A dispute between Frederick County and town of Frederick over a potential library web site on town’s west facet might transfer into a brand new venue, over a potential request to rezone the property.
A number of metropolis aldermen hinted Thursday that they’ve reservations about altering the zoning for the positioning at 800 Oak St. The county purchased the property, close to Frederick’s Golden Mile neighborhood and U.S. 15, final yr.
At a funds listening to Thursday, Alderwomen Donna Kuzemchak and Katie Nash questioned Deputy Director of Planning Joe Adkins concerning the timing and technique of placing a library on the positioning alongside Himes Avenue.
County Government Jan Gardner and County Council President M.C. Keegan-Ayer plan to carry an informational assembly concerning the web site at 7 p.m. Monday within the cafeteria of Butterfly Ridge Elementary College.
All 5 present aldermen signed a letter to the County Council in October asking it to delay a vote on a bid for the county to purchase the $20 million property. Nash was a candidate on the time.
The county requested for a zoning dedication when it purchased the property in October, Adkins mentioned.
Whereas a lot of the makes use of the county want to have on the property could be allowed beneath the present Skilled Enterprise zoning, it could must have an Institutional zoning on the property to place a library on the positioning.
The county must submit an utility that might undergo town’s Planning Fee for a advice, Adkins mentioned,
The problem would seemingly be scheduled for a workshop with the mayor and aldermen, then the aldermen would make a last resolution.
Adkins mentioned he’d mentioned the method with Steve Horn, director of the county’s Planning and Allowing Division.
The rezoning course of often takes 4 to 6 months as soon as an utility is filed, however none has been filed for the Oak Avenue property, Adkins mentioned.
Alderman Kelly Russell mentioned that since a rezoning is a quasi-judicial continuing, they shouldn’t be reaching any conclusions forward of a listening to.
However Kuzemchak replied that the problem will not be quasi-judicial till an utility is filed.
“If somebody needs to participate of this as a warning, please do,” she mentioned.
Nash mentioned in a cellphone interview on Thursday that she’s heard considerations from residents about retrofitting the Oak Avenue web site versus constructing a brand new construction, which the county has completed for latest library initiatives.
She mentioned she’ll hearken to the zoning case when it comes and attempt to perceive the county’s reasoning.
“For me, that might be a protracted dialog concerning the zoning of that web site,” Nash mentioned.
Later in Thursday’s assembly, Kuzemchak mentioned she thinks town’s Westside Regional Park alongside Butterfly Lane would make a significantly better web site for the library, as a result of it’s extra accessible.
County spokeswoman Vivian Laxton mentioned the problem could be mentioned at Monday’s neighborhood assembly.
“It is a sophisticated matter, which is why we’re holding the neighborhood assembly Monday. We’ll lay out choices and plans in that discussion board,” Laxton wrote in an e mail Thursday.
Of their October letter, Kuzemchak, Nash, Russell, Ben MacShane, and Derek Shackelford requested for a joint assembly between town and county to debate the acquisition of the 26-acre web site off Himes Avenue and close to U.S. 15.
The county had leased a part of the positioning since final April to be used as a vaccination clinic.
It had previously housed a United Healthcare Inc. name heart. Earlier than that, it belonged to State Farm.
In a September briefing, Gardner mentioned the positioning might provide an opportunity to relocate county companies which might be operating out of area of their present websites, together with a potential 911 heart, and produce exercise to companies within the surrounding neighborhood.
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