Frederick Planning Commission Workshop - November 20, 2023
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Frederick Planning Commission Workshop - November 20, 2023\n\nThe City of Frederick Planning Commission held a workshop on November 20, 2023, beginning at 2:00 PM. The meeting covered two agenda items: a final site plan for a CarMax auction and production facility, and an informational presentation on the "Let's Move Frederick" transportation plan.\n\n### CarMax Final Site Plan (PC23-929FSI)\nThe applicant, Brad Lock of Center Point Integrated Solutions, presented plans for a CarMax auction and production facility on Progress Drive. The facility includes a production building for vehicle servicing and a wholesale auction open only to licensed dealers. Key discussion points included:\n- Parking Landscape Modification: The applicant requested a modification to omit landscaping in parking islands within a 125-foot Potomac Edison power line easement, proposing rock mulch instead. Commissioners suggested planting low shrubs, and staff noted the modification would need to meet code criteria.\n- Fencing vs. Wall: The applicant proposed a six-foot vinyl-coated chain link fence with black slats and a guardrail for security around the outdoor storage area, instead of the required wall or hedge. Staff stated a formal modification request would be required. Commissioners expressed concern about precedent and plan to visit the site to assess neighboring properties.\n- Dumpster Enclosure: The applicant requested a waiver from landscaping on three sides of the dumpster enclosure, as it is already within a block wall and inside the secured storage area. Staff indicated a modification would be needed.\n- Other Items: The impervious surface ratio was missing from the plan and must be added. Stormwater management and APFO compliance are under review and must be approved prior to the hearing.\nNo public comments were made. The commission took no action, deferring decisions to a future hearing.\n\n### Let's Move Frederick Presentation\nDavid Edmonson, Transportation Planner, presented the "Let's Move Frederick" plan, currently in its fifth draft. The plan aims to increase walking, biking, and transit trips to 35% of all trips within the city by 2043. Key points from the presentation and discussion:\n- The plan emerged from the comprehensive plan and community input, with two-thirds to three-quarters of survey respondents supporting more sidewalks and bike lanes.\n- It includes infrastructure projects (sidewalk completion, an all-ages-and-abilities bike network), programmatic efforts to build a walking/cycling culture, maintenance strategies, and financing approaches.\n- Challenges discussed include enforcement of e-bike speeds on shared-use paths, the need for better transit funding, and the difficulty of achieving mode shift in a car-oriented development pattern.\n- Commissioners asked about linkages with smart traffic systems, intercity trail connections, and the practicality of the goals for a city of Frederick's size.\nThe commission decided to take a "shallow dive" and will hold a further workshop before a public hearing to provide a recommendation to the Board of Aldermen, likely in early January.\n\n### Key Outcomes\n- CarMax: No vote taken; the applicant was asked to provide additional information and submit formal modification requests. Staff will continue review of stormwater and APFO. The commission will visit the site before the next hearing.\n- Let's Move Frederick: The commission will schedule another workshop and a public hearing in early January to consider a recommendation to the Board of Aldermen.
Meeting Transcript
Well, good afternoon. It's two o'clock. So welcome to the November workshop for the City of Frederick Planning Commission. Let's see. So our procedures are we invite the applicants up. I think pretty much the applicants here understand the process, so I won't explain that in depth for them, but if anybody is watching, we start with the applicants. The applicants walk us through their application. We have a conversation. And really the point of all this is to have an exhaustive conversation, get all of our questions out on the table. And with that, with us today are people from the City of Frederick Planning Department and also from the Transportation Department, because our second item on today's schedule is the presentation of Let's Move Frederick. So at this point, we'll ask for everybody who is going to testify before us today, the staff, applicants, and anyone from the public to stand and be sworn in. Okay, and raise your right hand, as you all did. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the responses given in the statements made in this hearing before the planning commission will be the whole truth and nothing but the truth? If so, say I do. Okay, terrific. Thank you. All right. First agenda item is uh the final site plan for CarMax. PC 23-929. And we invite the applicants up to the table. Good afternoon. All right. So uh my name is Brad Lock. I'm with Center Point Integrated Solutions. Uh, we're CarMax's nationwide development consultant. Um, and we're happy to be here today to talk about uh this new facility. Um the site plan here is showing um kind of a newer concept for it's on. Oh, oh, there we go. Oh, perfect, thank you. It's better. Um this is a little bit different than you might be familiar with with a CarMax retail facility. This is an auction and production uh use. And so um there's two buildings on this site. The larger building, uh kind of closer to the bottom is the production building. So that's gonna service vehicles that are brought to the site. Um, get them ready to be shipped out to other retail markets. So this is kind of a uh helps the other retail markets in the area. Um so there's a certain volume of cars that go through that. Um then there's a truck loading and unloading area. Um so all of the car carriers will be um housed on-site and not parked out on the public roads. The the vehicles that run through that production building will then be taken out uh to the other markets. Um the other uh operation on this site is the wholesale auction. So this is not a general public facility. Um these auctions are by invite only to licensed local uh dealers. Um so vehicles that are not going to be up to the CARMAC standard um may have aftermarket parts or um things like that would run through that auction and then so these dealers would take them back to their um their own lots. Um the main kind of open area is the staging for the for the whole facility, and then there's the customer and employee parking um to the north. Um this is that whole staging area is fully secured. Um I know one of the staff comments is um the wall versus the fence, so I wanted to get some clarification on that, show a few uh pictures as well of what we have proposed, and then uh see if there's any clarification we could provide or on those options. Um that's essentially the operation of this site. We could we're happy to we're here to answer any questions.
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