Good evening, everybody.

Welcome to the October 27th, 2026 meeting of the City of Frederick Zoning Board of Appeals.

Before we begin tonight's meeting or at the beginning of every meeting, I usually like to give a little bit of background and go over what our uh rules of procedure and general process are going to be for this evening.

Um the board's responsibilities under Maryland state law and the city's land management code uh has three primary responsibilities.

We consider requests for variances from the city's uh zoning regulations.

We hear requests for conditional uses, um, also sometimes known as special exceptions to the zoning ordinance.

And we can hear appeals of administrative decisions involving the enforcement of zoning laws or regulations.

Uh so if a zoning uh official or city official makes a zoning determination and somebody wants to appeal that decision, they can appeal that decision to us.

Um it's our responsibility to evaluate uh each of the case fairly and impartially, and specifically applying relevant law to the evidence that we uh receive here and the testimony that we're gonna hear in tonight's meeting.

So uh compared maybe other uh um boards or commissions, et cetera, that we have here at the city or even in the county.

Um it's really our job to look at those ordinances and those regulations, right, and then see how they match with the evidence in the way that we make our decision making.

Uh the board consists of uh five voting members.

Uh we are all residents of the city.

Uh, we're all volunteers, uh, we are appointed by the mayor, and those appointments are confirmed, I guess, these days by the city council.

I'm used to saying board alderman, but it will say city council uh here.

Um in addition to uh the five members of the board here were supported in our activities by members of the city staff.

So uh just for everybody's uh edification.

Uh to my far right and everybody else's far left is Ms.

Gabrielle Collard, she is the director of the planning department.

Next to her is Miss Sherry Kelly, she is a planner here with the planning department.

Uh and then next to her is Ms.

Christina Roderick, and she is the division manager of current planning for the City of Frederick.

I sometimes get those backwards, but I uh getting the high sign I did all right.

And then to my far left and everybody else's far right uh is Ms.

Jennifer Vandergreek.

Uh she is the administrative assistant with the planning department.

Uh and in uh addition to her many, many, many duties.

Uh she helps facilitate our activities here on the ZBA.

So a little bit about the hearing procedures tonight for tonight's cases, and I think we have one case on the agenda here, uh, which is uh request for a variance.

Um so the procedure that we generally follow.

Um I'll announce the case.

Typically, I would ask the applicant to give me a little wave and let me know that they're here, given the number of folks here in the audience.

I uh think that we are already have that taken care of.

Um then for the next step, I'll ask for the city staff report.

Um the city uh has, of course, prepared a written staff report.

Um they will enter the entire written staff report into the record, and then they will go through and highlight salient pieces in the staff report.

Um, you know, their perspective and findings related to the case.

Um following uh the staff report, I will then ask the applicant if they have uh a presentation or any additional information that we have, uh, anything that they would like to clarify in the staff report, um, any place where they think that there needs to be clarification or that they might have disagreement with uh what's in the staff report.

Um following that, uh typically we will ask if there is any public comment related uh to the case.

Um here in the city of Frederick, uh across the state of Maryland, any member of the public is free to give testimony related to one of tonight's cases.

Um and so again, we have a little bit smaller crowd than normal, but I will ask if there's anybody from the public who would like to speak on tonight's case.

Uh following any public comment, we'll ask the applicant to come back, see if there's any closing remarks that they might want to do or any additional information uh before we deliberate on the case.

That'll close the public testimony uh section of that particular case, and then I will call for a motion from the board.

Uh a motion needs a simple majority to pass, so any motion that happens to be before the board uh will take three votes out of the five members here tonight in the informative according to uh our rules to pass.

Um couple other things.

Um anybody is speaking tonight, if we happen to have public comment uh in addition to the applicant, we will ask for your name and your address uh for the record.

Uh we will also in a few minutes here uh do kind of a you know courtroom swearing in of anybody who's planning on speaking tonight.

Uh the reason for that is of course all of tonight's uh proceedings are recorded, and anybody who is aggrieved or disagrees with a ruling from the zoning board of appeals can appeal our decision to the Maryland Circuit Court.

So we need everybody's name and address who happens to be speaking so we have a good and full record.

Um if the judge happens to be going through a transcript or audio uh recording, it helps them orient as to right who's providing testimony at any particular uh one time.

Um throughout the proceedings tonight, members of the board may ask questions of the staff, the applicant, members of the public here as well.

So uh, you know, any time we might happen to uh have a board member who has a question at the end of each one of those segments, I'll ask if the board members have any questions that they'd like to pose.

Um, and we'll make sure we'll do that.

Uh I would say, and I hesitate to say on the record, but it's 100% true.

We are probably the friendliest board at the city of Frederick by far.

Um so um uh, you know, we definitely we've got an official proceeding here, and we're gonna follow uh the rules and where the ordinances take us.

But if there's any questions or anybody feels like, oh, I forgot to do this or forgot to do that, you know, please.

It's no trouble to get any of that uh taken care of uh here as well.

So uh piece of cake if uh we need to take care of something after we get started with the case.

Uh any questions regarding procedures.