Approved (3-2) with conditions: maximize landscape screening along Route 15, covered bike parking, emergency communications tower limited to county use, co-location prohibited, and access to conduit for future telecom needs.
- 501 S. McCain Drive (Hillcrest Park) Rezoning: Both ordinances (removal of PRK and application of IST) approved (5-0). Findings emphasized facilitating a public library and consistency with the comprehensive plan.
- Councilmember Comments: Councilmember Nash affirmed support for LGBTQ+ community and women's healthcare. Councilmember Shackelford responded to earlier speakers, defending the ability to change one's mind with new information and urging opponents of abortion to become foster parents or adopt.
Meeting Transcript
We'll begin this evening with Council Member. Okay. Councilmember comments. Yesterday we started down here. Vice President, just a little bit of a good question. No comments. Okay. I'll uh I'll just briefly say that this season, I always risk this because I have a member of my faith to the right who knows a lot more about this than me, but this season is a time of preparation for many of us. And uh I think sometimes it feels like that's all we're doing is preparing. Um, but it's always a good reminder as we're progressing through the season that we are preparing for something, at least in our faith tradition, something better. It's always about something better. So I'm excited about what is coming and always believe that our best days are ahead. Um, as a reminder, our public comment period when it opens up. Um, that's the public's opportunity to talk to us, so it's not a time for us to answer questions. Um so if you ask us questions, we'll listen politely and we will write them down, but we will not be able to answer your questions. So just wanted to remind as we move through this new process that that is our process that we've always had, and that's the process that we're going to continue. But certainly if you want to wait around after the meeting, many of us sort of hang out and are available after the meeting for to answer your questions. Councilmember Russell. Well, it's a new day. You may have uh observe some changes up here for the first time in the city's history. We are now in an independent city council. I just want to congratulate uh Katie uh Nash as uh being elected our president of the council and Alderman. Councilmember Shackelford, I'm sorry. It's gonna take a long time, folks. As our uh vice president, we're making a little bit of history here, and I just want to make sure that people are aware things are changing, and we have new leadership uh in our legislative branch. I'm eager to work uh in harmony and as a team to move uh good things forward for the city of Frederick. Thank you while I said, and I almost said all the owner, but I um well said. Um, I'd like to note that MDCC broke ground on Tuesday for the for the only deaf community center in Maryland or any of our surrounding states. I'm very proud of the deaf community for how they've pushed this forward. I'm proud to be part of this project. Um at 720 North East Street. The community center is not just meant for the deaf community, but also for those hearing people who are interested in being involved with the deaf community. Um we can all make this community a much better place. So thank you to MDCC for all the hard work that they've put into this. Thank you, Councilmember McSheen. Uh, we will now progress to our public comment period. This is the opportunity for the public. Do we have um as a reminder? We have a sign-up sheet that just sort of moves you first in line, but we do open it up to folks who haven't signed up in advance. Thank you, my dear. We have three three minutes, yeah. You're right. Okay, our first speaker this evening is Tom Newmark. Is it five minutes tonight? It's three minutes, sorry. Three minutes tonight. All right, great. At the uh November 21st press conference, Mayor O'Connor pledged to use the power of his office to support policy 443, which allows boys to play on girls' sports teams, which harms girls' fairness and safety, and lets boys enter girls' locker rooms, which harms girls' privacy. It allows school staff to conduct secret gender transitions for which they are not trained or licensed, which drives a wedge between families and their schools. Voters were right to elect new board members who question these policies.
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