The Frederick Zoning Board of Appeals met on August 28, 2018, at 7:00 PM at City Hall to consider two new cases: a variance request for a gas station at 23 Thomas Johnson Drive and a conditional use request for entertainment at Mirage Lounge at 243 N Market Street. The board also handled routine items including minutes approval, a continuance, and officer elections.
ZBA18-563V (Variance, 23 Thomas Johnson Drive): The applicant's representative did not present separate testimony but was present. Public speakers included:
ZBA18-646CU (Conditional Use, 243 N Market Street): The applicant, Joseph Fami, stated no violations under new ownership. Public speakers included:
ZBA18-563V (Variance): Staff presented the request for a variance from Section 824 to allow 6 pumps (12 fueling stations) instead of the allowed 1 pump due to proximity to R4 zoning (34 feet away). Staff recommended approval with 7 conditions including site plan compliance, landscaping, stormwater management, noise mitigation, lighting, and deed restriction on night deliveries. Board discussed:
ZBA18-646CU (Conditional Use): Staff presented history of prior approvals and violations. The current request was for a recurring DJ on Saturdays 9 PM–1:30 AM. Staff recommended conditional approval with 5 conditions including zoning certificate within 2 years, quarterly revenue reports for 1 year, entertainment cease at 1:30 AM, and noise compliance. Board discussed:
The meeting adjourned after the votes.
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the August 28th, 2018 meeting of the City of Frederick Zoning Board of Appeals. We've got some uh folks with uh us here tonight in the audience and some new faces that I haven't seen before. So if it's all right with everybody, I'd like to start by kind of going uh over a little bit of background and going through our rules of procedure tonight, seeing if there's any questions on that. Uh so the members of the zoning board of appeals, we are all residents of the city, and we are appointed by the mayor, and our appointments are confirmed by the Board of Alderman. Um we have four voting members uh with us tonight, which constitutes a quorum. Uh three votes um to pass a motion out of those four, uh just for uh everybody's uh edification tonight. Um in the work that we do here with the zoning board of appeals, we're also supported by members of the city staff. And so uh just for everybody's benefit, to my far right and everybody's far left is Ms. Sherry Kelly. Uh she is a planner with planning department. Next to Ms. Kelly is Mr. Scott Waxter. Mr. Waxter is an assistant attorney uh in the attorney's office here at the City of Frederick. Um and then sitting next to Mr. Waxter, it's Mr. Joe Atkins. Um Mr. Atkins is the director of the planning department here at the City of Frederick. Um and then over to my far left and everyone's far right is Ms. Carrie Ann Eiler. Um and in addition to many administrative duties here in the city, uh she's filling in and supporting us uh here this evening in our activities and our meeting tonight. So um the way that our process will work tonight and our procedures will go is I will um get to the case on the agenda and I'll mention the case. Um I think that I've seen both applicants here tonight, but if you can just give me uh a short wave when I call the case to let uh me know. Um the first thing that we'll do when we hear a case is I will ask for the staff report. Um at the end of the staff report, which will be read into the uh official record, the staff will make a recommendation or recommendations regarding the case. That's one element that the members of the zoning board of appeal use in our decision making process, but it is not the only element that we consider. Um following the staff report and any recommendations that they might have, we'll hear from the applicant. We'll see if there's any information that they would like to add, anything that they would like to expand on. Uh members of the board here might ask the applicants uh questions uh to get a little bit further information about the particular uh application before us. Following the applicant's uh testimony, we will see if there's anybody from the public who would like to give public comment regarding the case. And then after we've wrapped up all the public comment, we'll see if the applicant has any kind of closing remarks that they would like to share with the board, and then we will close the testimony part of our process. Um following that, I will call for a motion uh from the board. Um as I mentioned before, uh we need four members for a quorum, which we have tonight. Three um votes in the affirmative, we'll pass any motion that we're here. Um additionally, uh if you happen to be speaking tonight, um one at the start of the meeting here, we will swear anybody in who's anticipating to speak. Um, when you come to the microphone, if we could have your name and your address for the record, uh that would be great. If you happen to leave the microphone and then come back to give some additional comments, if you could just uh give us your name again uh for the record. Uh reason that being is that all the proceedings here are tonight, and anybody who happens to be aggrieved by a decision that the ZBA uh makes has the right to appeal uh our decision to the Circuit Court of Maryland. Um and so when the judge is reviewing uh the testimony and reviewing uh the recordings from tonight, that he helps them keep straight who happens to be speaking uh and who they may or may not be representing. Do we have any questions about tonight's procedures from anybody here? All right. Seeing none, uh, we've got a couple of what we call housekeeping items here on our agenda to take care of before we get to tonight's cases. So we'll start moving through the agenda and uh we'll get uh the meeting moving as quickly as possible. Thank you. All right, members of the board. Call to order um item number one, item number two. General public comment regarding zoning in the city of Frederick.