appeals for case number 2020-01
my name is dara spencer and i am the
chair of the chesapeake beach board
of appeals tonight's hearing is being
conducted
virtually each member of the board is
participating
remotely the hearing is being
live streamed and will be published on
youtube
for those persons logged on to this
meeting
or uh
on the call you'll have an opportunity
to speak ask questions
and comment for the record
at the appropriate time i will ask for
your comments
so let me take a roll call element of
the members
and call this hearing to order
mr david ferguson are you here
i'm here miss kelly stewart
are you here
mr jody home star are you here
miss jane ruttke are you here
yes i am and i would like to
welcome you jane as the new member
thank you darth to the board of
appearance
okay uh let it be recorded that we have
a quorum
also with us sharon hume
who is the town clerk and secretary to
the board of appeals
frederick sussman who is the attorney
for the board of appeals
and christopher jacoba
which is the town planner and zoning
administrator
the purpose of this hearing is to
consent to consider
two requests from the calvin county
board of education
the board of education is proposing to
develop
7900 old bayside road in order to
replace
beach elementary school with a new
school building
the first request is for a special
exception in order to use the property
of seventy nine hundred old bayside bill
for a public school the second request
is the variance the applicant
would like to modify the zoning
ordinances
maximum height limit so that the new
school building can exceed the limit of
35 feet
we will hear the special exception case
first only after we've heard all the
evidence on the special exception
and any public comment will we take up
the variance case once we've heard all
the testimony on
the variants including public comments
we will close the hearing and move into
deliberations
it is my intention that we decide both
matters this evening
before we begin testimony
i like to ask mr sussman to swear in
everyone
who intends to offer comments and
testify at this
evening's hearing on either
the special exception and or the
variance
so if you wish to speak to the board
this evening
on these matters please prepare now
to be sworn in
so if anybody who would like to or
intend
to speak to the board tonight would
raise your right hand
i will administer the oath
do you follow solidly swear or affirm
under the penalties of perjury that the
testimony
you are about to give and the responses
and statements
you are about to make will be the whole
truth
and nothing but the truth and signify
by saying i do i do
well the record reflects that many
people have
indicated they intend to testify and
have taken the oath
thank you madam chair okay
now i'd like to ask the board secretary
sharon hume to confirm that this meeting
was properly notified
and advertised as required by town code
yes the pop pro the property was posted
on july 27th
uh in three areas on the property um
advertised in the southern maryland
newspaper beginning uh
on the july 24th edition and then ran
for
three weeks thereafter uh the adjacent
property owners were notified by
certified mail by letter dated july 31st
okay good these documents will now be uh
recorded as exhibits
now let's begin with the application
[Music]
before i turn to the town planner for a
summary
i'd like mr sussman to take a moment to
explain
what special exceptions and variances
are
and what criteria we will use to make
our decisions
thank you madam chair first we have
what's known as a special exception is a use that the
count council has determined is
appropriate
and compatible in a particular zoning
district
as well as certain criteria are
satisfied
in deciding to approve or deny a special
exception
the board applies standards that are set
forth
in section 290-12-d
of the zoning ordinance each standard
must be satisfied and the applicant
has the burden of proof there are
six standards which i will read to you
now
number one the establishment
maintenance and operation of the special
exception
will not be detrimental to or endanger
the public health safety or general
welfare
number two the special exception
shall be such that it will be harmonious
in character
as well as appropriate in appearance
with
and will not be injurious to the use
and enjoyment of other property in the
neighborhood
for the purposes already permitted nor
they canceled mine what was that i
thought it was bernie
i know but i thought it was coming out
of bernie's throat
uh can somebody abuse themselves please
so as i was saying the uh
the youth will not be injurious to the
youth and enjoyment of other property in
the neighborhood
for the purposes already permitted nor
substantially diminish
and impair property values within the
neighborhood
three the establishment of the special
exception
will not impede the normal and orderly
development
and improvement of surrounding
properties
for the uses permitted in the zoning
district
number four the establishment
and operation of the special exception
will not adversely impact the capacity
