Planning Commission Workshop: Bakery de France Final Site Plan - August 19, 2024
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Planning Commission Workshop: Bakery de France Final Site Plan
The Frederick Planning Commission held a workshop on August 19, 2024, at 2:00 PM to discuss the Final Site Plan application (PC24-557FSI) for Bakery de France, a family-owned artisan bakery seeking to expand its facility on Minocase Boulevard. The workshop included a presentation by the applicant, staff comments, and commissioner questions. No public comments were received, and no votes were taken; the commission will consider the item at a future hearing pending additional submissions.
Discussion Items
- Applicant Presentation: Alexander Salonet and Jason Hemis (Bakery de France) and Franz Ellen (Harris Smariga & Associates) presented the expansion. The bakery, operating in Frederick for 16 years, plans to add three new production lines, a freezer, and a guard house. The site is between other industrial uses. The applicant requested three modifications:
- Single point of access for over 100 parking spaces, citing limited frontage and desire to avoid a second entrance on Monocase Boulevard.
- Lighting modification due to spillage over property lines, addressed by adjusting wall-mounted lights.
- Parking reduction to match actual employee count (75 anticipated employees, two overlapping shifts) rather than a general manufacturing standard, to minimize pavement.
- Staff Comments: Monica Robyns (case planner) noted the 70-foot freezer height was reviewed by the airport manager and Maryland Aviation Association and found acceptable. She also noted that stormwater management development plans must be submitted before the hearing can be scheduled for October, and that traffic review by Chiron is ongoing.
- Commissioner Questions:
- Commissioner Beattie asked about the left-turn from the site onto Monocase Boulevard; the applicant noted that new signals have created gaps in traffic.
- Commissioner Valencia asked about parking totals (159 spaces total).
- Commissioner Beattie inquired about solar panels and covered parking; the applicant confirmed they are exploring solar options.
- Commissioner Strawson asked about the height difference (40 ft vs. 70 ft); the applicant explained that the taller freezer allows more on-site storage, reducing truck trips to third-party cold storage.
- Commissioner Strawson asked about light spillage and the feasibility of staff suggestions; applicant agreed to review.
- Commissioner Menelas asked about bicycle parking; applicant confirmed existing bike racks.
- Commissioner Strawson asked about gate access; applicant stated a combination of guard and code entry.
- Food Safety Justification: The applicant explained that the fence and gate are required by food safety regulations (FSMA, GFSI, SQF) to prevent adulteration.
Key Outcomes
- No decisions were made at this workshop. The commission will schedule a public hearing in October 2024 provided the applicant submits complete stormwater management plans and traffic review concludes favorably.
Meeting Transcript
Before we get into the meat of the meeting, I'm going to just do a quick overview of the process that we're going to use. The workshop is a little less formal, so we're going to start by asking the applicant to come up and present your project to us. After the applicant presentation, we'll call on staff to add their comments. We will in between there have the opportunity for the commission to ask questions of the applicant and then of the staff. If we have to, we're going to go back and forth a little bit. And then after that, we will open it up to public comments and if we need to bring it back up to front for discussion and more questions. So at this point, anybody, including staff and applicant and any members of the public who want to make a presentation or speak at the meeting today. Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the responses given and the statement 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. I know we don't have a formal announcements, but Gabrielle, do you have anything you want to say before we get started? Just that our citywide planning department community outreach meeting, it's a mouthful. I is scheduled for this evening. It's at 6 p.m. and it will be held in this room, and this is where we go over all the newest applications that were just submitted with last month's deadline. So it is the kind of the pre-preview of things that will um the planning commission will be discussing in future months. So encourage people to attend or watch on channel 99. All right. So the case that we're talking about today is PC 24-557 FSI final site plan for Bakery de France. Did I? It was good. All right. Hello, thank you. I'm Alexander Salonet, Baker de France. Jason Hemis with Bakery de France. Thanks for having us today. Um Do you all need another microphone? I think we can share. Okay. Um just wanted to give a review of our company. Um we are a uh uh family-owned and operated uh artisan bakery. Um we've been operating oh, thank you. Operating here in Frederick uh for 16 years now. Um has been uh great to be here and be part of the community. Uh we produce uh long fermentation artisan breads using uh uh old world methods in an automated environment, and we distribute the products frozen um all over North America. So uh you know it's it's uh it's something it's a type of product that is better for you, it's healthy, uh it's sustainable, um, and it's all made here in Frederick and and shipped all over. Uh we have just recently entered into a uh a 50-50 joint venture uh with uh uh an organization that's also family-owned and operated, um, who we have become very well acquainted with, and together we are going to continue our growth and continue it here in Frederick. So our hope uh and our goal is to expand our current facilities site in on Minocase Boulevard uh and expand our operations, uh create more jobs, more opportunities here in Frederick, uh, and to create more uh high quality frozen baked goods to be distributed uh throughout North America. So uh our goal is to continue doing what we've been doing uh to build a great building uh that will be uh sustainable and a value add. Uh we hope for the community uh to continue making our products and distributing uh and to continue doing that here in Frederick. Franz Ellen. Harris Murray Good Associates. Um maybe I I'll start with just a brief overview of the site. So I don't know if we can switch this to my picture. So the site's located along uh Minocase Boulevard, and it's sandwiched between several other industries, Nickelock with its block yard, uh Frederick Brick with another storage yard, and lastly CSR hydroconduit. We back up to the to the river and a sanitary sewer easement, several stormwater ponds in the back. This one is actually on CSR hydroconduit property. You can faintly see the property lines. Um there's actually the site is made up of two lots today, so there is a lot line that kind of parallels the parking.
openpublica.com