in support of an Environmental and Natural Resource Reserve in Southern Frederick County – that will protect agricultural land, fragile sole-source aquifer and area wells and prohibit large scale industrial development in that area.

This proposal for an Environmental and Natural Resource Reservewould protect land east of the Monocacy, west of I-70 and North of the Montgomery County line. It would protect the Sugarloaf Mountain, the Monocacy Battlefield, hundreds of acres of farms, prohibit large institutional development, protect areas around the Monocacy River and foster the continuation of agricultural preservation contiguous with that in Montgomery County. Click here for a rough rendition of the proposed area (courtesy of Montgomery Countryside Alliance).

The Board of County Commissioners is poised to move ahead with the proposal by the end of June. Please send them letters expressing your support for the Environmental and Natural Resource Reserve as soon as possible:

Jan H. Gardner: jgardner@FrederickCountyMD.gov
David P. Gray: dgray@FrederickCountyMD.gov
Kai J. Hagen: khagen@FrederickCountyMD.gov
John L. Thompson, Jr.: lthompson@FrederickCountyMD.gov
Blaine R. Young: byoung@FrederickCountyMd.gov

Please send a copy of your letter to friends@friendsoffrederickcounty.org.

The recently ratified Frederick County 20-Year Comprehensive Plan mandates increased protection for environmentally sensitive areas, and those – like this – that are under pressure to change. This proposal is the first initiative to implement the action item NR-A-14 in Chapter 3 – Conserving Our Natural Resources and Green Infrastructure.

Conventional and organic produce, eggs, baked goods, specialty baked goods
(gluten and dairy-free with some vegan options), plants and fresh cut
flowers, local crafts and so much more!
Bring home dinner and food for the week at one location!
For questions or about vending, contact Beth Johnson at 301-712-4137

http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/local-economies-close-the-distance-between-us

Global Mission Church, with current perish in Silver Spring, wants to expand to Frederick County , clear forest and farmland, to build a 140,000 ft 2 complex at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain.  This megachurch would be built on well and septic;  local residents and professionals alike have expressed concern that this development would greatly impact the area’s wetlands, the Little Bennett Creek and the Piedmont Sole Source Aquifer.

In October our Frederick County Planning Commission denied the Global Mission Church (GMC) site plan.  Their denial was based primarily on Frederick County public health and emergency professionals’ legitimate concerns about having this large complex septic sytem-dependent  and the on inadequacy of planned fire precautions.

GMC has appealed that decision – and they will be heard before the Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals on  hold a special hearing on case B-09-16 on Wednesday,  January 20th starting at 1PM in the 1st Floor Hearing Room at 12 E. Church St. [Winchester Hall] in Frederick.  The special hearing will continue to 11PM.   If additional time for testimony is needed the case will be resumed as determined by the Board.

GMC lawyers are working to discredit Frederick County health and emergency safety staff opinion, and have complained that they were not permitted to cross examine citizens who attended the public hearing in October.  GMC is also proposing to pave a road to access Dr. Perry Rd and satisfy emergency issues.  The road would require woodland clearing and paving across a floodplain, Little Bennett Creek and just feet away from an existing home.

Please stand behind agricultural and natural resource preservation and stewardship in Frederick County…take action!

Sign up to speak at the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting

Wednesday,  January 20th starting at 1PM in the 1st Floor Hearing Room at 12 E. Church St. [Winchester Hall] in Frederick.  If you live adjacent to Global Mission Church’s property your testimony has tremendous value as you have “standing”.  Sample letters are available at http://www.stopthemegachurch.com/

Write a letter to the Board of Zoning Appeals

RBrace@FrederickMD.gov, copy Planning Commission Chair Catherine Forrence PlanningandZoning@FrederickCountyMD.gov and BOCC President Jan Gardner  jgardner@FrederickCountyMD.gov (Please share a copy with FoFC, to post on our site for others to see:  friends@friendsoffrederickcounty.org)

Write letters to the editor of the Gazette

http://www.gazette.net/gazetteinfo/opinion.shtml or the Frederick News Post http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/customer_service/letters_to_the_editor.htm

Take Action!

Please mark January 20th at 1PM Winchester Hall on your calendar!

Groups wishing to be recognized should submit to the Zoning Administrator by December 28, 2009 a notarized copy of its bylaws and officers.  Groups and individuals  wishing to speak must signup on the list to be provided outside the hearing room on January 20th.   Comments for the Board’s consideration in this case should be forwarded by December 28, 2009 for inclusion in the Board’s information packet to Rick Brace at Frederick County Zoning Administration, 12 E. Church St. Frederick MD 21701 or rbrace@frederickcountymd.gov , including in the subject line “B-09-16”. Comments will be received as well at the hearing.  The Board of Appeals will require reasonable time limits on presentations in order to efficiently review all applications; public comments will be limited to four (4) minutes for individuals and ten (10) minutes for bonafide organizations.  The Chairman may extend these time limits upon good cause shown.   Presentations and exhibits used in the hearing become items the County will retain; no digital presentations [i.e. PowerPoint] may be used, only foam-core or cardboard mounted graphics may be used.

