The Frederick Planning Commission met on October 9, 2023, at 6:30 PM at City Hall. The meeting included approval of prior minutes, a consent agenda item, public hearings on a final plat, two final site plans, a forest conservation plan, and a major annexation request. Several votes were taken, with the most contentious item being the Winpenny annexation, which the Commission recommended denying by a 2-1 vote.
All right. We are now calling the meeting to order. And I would like to welcome everybody to the October 9th, 2023 meeting of the City of Frederick Planning Commission. Before we begin tonight's proceedings, I'd like to give a little bit of background of the Planning Commission and the procedures that we will be following this evening. Members of the Planning Commission are all residents of the city and are volunteers appointed by the mayor and the board of Alderman. The Commission is made up of five regular members and one alternate. All of tonight's cases have been appropriately advertised pursuant to section 301 of the land management code. And tonight, as the cases will be presented to the planning commission in the following format. First, we will have an introduction of the case. Then we will have a presentation of the case and the initial recommendation by staff. We will then have the commission questioning of the staff, followed by the applicant or authorized agent remarks regarding the case. We will then have the commission questioning of the applicant, followed by public comment. We will then have the applicant response to public comment. Following that, we will have commission discussion and questions on the case. And finally, we will conclude with commission action. In support of the Planning Commission, staff members from the city's planning, engineering, and legal departments are in attendance. And at this point, um anyone wishing to speak publicly tonight regarding any application, including members of the public, must be sworn in prior to giving their comments. People who are giving public comments, if you are an individual, you have three minutes to comment. If you're a person representing a group, you have 10 minutes for comments. The timing clock up here will let you know how much time you have left to give your comments. And if anybody is interested in giving public comment, there's a sign-up sheet over on the desk table over to the side of the room. We will take comments in the order that people have signed up on the sign-up sheet. Um, but then after after we take the people who have signed up, then there will be an opportunity for anybody else who has decided that they would like to give comment. All right, at this time, anybody who is planning on speaking, giving testimony tonight, please stand. Raise your right hand. And um to be sworn in, do you solemnly swear and affirm that the responses given and the statements made in this hearing before the planning commission will be the whole truth and nothing but the truth? If so, answer I do. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening. Uh, the first announcement I have is that our planning commission workshop will be held on uh Monday, September 16th, and the agenda and summaries for those items will be posted likely tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning. Uh those are items that will be coming up at a subsequent planning commission hearing, so I encourage folks to check those out to see what um the commission will be voting on in coming months. That same evening at 6 p.m. is our planning department community outreach meeting, which will also be at the boardroom here at City Hall. This is an informational meeting where applications that were just submitted to the city uh are being reviewed, so it's kind of just an information session and a great opportunity to learn about the newest submissions, uh, usually many months before they'd be considered by the planning commission. That meeting is also streamed on the city's website and on channel 99 for residents in the city. And then lastly, next Tuesday, October 17th. We are holding a special hearing uh for the second of two required public meetings for the Brickworks Development Project. That meeting will also be in the boardroom uh here at City Hall and on Channel 99 and the city's webpage and the staff report and agenda are online. Uh they were posted this afternoon. And that's all I have. Great, thank you. So our first order of business is to approve minutes of the past meetings. So at this point, I'm looking for a motion for regarding the minutes of the September 11th, 2023 Planning Commission meeting. I move for the approval of the September 11th, 2023 Planning Commission meeting minutes. Second. All in favor? Aye. That is a unanimous. Next, we need approval for the September 12th, 2023 Planning Commission meeting minutes.