Housing, Health, and Education Committee Meeting – May 1, 2025
Housing, Health, and Education Committee Meeting – May 1, 2025
The Housing, Health, and Education Committee of the City of Frederick met on May 1, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. to continue discussions on the Housing Work Plan focusing on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), receive the Sustainability Annual Report, introduce the Climate Resiliency Plan, and consider an ordinance regarding invasive bamboo. No public comments were made.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of minutes from April 17, 2025, was on the agenda but no action noted in the transcript.
Discussion Items
Continued Discussion of Housing Work Plan: Accessory Dwelling Units
Staff presented an overview of challenges and options for detached ADUs, focusing on three main areas: parking requirements, maximum unit size (currently 800 square feet), and owner-occupancy requirements.
- Parking: Options discussed included eliminating parking requirements entirely, tying them to transit proximity (e.g., within a quarter mile of a transit stop or a walkable route with continuous sidewalks), or allowing more flexible definitions of parking spaces (e.g., reduced dimensions, counting double parking). Staff also mentioned a modification authority for the planning commission but noted it may not be needed if other flexibilities are adopted.
- Unit Size: The 800 square foot cap was questioned due to its link to school impact fees and its hindrance on practical designs. Council members expressed interest in a proportionality requirement relative to the principal dwelling (e.g., percentage or a lower minimum like 500-600 square feet) to ensure the ADU remains subordinate but functional.
- Owner Occupancy: The current requirement that the owner live in either the principal or accessory unit was discussed in light of the city's new rental licensing program. Councilmembers indicated a willingness to remove this requirement, as rental licensing provides oversight, and it could increase rental housing stock.
Council members generally supported increasing flexibility across all three areas, with a preference for a combined approach. They requested staff to develop specific metrics (e.g., distance from transit, proportionality ratio, minimum size) and bring back concrete language for further review.
Sustainability Annual Report
Jenny Willoughby (Sustainability Department) and Lauren Pollett (Outreach Coordinator) presented the annual report highlighting key metrics from 2024:
- Composting program participation nearly doubled to 347 tons, with 1,700 households signed up, aided by a $68,000 USDA grant for multilingual marketing.
- Tree canopy gains were offset by development; the city is required to adopt updated forest conservation regulations by summer 2027. Council members expressed frustration with the pace and requested early involvement in the state model ordinance process.
- Water quality: six years of stream temperature data; two stream restorations at 100% design.
- Air quality: six new temperature and particulate matter monitors being installed.
- Outreach: 426 volunteers collected 817 bags of trash; newsletter subscribers grew from 300 to 1,000.
Council comments emphasized the need for comparative year-over-year metrics in future reports and a focus on results rather than outputs.
Climate Resiliency Plan
Council President Nash introduced the plan as a work in progress, noting it will be structured similarly to the Housing Work Plan with priority areas based on existing sustainability reports. A draft document will be presented at the next committee meeting (expected June or later).
Key Outcomes
- ADU Work Plan: Staff to develop specific metrics for parking flexibility, proportional size limits, and owner-occupancy changes, and present them at a future meeting.
- Sustainability Report: Noted; staff will include comparative metrics in future reports.
- Climate Resiliency Plan: Draft to be presented at next committee meeting.
- Invasive Bamboo Ordinance (G-25-11): Discussion was paused at President Nash's request to allow for NAC feedback and to prioritize the budget; the ordinance will be brought back in August 2025.
No votes were taken; all decisions were directional.
Meeting Transcript
So does staff's ready we'll get started. I call to order the meeting of the housing health and education committee. First, we will say the pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. So we we recognize that the impact of those was lesser than maybe a separate unit, and um and and created flexibility there. So most of our conversation today is about detached accessory dwelling units, uh, not those integrated um accessory apartments. The um the main hurdles that we've seen, uh, and there are several several itemized in the in the backup, um, are parking, the potential square footage of an ADU, the um requirement for one of the units, either the principal dwelling unit or the um accessory dwelling unit to be owner-occupied, which also has a requirement for um a deed restriction to state that on the property. Uh and then we also did include just a summary of the fees if that's something that the council wants to explore that may see that as an impediment. Um, that is not something that has specifically been expressed as a staff, but I think is a valuable part of the conversation. So I'm gonna start with parking. Um we have a requirement that if the parking on the site is less than or equal to the amount of parking that's required for the principal dwelling unit. So if you have a single family house, you have to have two parking spaces on your lot. If you only have two currently, we're asking that you another be provided for the ADU. So we didn't want to make someone just have to provide an extra space for an ADU if they had space to park already three cars on their property, but we were trying to get that additional space for the ADU. So some options for creating flexibility there, um, kind of from the from you know, one spectrum to the other, we could eliminate that requirement altogether and say that the ADU does not need to have its own separate parking space. We could eliminate the kind of moving on to the next less extreme maybe um option, uh eliminate the parking requirements in areas where we have other transportation options available. We have precedent for that in our code. Yeah, keep it. No, go ahead. No, go ahead, because these would be a hundred point question after you just finish your point, MASA. Yeah. So um we could you know we have precedent in our code where we look at different areas of the city a little differently based on the ability for somebody to move around in other ways, right? That aren't maybe so car-centric. Uh so in our parking regulations for the downtown, for example, we allow reductions in certain zoning districts with when you're within a proximity of a transit station. So we could take that idea and transfer it to our ADUs and say maybe there's an area, and we we would work to define these things with the council. Um, maybe there's an area in and around downtown, um, maybe it's a proximity to a bus stop anywhere throughout the city that we eliminate that parking requirement. Say if you were within a thousand feet or 1,300 feet um quarter of a mile of a transit stop, then there's no parking requirements. So I think what I want to impress and get your feedback on is an option to tie to we can we can talk about the specific mechanics of what that might look like, what's the appropriate measure? But is there a desire to tie the parking requirement to or or absence of to access to other transportation alternatives? I think is kind of the big policy decision. Well, that was kind of the question I was gonna ask. Like what would be a good approximation of square footage or how long these word mileage, one mile or sure, we use a quarter mile in other sections of the code, 1,300 feet approximately in other sections of the code related to transit. So quarter mile, half a mile, um, you know, kind of a reasonable walking distance from either we I mean we have the obviously the mark station downtown, but we also have transit stops throughout the city, so it might not be just a downtown approach, but maybe look wherever we have bus stops throughout the city. Um we also how often do those bus stops change? That's a great question. Um I think that we would probably you know want to confirm the the relatively static nature of those stations. I don't know how often transit takes one away. Um I would hope they're adding more, but I I know they also we all would. I know they also um you know, I'm sure evaluate um heard part of their presentation, and we've talked with them in the past about kind of their methodology for how they approach the need for stations. So that would definitely be a factor to consider. When you're considering different um lengths, how does that come about? So is it half a mile in some places, 1,300 feet in other places? What places? There may be a transit stop on the other side of 270 from me. And that maybe that's within a thousand feet, but obviously I'm not running across 270. So we would want to define metrics that we have language in the code that would serve as a good foundation for it, you know, connected by a continuous system of sidewalks. So it's 1,300 feet on a route accessible by sidewalk. So then you're making the connection not only the distance that people are relatively willing to walk, but also assuring that it's a path that is walkable and not um like I said, crossing a major highway or a river.
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