and or safety of the town infrastructure
such as roads water and sewer drainage
and things of that nature
fine the special exception shall be such
that pedestrian and vehicular traffic
associated with such use
will not be hazardous to or unduly
conflict
with the existing and anticipated
traffic
in the neighborhood and finally number
six
the establishment maintenance and
operation
of the special exception are consistent
with the town of chesapeake beach
comprehensive plan
so those are the six criteria that the
board
has to consider and make positive
findings on
in order to grant a special exception
now let me turn for a moment to a
variance is a modification
to the strict application of the
dimensional standards
of the zoning ordinance there are times
when an applicant
faces significant limitations
in the ability to develop land because
of the lay of the land or
some other physical condition of these
plants such as
shape or topography and cannot meet the
dimensional standard
or finds that trying to meet the
standard
he or she would experience a hardship
the zoning ordinance provides or allows
for the
standard to be modified or varied
but in order for the board to approve a
variance an
applicant must prove and the board must
find
that certain standards are met for a
very
for a variance there are five standards
that must be met
first that the granting of the variants
will be in harmony with the general
purpose
and intent of the zoning ordinance
and shall not be injurious to the
neighborhood
or otherwise detrimental to the public
welfare
number two that the granting of the
variance
will not permit the existence within the
zoning district of any use which is not
permitted
in that district number three
that there are special circumstances or
conditions
fully described in the board findings
applying to the land
or buildings for which the variance is
sought
which circumstances or conditions are
peculiar to the land of buildings
and do not apply generally to land or
buildings
in the neighborhood and that the
circumstances or conditions
are such that the strict interpretation
of the provisions of the zoning chapter
would deprive the applicant of the
reasonable use
of the lander building number four
that there exists unnecessary hardship
if the hardship unnecessary hardship
if the hardship is general that is
shared
generally by lander buildings of the
neighborhood relief
should be properly obtained only by
legislative action
by the town council or by court review
of the attack on the validity of the
zoning ordinance
and finally number five and again i
would ask
somebody who uh has their uh
mic on to please mute
that the granting of the variance is
necessary for the reasonable use of the
land
or building and that's invariance
as granted by the board is the minimum
variance
that will accomplish the purpose so
those
five standards must be found by the
board
in order to grab the variance thank you
we're going to take up the special
exception
first so in a moment i will ask mr
jakubiak
to summarize the special exception
requests
after we have had an opportunity to ask
chris questions
i will ask the applicant to introduce
those members
who will be offering testimony and to
present the case
on the special exception i want to
repeat
that i would like to hear the case
for the special exception first
once we've heard the applicant's case
for the special exception
we will hear from anyone who may wish to
testify
on behalf of or in opposition to
the special exception then i will close
the testimony on
the special exception and we'll start
again but this time
with the variance after we finish the
presentation of
evidence and the public comment on the
variants
we will formally begin our deliberate
deliberations
and decide each matter if
there is no objection from the board
i'd like to ask the town planner staff
uh be entered into the record as
an exhibit
okay mr jacobiak please summarize the
special
exception application
okay thank you um first i'd like to ask
holly uh who i believe is posting
tonight's meeting if she could share the
screen allow me to share the screen
so i can place an exhibit on
your monitors
sure you should be able to share
uh well right now it says uh host
disabled
attendee screen sharing
okay go ahead
okay
can everyone see the aerial photograph
showing the school and the neighborhood
yes indeed okay yes
now especially the members thank you
the um the application for a special
exception
uh is required under the zoning
ordinance to redevelop
this property it's currently the home as
you know
to beach elementary school which is
about 65 000 square feet
of building coverage uh
it's located at the inner section
bayside road and bayside road
at 7 900 bayside and um i wanted to
point out a couple of features
that are relevant to tonight's
discussion first the
front of the school property along
bayside road is largely devoted to
recreational uh
activities there's tennis courts there's
a small
park in a little grove of trees
it's generally recognized as an open
space amenity for
the town i wanted to mention that there
is a sidewalk
along bayside road it's a five-foot
