The first bill, titled Amend Public Schools in the ORI Zone. This bill would allow public schools in the ORI with planning site approval. Schools can provide programs for students and their families to build bonding and bridging social capital, and they act as stabilizing institutions that provide supportive social networks for families.

Allowing more children, the opportunity for other education is important to the Frederick County community. By allowing schools to be placed in the ORI, we are effectively giving more children the opportunity for access to more schools.

The Council had a worksession on this bill back on Tuesday, June 13. It was then formally introduced on Tuesday, June 20, and then had a public hearing at 7 p.m. on July 11. This bill is scheduled to be voted on for final adoption on August 8, at 5:30 p.m..

I have also a second bill on this same timeline titled, Amending the Zoning Code to add Woodworking to the County Code. The bill would define and allow for review and approval of a Woodworking Use in the Agricultural District. To be clear, the bill does not address woodworking in a commercial or industrial district.

The current County Code provides for many uses to be permitted as a Home-Based Business per § 1-19-8.240 that effectively allow for business and personal service uses to occur in any zoning district as they are regulated and severely limited in a manner via significant provisions to reduce impacts. Beyond that, most uses, regardless of their intensity or impact are either not explicitly permitted or permitted as a typical business/personal service use and are not permitted in all zones but more often designated only within the commercial or industrial districts. In addition, the Code has not been comprehensively modernized to address ‘emerging’ or ‘non-traditional’ uses that are now more typical and/or not specifically identified. This leaves individual text amendments as the opportunity to clarify or provide for some missing component.

The latter use (‘Limited Landscape Contractor’) is a good example of a commercial business personal service use that can range in intensity based on the size of a business and is one example of entrepreneurship and a small-based business that needed to be addressed without treating all uses the same.

A constituent currently operating a ‘Woodworking’ business finds themselves in a similar situation, stuck between the very strict provisions of a "home-based business" and perhaps other ‘proximate/similar uses’ that would only be permit in commercial districts. As noted above, certain uses can and should continue to be permitted in other districts beyond commercial districts to encourage and facilitate small businesses and entrepreneurship within the County, but certainly with some level of enhanced regulations.

In discussing the current and foreseeable future operations of their Woodworking use, it was acknowledged that many of the requirements of the existing Limited Landscape Contractor Use can also be applied to other ‘small business type uses’ such as Woodworking. In fact, Woodworking likely has even less of an impact do to the significantly reduced vehicular/truck traffic that you may experience with a contractor use.

It was further discussed that that the best approach was to attempt to utilize the existing regulations within the code to acknowledge there may be other similarly situated small-based businesses/operations that may also want to take advantage of such an amendment, and we did not want to create provisions that were specifically for one particular property owner with one specific set of circumstances.

The existing provisions of § 1-19-8.441 already provide for: minimum lot size, height, and setbacks; impervious surface provisions, maximum number of employees; and equipment and materials screening requirements to maintain compatibility in the agricultural district.

To that end this text amendment proposes the following:

• Utilize the provisions of § 1-19-8.441 as the basis of permitting a Woodworking use; and
• Clarifies and defines a use for Woodworking (as it is different from a carpenter, sawmill, artisanal craft shop or anything else that is within the current code); and
• Permit Woodworking as a use in the Ag District by amending § 1-19-8.441 and § 1-19-5.310; and
• Clarify that a caretaker/owner residence in conjunction with the permitted use does not count against certain square footage provisions; and
• Clarify and provide for certain screening provisions to be met by existing natural features on site.

Like my previously cited educational bill, this legislation has followed a similar public path. The Council had a worksession on this bill back on Tuesday, June 13. It was also formally introduced on Tuesday, June 20, and then had a public hearing at 7:00 pm on July 11. This bill is also scheduled to be voted on for final adoption on August 8, at 5:30 p.m.

I am happy that I can give you an update on my current pending legislation. If there is ever anything I can do for you, please feel free to reach out to me and my office. You can contact me via email at: BYoung@FrederickCountyMD.gov, or you can call my office at 301-600-1108.