The Frederick Zoning Board of Appeals met on September 26, 2017 at 7:00 PM at City Hall. The meeting included two new business items: a variance request for a sign at 2401 Monocacy Boulevard and a conditional use request for a property at 20 N Court Street. The board also approved prior meeting minutes and conducted routine business.
ZBA17-687V: Variance for 2401 Monocacy Boulevard (Walmart Shopping Center)
ZBA17-741CU: Conditional Use for 20 N Court Street (Pythian Castle)
Election of Officers: The agenda included an election of officers, but no discussion or vote on this item was captured in the provided transcript; the meeting adjourned without any apparent action on this item.
The September 26, 2017 meeting of the City of Frederick Zoning Board of Appeals. A little bit of start by tonight with a little bit of background about the Zoning Board of Appeals and how our procedures work, things of that nature. And then we'll start working through a couple of the housekeeping items that uh we do every month and then get on to tonight's cases. So for um the benefit of those in the audience or anybody who happens to be watching at home, uh the members of the zoning board of appeals, we are all volunteers. We are all residents of the city. We are appointed by the mayor, and our appointments are confirmed by the Board of Aldermen. Uh we have five voting members and one alternate with us tonight. Uh Mr. Overby will be our alternate uh for this evening's meeting. Uh also participating in tonight's cases are members from the city city staff who, in the uh uh in addition to their regular duties, also support the zoning board of appeals. Uh just for everyone's edification. To my far right and everybody else's far left is Ms. Pam Rippert. Uh she is a planner with the planning department here in the City of Frederick. Uh next to Miss Rippert is Miss Rachel DePoe. She is an assistant attorney with the City of Frederick. And then next to her is Ms. Gabrielle Collard, and she is the division manager of current planning for the City of Frederick. And then to my far left and everybody else's far right is Ms. Jessica Murphy, is the office manager with the planning department. And in addition to her many, many, many duties, she also supports the ZBA in all of our work. Um a little bit of background on the way that we'll uh handle tonight's proceedings. Um as I mentioned earlier, we have a couple housekeeping measures to get through on the agenda, and then I'll call uh your case. Um if you can just give me a little notice uh that the applicant is with us tonight, that would be great. Uh but the first thing we'll do is we'll ask for the staff report. Uh the staff report will be entered into the record, and at the end of the staff report, uh staff will make a recommendation or recommendations regarding the case. Uh however, that is one element that the members of the ZBA use in our decision making process, but it is not the only element. Uh following the staff report, we will ask the applicant if they would like to give any testimony, um, elaborate on anything that they felt uh needed to be clarified, um, also answer questions that might be posed by the members of the ZBA. Um following the applicant's testimony, we will see if anybody uh in the general public wishes to testify uh regarding uh one of the cases. Uh following any public testimony that we might have, we will ask the applicant if they would like to make any closing remarks. Uh that will end the public testimony portion of uh that particular case, and I will then call for a motion from the board. Um motion uh from the uh ZBA requires a simple majority. That's three out of five voting members uh to pass. Um if you are speaking tonight or plan on testifying tonight, and you approach the microphone, uh we'd ask that you give your name and your address for the record. If you happen to step away from the microphone and then come back, we may ask for your name again. The reason for that being is that uh all of tonight's proceedings are being recorded. Anyone who feels aggrieved by a decision of the zoning board of appeals has the right under Maryland state law to appeal our decision to the circuit court. Um that helps the judge who happens to be reviewing the case, keep straight who happens to be speaking at any one time uh while they're listening uh to the to the tapes. Uh do we have any other questions or any questions regarding tonight's proceedings from members of the happen to be with us tonight? All right. Uh seeing uh seeing none, um, we will uh head to the top of our agenda and start uh working our way through. Um our second item on the agenda tonight is general public comment regarding zoning in the city of Frederick. If anybody here happens to wish to speak about zoning generally in the city, uh not related to one of tonight's cases, now's the opportunity. Any takers? Seeing none, it has happened before, believe it or not. Uh move us to item number three, approval of the uh minutes from our last meeting. Members of the board, you have before you the June 27th, 2017 uh meeting minutes for your review, and I will entertain a motion. I move to approve the minutes from the June 27th meeting. Have a motion for approval of the June 27, 2017 meeting missions from Mr. Patchon.