sidewalk it exists today
has been there for many many years there
is no sidewalk
on the east side of bayside road
and there is no sidewalk south of old
bayside road
there is no sidewalk on old bayside road
either those are existing conditions
um i also wanted to point out that
the site is 17 acres in size
but a major part of the site is
simply undevelopable or couldn't be
developed without substantial impact to
the environment
this forested area is part of the
property
there are steep slopes here and there
are wetlands
here's the marsh that um
characterizes the town and you can see
the the railway trail
just north of the site over the marsh
uh here's e street which is almost at
the
just beyond the edge of the property and
here's the water tower site
which stands at about 135 foot tall
um and will remit
will always remain a prominent feature
in this
the uh landscape
side of the town so i i mentioned the
sidewalks only to
indicate to you that they're not very
adequate just yet
but the project itself is going to make
a major contribution
to improving the situation um the school will be providing a
sky a sidewalk connection from
bayside road all the way through the
frontage of the property
um and i know that the applicant will
make
an extraordinary presentation like he
did in front of the planning commission
a couple weeks back
and he will show you where that sidewalk
on
and how it works to separate kids
from buses and kids from vehicle traffic
um you might also wonder about how
kids from south of
uh enter the school site
for the time being there is no sidewalk
here but there is a sidewalk proposed
as part of the safe routes to school
project which is a state
funding program in cooperation with
towns to develop
sidewalks uh it's certainly
our hope when i say that i mean me as
staff in the planning commission
that is looking at improving walkability
in chesapeake beach
it is our hope that sidewalks will
eventually be built that will connect
the neighborhood to the school
the planning commission thinks it's
important
at least have the ability to walk to
school and
so that's a part of this project that i
think these
the applicants have gone a long way to
helping us
realize and you'll see that in a few
moments
um there are a number of standards as
mr sussman mentioned that have to be met
and it's up to the applicant to prove to
you that each of those
standards are met but i'd like
you to keep in mind that this site has
been a school
site since 1953
and over time it has
been expanded and morphed into its
current configuration
there have been a number of additions to
it over time
the current capacity of the school is
about 471 students and
over time that the actual enrollment has
exceeded capacity
uh and i am not aware of there being any
significant impacts of that school site
on adjoining properties or in health or
safety or public welfare
these things that our standards ask us
to look at
the proposed school will have a capacity
of uh
474 or actually i can't remember right
now i'll have to look
um to verify that but it's going to be
roughly 500
roughly 100 students more um
and then looking through the staff
report
578 578 thank you thank you
so i i um
i wanted to mention that however the
school building itself
in terms of its footprint on the
landscape is going to be about ten
thousand square feet smaller
um and in part that's a reflection of
the fact that
it's difficult to build a new school
on a site that's constrained
environmentally
and keep the students in school while
you're doing it
so the proposal will be to maintain
the existing buildings or building while
the new school is being built
and um it's a fact that
there's not much room
on this site to do school uh
that is your traditional suburban
sprawling school
and uh in response to those conditions
uh the
architecture and engineering team took a
pretty innovative approach to address
site conditions and and to minimize the
impact of
the new building on the town on streets
on the neighborhood and
standards that have to be met um
so regarding standard one i just want to
take a quick summary and i know the
applicant will present
this information too but many ways on
divorcing but they will say
the the use will not be detrimental to
or endanger the public health or safety
uh regarding uh standard one as i
mentioned the school has existed since
1953
um and ingress and egress
have not appeared to create any safety
concerns the current proposal that
you'll see tonight
um addresses a lot of access issues
and seeks to separate pedestrians from
vehicles
um regarding standard two uh the
special exception will be harmonious in
character as well as appropriate in
appearance appearance
and will not injure the enjoyment of
property in the neighborhood
i wanted to mention that the
illustrations that you have in your
package
are designed to indicate that the
building will use materials and
architectural styles and motifs
with local precedent they're drawn from
chesapeake beach in the
existing built environment
and the applicant i'm
fairly certain will take time to
demonstrate how their proposed building
