(3/2021) February proved to be a fairly quiet month for the Frederick County Council. The only item that came up this month with direct relevance to the local area was the Town of Emmitsburg reclassification request of two parcels of land on Creamery Road. The land is 16707 Creamery Road, which is a less than two acre piece of land that was the former site of the Town’s Waste Water Treatment Plant, and 16715 Creamery Road, which just under 84 acres and is the location of the Town’s solar field and current Waste Water Treatment Plant.
The property is owned by the Town of Emmitsburg but the request must go through the County Council due to the following clause: "For a five-year period, a municipality may not zone newly annexed lands to a zone substantially different from the pre-annexation jurisdiction's zone without the express approval of the pre-annexation jurisdiction." The Town of Emmitsburg requested to rezone the two parcels from Agricultural to Institutional. This request was approved by a unanimous 7-0 vote from the County Council. The Town has stated the parcels "will remain the Waste Water Treatment Plant and solar field, with the only potential change being an 11-acre tree planting on 16715 Creamery Road to meet the restoration requirements of the Town’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit."
There is some other significant news this month relating to committees. During a meeting in February, a bill to establish an Immigrant Affairs Commission in the county received a third reading. The purpose of the Commission will be to "act as an advisory body that serves as a means for immigrant voices to be heard and understood, facilitate civic engagement among immigrants, and recognize and legitimize issues of importance to immigrants arriving and living in Frederick County." A motion to approve the bill passed by a 6-1 vote. The only vote against the bill came from District 5 Council Member Michael Blue (R).
The other major committee news this month is the appointment of 17 members to the newly formed Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. The Council will be obligated to meet at least four times per year and provide a yearly report to the County Council. The members will be Council Member Jessica Fitzwater (D), Judges Eric Schaffer and Julia Martz-Fisher, State’s Attorney Charlie Smith, Christopher King, Maggie Henderson, Susan Boisclair, Pam Holtzinger, Inga James, Shelley Sexton, Jay Hessler, Lynn Davis, Robin Grove, Blaine Hoffmann, Carin Golze, Lynne Galletti, and Student Member Mansai Tanikella.
Two other bills that came before the Council this month were a variation of "Kari’s Law" and an update to the Zoning Ordinance. Kari’s Law refers to a case where a woman was killed and her young daughter was unable to dial 911 as she didn’t know she needed to dial a "9" first to reach an outside line at the hotel they were staying at. Recent Federal and State Legislation has focused on making it a requirement for multi-line phone systems to be able to directly dial 911.
Consistent with the State and Federal regulations, the bill in Frederick County aimed to do the same. The bill passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote. The other bill was an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance to "allow the Board of Appeals to grant a variance to expand nonconforming portions of a nonconforming structure if no increase of the building footprint is proposed and the expansion does not extend farther into the required setback." This amendment will receive a public hearing in an upcoming meeting prior to receiving a full Council vote.
