Frederick Planning Commission Workshop – December 16, 2024
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Frederick Planning Commission Workshop – December 16, 2024
The Frederick Planning Commission held a workshop on December 16, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. in City Hall. The workshop covered two agenda items: a final site plan and forest conservation plan for Frederick Subaru, and an annexation and zoning map amendment for High Glen (Great Southern) and Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church. No public comments were received, and no formal votes were taken; the commission discussed the projects and provided feedback for future steps.
Discussion Items
Frederick Subaru Final Site Plan and Forest Conservation Plan (PC24-762FSI, PC24-763FSCB)
- Mary Patton and John Mazellan of Fox & Associates presented on behalf of owner Jim Warfield. The project involves reconfiguring lot lines to allow a 34,000-square-foot expansion of the existing Subaru dealership, adding 19 service bays. The site is located at 1417 West Patrick Street, within the Golden Mile Small Area Plan.
- Three modification requests were presented: (1) reduce lot line screening along a portion of the northern property line adjacent to a commercial shopping center, where a stormwater facility is proposed; (2) waive lot line screening between the Subaru site and the adjacent Frederick Motor Company site, as the two sites will function as one overall property; (3) allow light spillover of 0.1 foot-candles at three property line locations (east, west, and north) adjacent to commercial areas, with lights limited to 18 feet in height and the option to install shields.
- A fourth modification (parking lot landscaping) was noted by staff as not requiring a separate request because the applicant meets the total required area through existing and proposed plantings, including forest conservation trees.
- Commissioner Beattie disclosed he purchased vehicles from Frederick Motor Company but received no benefit. He and others asked about lot line replatting, bike parking locations, and tree counts; staff clarified that the forest planting offsets tree requirements and that the staff report language would be corrected.
- Staff (Monica) confirmed that most intersections operate at acceptable levels, an archaeological assessment found no further action needed, and SHA has no issues. The applicant will return with a revised plat after the site plan advances.
Annexation and Zoning Map Amendment for High Glen / Great Southern and Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church (PC24-664ANX, PC24-665ZMA)
- Jonathan Pembroke and Mary Patton of Fox & Associates, joined by Bruce Dean, presented. The annexation involves five parcels totaling 71.94 acres: Johnson residence (~0.5 acre), Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church (~4.08 acres), Marvin Osherman’s personal residence known as High Glen, and two parcels owned by Great Southern Investment LLC (~56 acres total). The Doll property was not included.
- The property would be annexed into the city with R4 base zoning for most parcels and an institutional floating zone for the church site to avoid non-conforming use. The applicant stated there is no current plan for development; the owner seeks to have the property annexed now so it is under city jurisdiction for future planning.
- Staff recommended several annexation agreement conditions: interim taxes to offset city services, contributions toward the water tank site and North Branch Trail, a per-unit fee ($8,000 per unit, CPI-escalated, payable at building permit) for road improvements, and a restriction on access to Yellow Springs Road only (not Christopher's Crossing) to preserve the arterial’s function.
- Commissioners discussed the lack of a development plan, the potential for a future PND or mixed-use, and the ability to amend the annexation agreement in the future if needed. Commissioner Beattie noted the property makes sense for annexation given its location surrounded by city development. Staff explained that the access restriction can be changed through a future amendment process.
- No public comment was received. The commission will continue to consider the annexation and rezoning at a future public hearing.
Key Outcomes
- No votes or formal decisions were taken at this workshop. Items will return for public hearings and future commission action.
- For the Subaru project, staff and the applicant will address the minor issues raised (tree count clarification, replatting) before returning for a final review.
- For the annexation, the commission will consider the staff recommendations and public input at subsequent meetings; the annexation agreement terms will be negotiated with the city council.
Meeting Transcript
Turn that on, we're a small group up here, but it's two o'clock, and I think all of the commissioners who are going to be here are here, so we might as well get started. What is today? The uh December 16th, 2024 workshop for the City of Frederick Planning Commission. Uh, before beginning today's proceedings, I'm going to give an overview of the process we'll follow today because the workshop process is just a little bit different and a little bit more informal than the hearing process. Um, for each item on the agenda, we'll start the conversation by having the applicant come up and give their um walkthrough of their project for us. And just a quick reminder, I think everybody who's here has done this many times before, but particularly we ask you to actually literally walk through and give us an overview of everything rather than just saying I'm here to answer questions, and especially if you're asking for modifications, I'll kind of go through the modifications and justifications so we understand that. Then after the the um applicants and the commission have had their discussion, we'll ask the staff to um give their presentation and add any additional information they have. And after that, we will open for public comment, and if we need to, then we'll have a back and forth between the applicant staff and commission with additional questions. Um that's pretty much sums everything up in a nutshell. Um everybody who's going to make a presentation before the commission today needs to be sworn in, so that includes applicants, staff, and anybody here for the public to make public comments. So at this point, if you would stand and raise your right hand, and do you solemnly swear or affirm that the response is 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 very much. Um, I know that we don't have a formal announcements, but is there anything, Gabrielle, that you would like to say before we get started? Sure. Um, happy holidays and thank you to the commission for all their hard work this year. Um, this will be our last meeting until January. So thank you to all our commission members present and not here today for all the work you guys continuously do. We appreciate it. Um I always like to give a plug to our citywide planning department community outreach meeting, which is this evening at 6 p.m. And that's held in this room. It's also streamed online as well as played on channel 99. And um, just as a little sneak preview for our January community meeting, um, we are planning on doing a special presentation about area planning efforts as we kick off 2025, which is crazy to say that that is in our work plan. That's a topic that we are going to um work hard to implement uh in the next year, and thought it was a great opportunity since the comp plan was a couple years back now to just reintroduce the concept to people and hopefully build some excitement about those planning efforts. Thank you. Yes, uh Gabriel. The I was wondering about when we start the effort for the next comprehensive plan, because obviously 2030 is getting closer. I don't know how long that process takes. Sure. So we have outlined in our work plan, and I can share some more detail on that with you. Um, both our annual updates to the state that we provide every year as well as um when we start to gather the uh data and and start that comprehensive planning process. Um so yes, it will be rolling around in that years of that work plan um to start to look at um updating that. Uh the the last comp plan update we had many many public meetings on. Um, so it is a long engaged process, not only with the planning commission, but also with the city council when it gets that point. We're good. Thanks. Okay. All right. Um, so we'll move to the first item on the agenda, which is um PC 24-762 FSI and PC 24-763 FSCB final site plan and forced stand delineation preliminary forced conservation plan for Fed Frederick Subaru. So the applicant can come to the table. Good afternoon. I'm Mary Patton with Fox and Associates. Here with me today is John Mazellan with Fox and Associates, and we are here on behalf of the owner Jim Warfield, um, who owns the Frederick Subaru site as well as the adjacent Frederick Motor Company site. Um he is traveling right now, so he personally cannot join us today, but um we're happy to share the project and address any questions that you have throughout the process. Just to give a little bit of context, the site itself is located at 1417 West Patrick Street near the intersection of West Patrick, um, old Route 40 and Waverley Drive. Um, and if you have the full set, if you wouldn't mind exist uh switching yes, great, perfect. This is the existing conditions plan. Um so all in all, there are three parcels that kind of tie to our proposal with the site plan. This is an existing Frederick Subaru dealership. Um get the pointer to work.
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