Good afternoon, everyone.

This is the land use public safety and community development committee meeting for October 23rd, 2025.

We will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Underground visible with liberty.

Start off by saying that our uh number one item presenter is running a little bit late, so we're attempting to get staff to start with our second item on the agenda, and we'll catch up from there.

Um just some uh housekeeping.

This is a discussion meeting and no decisions regarding the topics will be made here today.

We will take public comment after each item.

Each speaker, if you wish to offer public comment after the item, please be aware of the following guidelines.

Each speaker will be allotted three minutes to share their comments.

When it is your turn to speak, please begin by stating your name and if applicable, your general address to ensure you have an uninterrupted opportunity to speak.

This will be your time.

So that means members of the committee will not be answering questions or engaging in discussion with commenters during the meeting.

We are often willing to answer questions after the meeting, and if you would like to email us, you can email all of us at City Council at City of Frederick MD.gov.

If you have written materials to accompany your remarks, we encourage you to email those as well.

The City Council and the committees use this rules of procedure, which was most recently passed by resolution twenty-four twenty-seven.

Pursuant to our rules of procedure, conduct that disrupts the meeting or that interferes with the right of members of the public to attend and observe the meeting is not acceptable.

We have also posted our code of civility uh on the board over there in this boardroom.

Please do not approach the dais.

The public must remain behind the barrier at all times.

If you wish to give something to the council, the clerk will approach you, and you may hand it to her.

Any attempt to move past the barrier or approach the dias will be considered a disruption of the meeting and could result in removal from the meeting.

Please take note of the exits for your safety and silence all electronic devices.

And with that said, we will now start with our uh second item, the MDOT Roadshow update.

And that is being presented by our Deputy Chief of Staff, Alan Etzler, and I'm not sure.

Here with me today is uh Ben Smith from our advocacy team at Funkin Bolton, as well as Ben Groff, also from our advocacy team at Funkin' Bolton.

Uh, you all historically have interacted with Luke Pinton, uh, who is down uh today and regrets he can't be here, but is meeting with the governor's new chief of staff uh to meet about some Frederick priorities.

So we're excited about that.

He's got some other things on there.

Uh but Ben Groff has uh been a great help for the city through the Move Coalition.

He was really the point of contact for the city, um, which was the uh US 15 was a highlighted project through the Move Coalition, uh the Move Maryland initiative that the governor announced that raised money to uh get US 15 refunded in the uh CTP.

So we're grateful for his expertise and he'll uh fill in on some of the advocacy efforts at the um general assembly session that we'll be doing this session.

Uh we were asked to uh present on not just the MDOT Road show, but also specifically how we'll advocate for US 15 in the upcoming General Assembly session, as you all know that's our top priority uh as we move into uh January.

Um to do that, we're gonna review some of the financial landscape and and you all will note that this meeting was moved uh two weeks.

That was because the uh capital debt affordability committee was releasing a port, a report a few days ago that we wanted to make sure that we had the most updated information for you all, and we could present the financial landscape of the state and how it relates to Frederick and our projects.

Um we'll talk about what that means.

Uh we'll talk about the uh overall M.RODSHOW priorities that we shared, and we'll list them out and talk answer any questions that we can.

Uh if there's any projects specifically that you want some more information on, we'll we'll go back and try to get that for you.

Um and then we'll specifically talk about US 15, the project, and uh how we plan to advocate for it.

All right, so uh as you all know, and I won't spend much time on this.

US 15 has been uh the top transportation priority for the city of Frederick for Frederick County and for a lot of our delegation for the last 10 to 15 years, uh, was taken out of the CTP budget budget uh or the CTP um I think two or three years ago, uh we were able to get a reinstated last year.

That project is for a uh third lane in both directions uh on 15.

Uh currently, as exists, there's seven and a half million dollars for design in uh the FY26 budget, which we're in now, and then 177 million dollars is planned out in the CTP with construction expected to begin in 2028.

Um I'm gonna let Ben uh our resident expert talk a little bit about the uh state and uh the fiscal and debt environment at the state level right now.

So as Alan mentioned, CDAC just uh met a couple of days ago and unanimously recommended 1.75 billion in general obligation bonds for fiscal year 27.

Um Maryland remains uh um below all debt thresholds, uh, which is a good position to be in, obviously.

Uh as far as the credit rating goes, I think everybody remembers the ding that we experienced through Moody's, but Fitch and Standard and Poor maintained the state's triple A bond rating.

Uh so we feel strong about the fiscal outlook in that respect.

On the capital front, though, the funding levels are gonna remain flat uh for the year ahead, which means that despite the natural year-to-year expansion that we expect, uh, there will be a little bit more of a competitive environment.

Um the uh governor's portion of that may also uh be a smaller portion.

So local projects are gonna have to compete within a at a pretty tight discretionary pot.

Uh all of that said though, for US 15 in particular, it remains in the strongest possible position.

This is something that's the product of a whole lot of uh pre-existing work, stakeholder buy-in, and uh we feel uh confident uh in it moving forward.

It complements the governor's move Maryland priorities, uh, the focus on sustainability, economic mobility, um, and US-15 is included in Move Maryland priorities.

Uh, it just requires the sustained advocacy and the sustained messaging around it all right, and jumping into uh our M.Roadshow priorities.

You all are familiar with um probably the majority of these.

If there's any that you're not familiar with, I don't want to spend a ton of time on them, but uh we'll try to answer you any questions that I can.

Um obviously US 15 is up there.

Um Maryland 26 Minoxie Boulevard expansion is uh is new, um, and that is as a result of uh a lot of the growth in that area of the city, and uh that being a failing intersection for the APFO.

So uh we are starting the advocacy work on that and what um uh what a project for that intersection might look like.