while it will be taller in places than
the current building
uh has been designed to fit compatibly
uh within this residential neighborhood
regarding standard three the
establishment of the special exception would not impede the
normal and orderly development
of surrounding properties um as you know
the area is largely developed now there
are houses on
old bayside road and there are houses on
15th street uh they exist today
and the school has existed there in a
harmonious way more or less
uh for many decades and we don't
anticipate that
changing uh with the just a change in
the configuration of the building in the
site
regarding standard four
the establishment and operation of the
special exception will not adversely
impact the capacity and safety of the
town
infrastructure uh roads water sewer and
drainage
the water and sewer systems are
more than adequate to serve the the
school
um in fact
while i my my belief is having looked at
this is that the actual
usage of water and sewage may be
at least the water demand will be um
maybe less than the current school
because all the fixtures will be modern
and
energy or water conservation fixtures
the impacted aerial roads will be
not be materially different than
the current usage buses will have a
special one-way route
from an in to antu bay old bay side road
for drop off and pickup
there won't be buses lined up on old
bayside road
there's also going to be a fairly
extensive sidewalk network along the
perimeter of the property
number five this special exception will
be such that pedestrian and vehicle
traffic
uh would not be hazardous to or unduly
conflict with the existing
and anticipated traffic in the
neighborhood
the only reservation i have about this
and this is something that i will
certainly take up with the
um the engineer is that the current
sidewalk
ends um the sidewalk that's proposed by the
applicant
ends about 130 feet or so short of
an intersection so it kind of stops mid
block
just before it gets to
e street and because of that that's an
issue and um we would like to coordinate with
the
school to ensure that that connection
gets
built in a reasonable time and that's
something that i like to coordinate
between our town engineer
and the the applicant's engineer so that
we're all in the same
wavelength uh and we're all marching in
the same direction about getting that
sidewall
accomplished in a reasonable time that
sidewalk
all the way to e street is actually part
of the safe safe routes to school
plan that we're working with the state
highway administration on
and the last standard is about the
comprehensive plan
um and uh
the established maintenance and
operation of this special exception are
consistent with the comprehensive plan
chesapeake beach well the plan calls for
school at this site obviously and hasn't
departed from that
through a number of iterations of the comprehensive plan
social science being connected to it it
shows a park and recreational resource
being made
out of the school so that the school
continues to be a a
park we have a map in the comprehensive
plan that shows p for park right on the school property and i'm
happy to say that the school is actually
showing that very thing and in that
respect it's retained that
character that the current school has
the tennis courts up in the front
um park and open space and in fact
from my standpoint as a urban planner
i've i see that the schools actually
improved upon that
part of the town's character
by actually expanding the accessibility
of that open space and
building upon it and i'm certain that
the applicant will
discuss that today the one part that
these schools um i
still need to address and i and as
indicated to me
and to the planning commission its
willingness to address
is connecting these school property
to the rails or to the fishing creek
trail project
um and that's a something of vital importance
to the comprehensive planet of town and
i'm very confident that uh we'll take
that issue up when this matter goes back
to the planning commission
but i wanted to hire that like that to
you um
and if you have any questions about the
applicant on that specific point
uh you could certainly that can
certainly be a discussion tonight
although it does not need to be because
i feel the applicant has
indicated a clear willingness to to
close the window on that issue
and work with us to at least identify
where that
alignment might be in the future or best
could be to connect the school property
to the town's fishing creek railway
trail
so in summary on the special exception
oops
sorry trying to get there
on the special exception request the applicant proposes to completely
redevelop
this property the building
mass that is located here now in the
front
will largely be shifted to this area
where my where i'm circling here um
and much of this area will be devoted to
open space and
recreational amenities um
the impact to the natural environment
will be substantially minimized there's
very little incursion into
the critical area buffer or wetlands
and to the extent there is any incursion
into the wetlands
the town has already found that those