I live on the corner of Peach Tree and Comus Road in Clarksburg, Maryland.  Our home is a 1920s Cape Cod style farm house situated on just over two acres of land with a perfect birds-eye view of Sugar Loaf Mountain.  There is a home down the road built in 1835.  It is an area that’s relatively quiet with the roads designated Rustic/Rural by the Montgomery County Government.  A six and one half story tall structure would diminish the bucolic setting this area provides to both Frederick and Montgomery County residents.

Our area has fought hard to protect other past proposed development projects including a garbage dump as well as a golf course more recently.  Each of these developments was rejected on the grounds of insufficient road capacity, inadequate water supply, and not keeping in harmony with the Agricultural Reserve’s landscape while protecting its precious natural resources.

The well water supply from our aquifer in this same area is very fragile to say the least.  Our home’s well yields a water flow (replentishment) rate of 2 & 1/4 gallons per minute with some neighbors getting an even smaller yield.  The property next to ours does not perk so they are unable to even build a house.

There’s a four way stop on our corner that frequently has cars running through the stop sign narrowly missing pedestrians and the bicyclists that pass this same corner.  It’s hard to imagine receiving a large majority of the cars associated with a church congregation that contains over 1,300 members.  Our road(Comus Rd) and Old One Hundred Rd.  are the two most direct roads that give east/west access from both I270 and Rt.355.  Most of the secondary roads that feed Comus and Old Hundred are so narrow that you practically have to hug the shoulder when meeting on-coming vehicles.

Although the Global Mission Church would fall within Frederick County property, it would by far impact Montgomery County’s roads and residents the most.  We deeply appreciate the fact that Frederick County took this fact as well as others into consideration when recently rejecting this development proposal and hope this will not change when their decision is appealed.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey G. Garrard

I am writing in response to The Gazette’s article about the Global Mission Church (“Church to appeal decision,” Oct. 22).

I live in the neighborhood where the church made its application to build, I attended the planning meeting where the application was denied, and I am a developer by occupation. What seems clear to me is that the church relied on a technical loophole created by poor drafting of the zoning text for exempted uses in a residential area.

Behind this, the truth is that the church officials have also exhibited exquisitely poor judgment from day one when they decided on an under-the-radar strategy designed to sneak their application past the public, a decision that has now cost them in wasted time and money. Who in their right mind would risk the bad public relations of cross-examining a retired housewife sharing personal feelings at a public hearing? Global Mission Church did. Pure hubris.

Instead of using the three months of continuance the church was granted by the Planning Commission to adjust the size and scale of their project so it would conform to Health Department and Office of Life Safety regulations and fit in the surrounding farm community, the church made no adjustments at all other than to choose yet another arrogant ram-rod approach of intimidation through litigation by filing a lawsuit before the planning meeting and then demanding cross-examination of the public speakers during the meeting.

Church officials should accept the offer they have to buy back the land for what they paid for it.

Bennett H. Goldberg, Frederick

http://www.gazette.net/stories/11052009/fredlet142807_32523.shtml

Friends of Frederick County invited residents Monday to hear Russell Frisby Jr., a representative of the PATH Education and Awareness Team, present plans for the high-voltage interstate electric transmission line through Kemptown.

The meeting was moved from 4 E. Church St. to Winchester Hall after about 15 minutes, in order to accommodate those who showed up.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding of what PATH Education and Awareness Team is and where we are going,” Frisby said. “Our mission is to educate residents to make informed decisions.”

Simply put, the need for more electricity is desperate, he said.

“Unless new transmission lines are built by 2014, we would probably have blackouts and brownouts,” Frisby said. “Right now, we’re at 100 percent capacity. By 2014, we would be over capacity.”

Maryland’s electricity needs have increased 30 percent to 40 percent over the years, but the state is relying on the same grid, he said.

Residents were adamant the lines would pose health and safety risks and affect aesthetics for hundreds of houses in the area.

The residents said Allegheny Power did not include them in its decision to build a substation so close to their homes. Part of the plan — pairing 500- and 765-kilovolt lines together — would pose health problems, they said.

“You are essentially ruining the lives of 1,300 people,” Richard Ishler said.

Others expressed similar concerns.

“We don’t mean to be confrontational, but there’s a lot of emotions surrounding this issue,” Ricky Young said. “I’m an electrical engineer and very familiar with power. I live 800 feet from the path of the proposed electric line. Please take this map back to your folks and let them see they’re placing this substation in dead center of homes.”

Several residents cited Allegheny Power’s inaccessibility. For some questions, Frisby didn’t have answers.

“Is there a way to get answers?” asked Frederick resident Bob White, who moderated the meeting.

“You hit the nail on the head,” Young said.

