(12/21) A representative from Catoctin Valley Distilling presented a plan to the Town’s Planning Commission to build a whiskey distillery in the Town’s East Industrial Park.

The Distillery will begin as a wholesale production location. They plan on having two warehouses; one for whiskey production and one for storage during the fermentation process, which takes approximately two years. Eventually they would like to have a taproom for sampling of their product. The taproom would be large enough to serve a maximum of 50 guests and would not serve food.

Commissioner Valerie Turnquist, who serves as the Council’s liaison to the Planning Commission, asked if the Town had enough water supply to handle a distillery. "I’m concerned because we hear reports of our water supply being low and businesses are spending a lot of money developing site plans with no guarantee of water availability. Do we know how much water we can draw from our wells without running them dry?" asked Turnquist.

Town Planner Najila Ahsan said that there has been no study done to determine how much more water the Town can draw from wells, but by comparing current development and potential development, they can have an approximate guess. Once the distillery applicant provides a more detailed expected water usage figure, the Town will know for sure if there is enough.

Ahsan assured Council members that, in her opinion, the Distillery won't exceed the Town's capacity to supply water to all the current users in Town. The Distillery representative said they expect to use 5,100 gallons of water a day and minimal sewer, however these numbers are not final.

The distillery owners are also planning to mount all their lighting directly on their buildings instead of traditional posts. Approval of this would be dependent on whether there would be enough light produced to sufficiently light the parking lot, entryway and exits.

Town staff suggested conditional approval of the plan, saying the distillery would benefit the Town by offering employment opportunities to residents as well as add to the Town’s tax base. The Planning Commission concurred with the staff’s recommendation, resulting that the project will not yet go into the formal planning & permitting process.