con incursions which are quite minimal
actually
amounting to about 10 to 13 000 square
feet
are necessary for the project they
actually repair stormwater management
outfall which will improve the
environmental condition
and and these incursions or cutouts of
the
natural area are actually consistent
with the plan
because any tree that is removed will be
replaced within the buffer any shrubs or
natural vegetation
will be replaced essentially in the same
location where they're removed
but certainly within the official
critical area buffer
and we've been in contact with the
critical area commission now
already and uh we've gotten guidance
from them
and i feel confident that the final plan
will implement the critical area
regulations
um just fine uh so that's my summary uh dr spencer
if there's no objection from the board
i'd like the town
plan and staff report entered into the
record
as uh an exhibit
hey mr jacobiak please summarize the
special exception
oh well i i know i i did a
well just to summarize um the
i believe the applicant has met the
criteria for the special exception
and while my presentation is
simply focused on an existing map i
wanted to save
the actual plan documents for the
applicant to present
which i'm certain he's ready to do
okay are there any questions from the
board
none here as well no
okay let's hear from the applicant on
this
matter
there if i may share my screen this is
ron ilkovich
sei architects representing calvert
county public schools
i'm getting a message that the host has
disabled attendee screen sharing
let me know when you see my screen
someone could let me know that'd be
great we see it
awesome great uh if it's all right i'd
like to
make a presentation of the project in
its entirety and then break down the
special exception
first and the variance but just to keep
the presentation consistent
i'll just i'll run through the entire
project and explain it all because i
think there are pieces
of the project and the presentation that
address both the special exception and
the variance
uh if that's okay uh as was outlined
ahead of time chris you did a great job
we're here to present the our
preliminary plan for the replacement of
the beach elementary school
on its current site which includes the
school
as well as site improvements around the
school and associated with the school
and we're here to request that special
exception to allow us to redevelop the
site
in its current existing use as a
elementary school in the medium density
residential zone
and after that we're going we're here to
also request
a variance to exceed that 35 height foot
height limitation
before i begin i want to share a little
bit about the process
that we went through to get here you can
see that there are many
attendees to this meeting and many of
those represent
what we call our stakeholder advisory
group
the process that we took to get here was
extremely collaborative
it included both a feasibility study as
well as a schematic design process
and a lot of those members of that
stakeholder group many of whom i
again are on the call today are
dedicated community members
school administrators teachers parents
people who grew up in the community
all of whom participated in the process
and i want to really emphasize
that the the results of that process
that you're going to see before you
today
are really result of the impact and the
input that those people brought to that
commitment that they made to be part of
that stakeholder advisory group
so i can't thank everybody enough for
their involvement in this project
another influence in the project and a
stakeholder group is a town of
chesapeake beach
we took very much into consideration the
2040
vision plan and that was a guide to our
stakeholder group
and we found amongst the stakeholder
group that many of the goals
and the ideals of that 2040 vision were
the same goals and ideals that we had
for our project
the the idea of how we fit into the town plan the scale of the town
the uh the environmental impact and the
importance of the bay
and the environment and the local
ecology that had to both the town
as well as to the school committee uh so
before you have our kind of an analysis of the
existing condition
on the bottom right corner sorry i'll
start at the top right
this is one of the most special school
sites i think we've ever had a great
opportunity to work on
uh you can see from the project site
within a quarter mile so a five minute
walk of the waterfront of the chesapeake bay
as well as the fishing creek site
within a half mile walk a 10-minute walk
we cross the bridge into downtown
chesapeake beach so
the idea of the semi-urban environment
the local ecology
those are all pieces that make
chesapeake beach elementary school what
it is
and something that we really want to
celebrate in our project
uh also was mentioned the idea of the
interconnectivity of the town and this
is a major emphasis of that 2040 vision
as well
so whether it be through pedestrian
pathways or bicycle pathways you can see
how that
project site of the chesapeake beach
elementary school is really integral to
that interconnection of that town