He said he tried to get answers from Allegheny on three separate occasions without luck.

“Allegheny Power has been the most arrogant and least forthcoming,” White said. “They do not like to talk to people. Are they set with what plans they have or is there a way for the public to be involved for an amicable solution?”

Frisby said a Public Service Commission process allows input from residents.

“The PSC is more transparent than it used to be,” Frisby said.

Frederick resident Doug Kaplan disputed Frisby’s claim that burying the transmission line was cost-prohibitive.

“Allegheny has had information that shows the cost would be much less than 10 to 20 times more to bury the lines from West Virginia to Mount Airy,” he said. “Allegheny was asked to do this study and Allegheny refused. It’s a matter of trust in the community when it comes to Allegheny.”

Public hearings will be held in Western Maryland that will allow testimony, Frisby said.

Joanne Ivancic urged attendees to insist that Leadership in Energy Efficient Design requirements are implemented in their communities.

“Get your homeowners associations to require wind and solar and share your experiences here,” she said.

Conservation measures won’t save enough power soon enough, Frisby said.

When he was chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission, Frisby said people used wind and solar during times of high electricity prices, but stopped when prices dropped.

Frederick County Commissioners President Jan Gardner was impressed by the participation.

“There really is a lot of interest here. A community meeting with Allegheny would be very useful,” she said.

The construction of a substation is within control of the county board of appeals, Gardner said, to applause.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=97336

Originally published November 04, 2009By Ike Wilson

Mark your calendars:  Appeal to be heard on December 17th at 7pm.  GMC is second on the agenda and may be continued to December 21st.

Please send letters in advance to the BOA, their website:  http://www.frederickcountymd.gov/index.aspx?NID=176

By Meg Tully , News-Post Staff

A church that hopes to move to southern Frederick County is running into opposition from county planners and residents.

The Frederick County Planning Commission voted 6-1 on Wednesday to deny development approvals for Global Mission Church.

That church had hoped to build a 138,027-square-foot building on agricultural land off I-270, just north of the county line.

And the planning commission may go even further.

Just minutes after the denial, Planning Commission Chairwoman Catherine Forrence told the commission members she’d like to request a meeting with the Frederick County Commissioners about zoning regulations in the agricultural zone — specifically, the size and scope of places of worship that is allowed.

David Severn, the attorney for Global Mission Church, took exception to that, calling it a “great concern” that the planning commission requested a meeting to change a law in the zone where the property is located so soon after the decision.

He also questioned why another attorney for Global Mission Church was cut short when cross-examining a representative of the county Health Department.

“I’m extremely concerned about how this hearing was conducted and the unreasonable burdens and restraints that were placed on Global Mission Church,” Severn said.

Global Mission Church has the option to appeal the planning commission’s decision by going to the Board of Appeals.

Immediately after Tuesday’s hearing, Severn said he did not know if Global Mission would choose to go that route.

At the heart of the planning commission’s decision was that the building — which included 60 meeting rooms, a 1,160-seat sanctuary and 500-seat dining hall — would have relied on well water and a septic system.

The capacity for the septic system was predicted to be so burdened that the county was anticipating requiring the congregation to use only disposable kitchen utensils.

The church had planned to limit septic use to a maximum of 4,999 gallons per day — just under the 5,000 gallons per day that would have triggered additional county requirements.

The county health department initially accepted the church’s projections, but upon further review decided that the building was too big to be expected to use no more than 5,000 gallons per day.

Global Mission provided a study that showed new faucet fixtures and low-flow toilets could reduce the amount of wastewater produced, but the commissioners opted to side with the health department.

County Commissioner Kai Hagen, who also serves on the planning commission, said that it will be impossible to enforce the gallon limit.

“It will be used beyond that capacity, maybe even from the very beginning,” Hagen said. “It’s a shell game that they’re playing and someone has to say, and I think people here have been trying to, that the emperor has no clothes.”

Both the planning commission and residents at the hearing were also focused on broader issues, like the visual impact the church would have on Sugarloaf Mountain and its inconsistency with the surrounding rural landscape.

Residents also brought up questions about the proposed parking — about 397 parking spots. They showed an aerial photograph that showed almost 500 cars at Global Mission’s current location in Silver Spring, and said a baseball field is routinely used for overflow parking.

Broader issues may be brought up again when the planning commission meets with the county commissioners, since they were not grounds on which the planning commission could deny the project.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/emailDisplay.htm?StoryID=96487

The Frederick County Planning Commission reviewed the proposal on July 15, 2009 and amended it with the condition:   the Building permit application and approval, including maximum occupant load, must be consistent with these (existing) Site Plan conditions.  For additional information send an email to request it from friends@friendsoffrederickcounty.org.  The Planning Commission will discuss this proposal again on October 14, 2009.   Read about it in the Gazette:  http://www.gazette.net/stories/07162009/frednew135624_32524.shtml

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