The Zoning Board of Appeals met on January 24, 2023, at 7:00 PM at City Hall (101 North Court Street) to consider two applications: a conditional use for an assisted living facility at 228 Thames Drive and a temporary use for an auto repair business at 430 Pine Avenue, along with routine board business. The meeting was broadcast live on Channel 99 and streamed online.
Note: All votes were 4-0 in favor, with one seat vacant (no abstentions).
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the January 25th meeting of the City of Frederick Zoning Board of Appeals. Before we get started on tonight's business, I always like to give a little brief background information on the CBA and the procedures we'll be following tonight, just in case uh folks aren't familiar with that. 24th. 24th. Yeah. It's all become one big day since the pandemic to me. It is the responsibility of the zoning board of appeals to authorize on appeal in specific cases, a variance from the terms of the city's zoning regulations to hear and decide special exceptions to the terms of the zoning regulations, and to hear and decide the appeals of agreed parties when it's alleged that there is an error in any order requirement, decision, or determination made by an administrative officer in the enforcement of the land use article of the annotated code of Maryland or any law adopted thereon, which includes the City of Frederick land management code. We conduct all of our responsibilities in accordance with the city's land management code and all applicable Maryland state law. Members of the ZBA here, we are all volunteers and we are all residents of the city. Members are appointed by the mayor, and our appointments are confirmed by the Board of Alderman. The board is uh comprised of uh five uh members, and we have a full board with uh with us here tonight. Um the board's also supported in our activity by city staff, just for everybody's uh benefit. Um, I'd like to introduce the folks that are with us tonight. To my far right and to your far left is Mr. Joe Atkins, and he is the um uh manager of the planning department. And to my far left and everybody else's far right is Miss Jennifer uh Van Degarrick, um, and she is the office manager in the planning department, and uh addition to many, many numerous duties, she uh supports the ZBA and our activities. Uh our procedures uh tonight for variances and special exceptions, and that's uh all that we seem to have on the agenda will be as follows. Um I will call the case number. Um if it uh uh is possible, it'd be great if the applicant gave us a little bit of a wave, let us know that uh you're here. Um but I will first ask for the staff report. Uh the staff report will be summarized uh and entered into the rhetoric record. Um at the end of the staff report, the staff may make recommendations regarding the case. Uh that is one element that the board uses in our decision making, but it is not the only element. Following the staff report, I will ask the applicant if they would like to give a statement, if they'd like to add any kind of clarification or additional information that they think might be of use to the board. Um ask that the applicant or uh folks that are here on the applicant's behalf uh questions at that time. Um following that, I will ask if there are any members of the public who would like to give uh comment about tonight's cases. Um any member of the public uh has the opportunity to give public comment on any of the cases that we hear at the zoning board of appeals. Following any public comment that we have, I will ask the applicant once again if they have any summary remarks that they would like to give. Um excuse me. And then uh I will then close our public testimony uh portion of the case. Um I will ask for a motion uh from members of the board. Um, a under our rules of procedure, a majority of uh votes in the affirmative, pass a motion. So three out of five votes uh will pass any motion that's uh before the board. Um just a little note on public testimony. The ZBA welcomes public testimony uh and permits reasonable cross-examination of witnesses uh as required by law. Um anyone who's gonna speak tonight is gonna be asked uh to be sworn in and to ask to give their name and their address for the records. Um that is because any decision made by the zoning board of appeals uh can be uh appealed to Maryland State Court and the judge who would hear that appeal that helps keep the record straight and when the judge reviews the um recording of tonight's proceedings, uh keep straight uh who happens to be speaking at any one time. Um are there any questions about tonight's procedures? Seeing none, um, if you all are following along on your agendas, you'll notice that we've got a couple of housekeeping matters before we get uh to tonight's uh cases to take care of. Uh so if you bear with us for a couple minutes, we'll go ahead and take care of those and then get on with tonight's business. Item number two on our agenda is general public comment uh regarding zoning in the city of Frederick that is not related to tonight's cases. So if anybody happens to be here tonight that just wants to speak about zoning in Frederick in general, now's the opportunity to do so. So if anybody has any general comment about um uh anything related to zoning or the land management code that isn't related to tonight's cases. Sir, if you'd like to come and and speak, you could. Um uh we could have your name and your uh address. Yeah, if you have your name and your address for the record, that'd be great. My name's Kevin Blank and I live at 120 Pine Avenue, Frederick, Maryland. Fantastic. Ms.