The 2020 Comprehensive Plan in currently being developed.
We caught up with Joe Adkins, Director of the Planning Department to give us in the inside scoop on what that means and why it matters.
What is the Comprehensive Plan and why is it of interest to local business owners?
The Comprehensive Plan is a long range plan that will guide the policies and development patterns of the City of Frederick. Topics that are considered within the plan include local land use, zoning, transportation, schools, parks, libraries, housing, historic preservation, pedestrian & trail systems, and environmental issues. The plan also addresses regional issues — such as road improvement for larger roads that fall outside of City control but impact our residents and businesses.
To investors and existing businesses, the Plan importantly shows where future growth is going to occur and can help them plan accordingly to meet demand.
What is the current status of the Comprehensive Plan?
We recently completed the community outreach portion of the Comprehensive Planning and are now working on the staff draft. When completed our draft will be presented to the Planning Commission in segments over a series of meetings. Once appropriate feedback received and edits are completed, the updated draft will then be taken before Mayor and Board for their review.
How can the public continue to stay involved?
The Planning Commission meetings will all be open to the public, as will the Mayor and Board meetings. We certainly encourage residents and businesses to come out and stay engaged.
The land-use portion of the Comprehensive Plan is also currently open for additional public input. Now until the end of December property owners are invited to submit land-use reclassification applications. Submission of an application is the first step of the process if you would like to be included in the comprehensive rezoning process. More information can be found here.
What new trends do you anticipate the Plan to include?
The biggest thing to show up is likely to be more mixed-use options. People today tend to want to live in a walk-able community and have easier access to a broader range of amenities. The east-side of Frederick in particular shows potential for accommodating this modern trend.
In the City’s Strategic Planning, there was a lot of talk of adjusting to form-based code. How exactly this plays out, and how broadly it is implemented, remains to be seen with the coming meetings but it is very possible it will appear in at least a designated test corridor within the City.