uh in a different way other than just
driving to everywhere that you go
as we move into the site we see some of
the impacts that the
existing conditions give us and although
the site is 17
acres in size as chris mentioned a lot
of that is steep topography
we have wetlands uh buffers as well
as forest buffers for that forested area
behind the school
uh we also have the existing uh zoning
setbacks which we are respecting with
the project
uh sorry environmental buffer offset
setbacks as well as the existing
building
and the existing building will remain in
place while we are
under construction remain in operation
while we're under construction
uh and one thing i may point out here is
that existing building has a large
number of portables and outbuildings
associated with it which really
demonstrates the need for this project
eliminating all those those portable
classrooms and bringing those children into a proper elementary
school environment
is really important to all of us as
community members
all of those things together really give
us a very limited building area
and you can see that identified within
this bubble on the diagram
before you and for that reason we're
looking for that special exception and
also sharing that as the constraints of
the site and the hardships that the site
uh offered to this project
sorry um i mentioned the idea of the
existing school building remaining in
place
as a result we're limited to that
building area to the west of the
existing school building
and we'll be implementing this project
in such a way that it can be built on
the site
while the existing building's still in
operation and you can see a phasing diagram here in which the
existing building would be constructed
once it can be constructed and occupied
the new the once the new building is
constructed and occupied sorry the
existing building and portables can be
demolished and removed
and the remainder of the site in the
final phase be completed
intended for school year of 2023.
moving into the site itself i want to
share a little bit about what our
process looked like
knowing where the building really had to
go the only buildable area of the site
we started with this diagram
on the top left it took the idea of how
does the site now relate to the building
and how does the site also relate to the
town in that
town master plan and with the building
in this location
we identified areas of program in the
building that would relate directly to
program in the site
and in doing so we developed a series of
these five zones
across the site of the building there's
obviously the building area
and that's the school building zone to
the west of the school building zone
is the service and play areas for the
school kind of a private more private
uh controlled play area for the school
and that relates directly to the gym in
the cafeteria zone that would be in the
school
and being this far on back on the site
it's also the ideal place for service
to the building on the front of the site
it would relate to the entry sequence
the secure entry
gathering places outdoor learning areas
in the front of the site
from a staff from a town standpoint a
town planning standpoint
what we wanted to avoid was the idea of
building a huge parking lot with a
school behind it and presenting that
kind of image
and chris spoke very eloquently about
the idea where the school
we really wanted to envision it or give
it the image of a park
and a school within a park and for that
reason we put the transit zone so the
parking the drop off area and the bus
loop behind what we're calling a public
green
so the face of the school from bayside
road would would be this public green
and then the school would occur behind
that public green
we then went into the implementation of
that idea
how we would zone the building out with the program of the school the
playgrounds the play areas the play
fields and the existing tennis court
to end up with the design that you see
on the top right of your screen here
and i'll just explain the design from east to west
from old bayside road we intend to
provide a park-like setting
again the existing tennis courts will
remain the the project is designed such
that a lot of the
significant trees in this front area
those large trees will
also remain once our project is complete
and behind that
a play field uh and a natural trail kind
of a green
front to the building so parkland motif
uh
once we get beyond that into what we're
calling the transit zone
the parking lot and the bus loop really
exists in an area where it's not the
first thing the most prominent thing
that you would experience from bayside
road
likewise on old bayside road we want to
develop a green buffer zone
buffering the building and any hard
surfaces from old bayside road
and create kind of this meandering
pathway which is our sidewalk
system connecting the two corners of our
site here
moving back to the building the media
center the administration
uh all relate to outdoor learning
environments and i want to point out
that by putting the administration proud
on the southeast corner of the building
