Land Use, Public Safety, and Community Development Committee Meeting - February 13, 2025
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Land Use, Public Safety, and Community Development Committee Meeting - February 13, 2025
The Land Use, Public Safety, and Community Development Committee held its first meeting on February 13, 2025, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. The meeting included a presentation on small area planning, discussion of two ordinances, and public comment. The committee reviewed its duties and procedures, received an overview of the city's small area planning efforts, and deliberated on amendments to parking regulations and land management code.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Small Area Planning Overview: Kevin Sellner (East Fifth Street) asked whether residents of each small area would be included in an official planning group to guide discussions. Heather Goddard (Board of Directors, East Frederick Rising) recommended adding an evaluation step to track implementation success and pointed out that the Brickworks development within the East Street Corridor Small Area Plan has not met community vision due to lack of regulatory tools (e.g., no yards, forest conservation issues). Bob Roby (East Second Street) raised concerns about tracking progress and unfunded obligations, emphasizing that commitments made in small area plans should be funded.
- Ordinance G-25-03 (Hospitals in Mixed-Use Districts): Heather Goddard returned to argue that if a hospital use can be added to the mixed-use zone for a private applicant, the city should also consider adding schools as a permitted use, citing obstacles faced by the Brickworks school site.
Discussion Items
- Committee Procedures: The committee reviewed its role, meeting schedule (second and fourth Thursdays, 1:00–3:00 PM), and public comment rules (3 minutes per speaker).
- Small Area Planning Overview: Planning Director Gabrielle Collard and Division Manager Brandon Mark presented an overview of the eight small area plans in the city. They described the planning process, benefits, and current status. The East Street Corridor form-based code is in development; work on the Golden Mile and Jefferson Street corridors is beginning. Members questioned the slow pace (no plan fully implemented from the 2020 comprehensive plan) and how plans translate into binding rules. Staff requested an additional planner position to accelerate work. Discussion also covered the balance between prescriptive rules and flexibility in form-based codes.
- Ordinance 25-06 (Parallel Parking and Improper Parking): Councilmember Russell introduced an ordinance to clarify that parking with tires on the curb or grass strip is prohibited, at the request of the police department. Councilmember McShane expressed concern that residents may park on curbs for safety reasons (e.g., avoiding side-swipes) and wanted the ordinance to also address vehicles protruding into the street. The committee voted 2-1 to continue the item to a future meeting with staff present to provide additional information on why residents engage in this practice and potential impacts.
- Ordinance G-25-03 (Hospitals as Permitted Use in Mixed-Use Districts): Planner Sherry presented a text amendment to add hospitals as a permitted use in all mixed-use (MU) districts, filed by Frederick Health Village for their 93-acre property. The planning commission had recommended approval. Representatives from Frederick Health argued the change provides long-term flexibility without causing proliferation due to state certificate-of-need requirements. Councilmember McShane questioned whether the city should also add schools to the MU zone given similar issues; staff suggested that could be done through a separate process. The committee voted unanimously (3-0) to recommend the ordinance to the full council.
Key Outcomes
- Ordinance 25-06: Not approved as written. The committee (2-1) voted to continue discussion at a future meeting with staff from relevant departments to address concerns about why people park on curbs and the potential need for additional parking width regulations.
- Ordinance G-25-03: Approved for recommendation to the full city council (3-0). The text amendment will allow hospitals as a permitted use in mixed-use districts.
- Small Area Planning: Staff will seek an additional planning position in the upcoming budget to accelerate plan development. No formal vote was taken.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. Welcome to the first meeting of the land use public safety and community development committee. Today is February 13th, and we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, we do not have any minutes to approve, so we're going to move right into the workshop discussion portion of our meeting. Thank you, Clara. Um, legislative standing committees, here and after referred to as committees, are the core policymaking and review bodies of the legislative branch. Committees serve two primary functions. One, they are the main venue for discussing or workshopping, policies, proposed proposed ideas, general ideas for legislation, and other items requiring city council input and feedback. Two, they review and provide initial feedback and recommendations regarding drafted legislative items, for example, ordinances that have been formally submitted to the city council and are undergoing the legislative process. After the review, committees provide a recommendation report to be considered alongside the legislation at a second reading at a public hearing. This particular committee is the land use public safety and community development. It meets the second and four Thursdays of each month from one PM to three p.m. Uh, the members of this committee are Kelly Russell, the chair, uh, Ben McShane, and Donica Zemchak. Quorum is established at two committee members present. The scope, the policy scope of this committee includes uh again, policies, departments, and commissions related to planning, urban development, uh, economic development, community design, community programming, placemaking infrastructure, zoning oversight, transportation, and public safety. And with that, go ahead and get started. Thank you, Ma'am. We do we do hear about a lot of things, don't we? Very excited. Um, before we begin, I do want to just uh make some instructions here about uh how we're gonna conduct ourselves. Members of the public are encouraged to attend these public committee meetings and may provide public comment on items that appear on the meeting agenda. Speakers should begin their public comment at the when it's time by stating their name and general address. Each speaker will be allocated three minutes to share their comments with the committee. Committee members will not be answering questions or engaging in discussion during public comment. Please note that these committee meetings are broadcast on live TV. So please please speak clearly and directly into the microphone. Please silence electronic devices and refrain from personal discussion while the committee meeting is in progress. Pursuant to the rule 12.6 of the city's council's rules of procedure. Resolution 2427. Personal conduct that disrupts the meeting or interferes with other members of the public's ability to attend or observe our meetings is not acceptable. Please adhere to the city's code of civility while attending and participating in committee meetings. Copies of the code of civility are available and also posted on the city hall boardroom. Public comments may also be provided through the e-commons feature on the city's website prior to the meeting. So with that, I will introduce our first um agenda item. Presentation, and that is a presentation about our small area planning overview. And we have Gabriel Collard, our director of planning, Brandon Mark, who has a job title that I apologize. I can never remember. So you'll tell us. Welcome. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us. Gabrielle Collarb at the planning department and Brandon Mark and Narash Karmani is also with us on this item. So thank you. So just as a little background while Brian Brandon gets everything queued up, uh, this presentation was put together really as an informational item to share with the community to kind of build some interest and excitement about our small area planning efforts. As you recall from our 2020 comprehensive plan, this was a really foundational tool that we identified and expanded upon from even the work that was done in 2010. Since it's been a couple years since the 2020 plan was adopted, we thought it was a great time to kick off the year with a broad overview of what small area planning areas we have and what that we anticipate that effort to look like. Um thought it was a great way to hopefully build interest in the community, uh, to give some context to people that when they hear things maybe five months from now or three months from now, they start to have ah, I get that there was you know, kind of a seed planted um and to really boost engagement. So with that, uh, this is just an informational item, it is not tied to any particular initiative at this point. Uh, the work we're doing with the form based code and the East Street Small Area Corridor continues uh as well as some initial initial work um that we're doing with the Golden Mile Small Area Plan earlier this year. No, not earlier this year.
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