it provides us an ideal security posture
this is a little bit higher on the site
and from this position it can surveil
the entire
front of the site as well as anybody
coming from old bayside road
so anyone who comes to the building
they'll see you coming before you get to
the front door
that surveillance uh is a very important
component of the school security system
and then on the back of the site is all
our kids play areas the schools play
field
related to the gym the outdoor
playground areas related to the
cafeteria on that
site uh circulation through the site was
also a critical component
particularly for safety reasons in our
design process
you'll notice that with the sidewalk
system coming in in all three major
corners of the building
a pedestrian student can walk to the
front door
without ever crossing any piece of
traffic so whether you're you're
coming into park or you're coming in to
drop a child off or if the bus
is coming to drop kids off once you get
on that site you're able to access the
front of the school and that front door
without ever crossing traffic which is a
significant
safety uh item that we tried to
incorporate into the design of the
school
likewise the circulation is also
intended to segregate
uh vehicle traffic parent drop-off and
the bus
loop circulation patterns in their
entirety so right now those patterns
overlap so
parents drop off with school buses and they all
enter interface with one another the
idea now is that any parent dropping off
student will do so
essentially where they come into the
parking lot now only we've developed a
very
long neck for those parents to stack
along and they would drive down this
lane
and drop off directly on the sidewalk
again the intent here
is multiple one is any student who is
dropped off or picked up by a parent
does so directly from a sidewalk and
never crosses traffic to get to that
safety point
the other is safety of the vehicles on
bayside road
creating this long neck means that no
one is stopped on old
on stopped on bayside road waiting to
enter the site
and potentially be an issue for a car
cresting the hill coming downhill
southbound on on bayside road getting
that traffic off of bayside road is a
safety measure that we're hoping to
implement
for the safety of bayside road
also keeping buses off of bayside road
and having them enter the site as they
currently do on
old bayside road helps the movement of
traffic on bayside road northbound and
southbound
the bus loop will be reconfigured on the
site
kind of in its current location but now
a little bit deeper into the site so
that we can get appropriate turning
radiuses
radii i apologize and we can now park
eight buses nose to tail
along the sidewalk directly so kids
getting off the bus
again will never cross traffic between
the bus and walking
a significant safety measure in the safe
access to the school site
um looking at that diagram and where
we're really stuck
into the site and where the building
really has to be really led to that
uh difficulty of fitting all of our
program
in the footprint permitted and that's
why we will be asking later this evening
for that variance to exceed the 35 feet
but it also offered us some
opportunities which i'll share with you
one was as we surveyed the existing
building and we got up on the roof
we could we recognized that from a
higher vantage point we could actually
see the bay
uh particularly in the winter when the
leaves of the trees are down and
likewise we could see into the ecology
to the north
uh down towards fishing creek and we
think from a pedagogical standpoint for
a school the way it's so connected to
its local environment and ecosystem
is a great advantage that beach
elementary school will have that no
other elementary school could even dream
of
so really reinforcing the opportunity to
take advantage of those natural
resources
as a as a learning opportunity for our
school was very
uh great opportunity that our
stakeholder advisory group wanted to
take take advantage of
the other neat thing that came through
that process was the lighthouse
inspiration and the motif of the
lighthouse
and that this school could kind of be
that beacon on the hill uh once it's
it once it's finally built uh in our in
the design
uh likewise if any one of you have
walked this site you know that it
continues to climb in elevation as you
get from
east to west on the site we started 62
feet above sea level and end up
72 feet above sea level just over the
small distance of our school
and as a result our school will be
designed to kind of step up with the
site
that's important also from a massing
standpoint in that we're always trying
to keep the building as down
in and low in the site as possible not
to overwhelm uh the adjacent community
and i'll show you a little bit more
about that later in our presentation
uh i know it's not germane to the
five and six uh topics of the special
exception of variances
but i just want to share with you some
of our goals and some of what we're
trying to accomplish
and what the the true goal is to
address the learning needs of those uh
570 students at
beach elementary school not just for
today but for tomorrow
so we really talk a lot about what we
call 21st century learning
and next generation learning and these
are learning
theories in which we really try to
address the learning needs of
every student so when i went to school
there was a teacher in the front of the
room with a chalkboard and that teacher
spoke to 35 students all of whom had to
pay attention sit straight and sit up
straight and watch that teacher we've learned
over the years that
students don't really learn best in that atmosphere
some children learn best by themselves
some students learn best when they're
moving around
some students learn best when they're
doing projects some learn in small
groups and some learn individually and
some
learn good well in a long large
group of 20-some students so for that
the diagrams that you see before you
which are the basis and the the theory
of the school
are really such that the classrooms
relate to collaboration spaces where
other activities can occur
and the collaboration spaces in turn
relate to small group learning areas
like resource rooms
where students who need a acoustically
separated space or a quiet space to
learn
uh do best in a smaller environment than
a full-size classroom
so really the intent here is to take
care of the needs of all chesapeake
beach students today and into the future
regardless of their learning needs
uh but in addition the great opportunity
for those collaboration spaces and the
classrooms to have those views to have
that connection to the ecology
to have that connection to the town was
really a great advantage uh that we
couldn't not
take it take uh into accord into the
design of our project
so with that some of the challenges that
our site offered us
uh here we see a section north south of
our three-story building
and where it sits on our site and a
number of things i want to point out
uh chris did discuss about the four
station as well as the steep topography
that really pins us in
to a very small developable area
so you can see that pretty dramatically
on the right side here
on the left on the west side i mean on
the left side of the image
we see old bayside road and what i
really want to point out is that as
old bayside road moves from east to west
you can see in the distance on this top
right image
it rises pretty dramatically in fact it
rises faster than our site and our
building will
and you can see that from old bayside
road in many cases our building will be
down below old bayside road so it will
never
sit prouder the finished floor elevation
than old bayside road
and not really overwhelm the scale of
the site so we're trying to keep that
three to three story building
uh in the appropriate scale of the
community likewise some of the adjacent
buildings uh the residential buildings
do the same
so the visual impact of our building is
significantly diminished
uh despite the the height that we're
requesting
in addition i talked a little bit about
the green buffer zone and you can see
where that exists
between old bayside road and the school
itself and that's that really lovely
meandering walkway that that takes you
from the east edge of the site to the
west edge of the site
through the project of course nothing
can compete with the height of the water
tower which is at the highest point of
the site
and you can see in scale and comparison
of our building to that water tower here
but also very importantly in the graphic
uh
we tried to to put the the building in
scale on site three-dimensionally so
that you can see how the water tower
really does dominate the site
the other piece i want to bring up is
that when you're on old bayside road
if you see the line of the ridge of the
adjacent houses across the street
because the building is set back further
on the site and because the building is
set
down into the site as much as possible
it's not really competing with the
height of the ridge in a
three-dimensional
uh viewpoint so that was very important
for us in
our design to be good neighbors uh
particularly because many of our
stakeholder group were community members
uh and and and uh people who grew up
here again
so images here are the the
aerial image of the school itself these
are the
three houses directly across the street
they in fact sit
higher than our property uh because
those at the east end
are above uh the topography of our site
and hopefully if you recall the site
plan uh house two three and four we'll
actually be looking out into that
parkland
uh in the front of the site the other
building adjacent neighbor
that i want to point out is the daycare
center which is to the northeast corner
of the site
and that's picture image one here on the
top left
and it's an important image because i
want to
kind of reiterate how our idea was to
put a parkland on bayside road with a
school set further back
so two things happen in our relationship
to that neighbor
one is they are significantly uphill
from us
as a result the ridgeline of that
building is actually
from a three-dimensional standpoint
higher visibly than the bridge line of
our building
even at its higher height likewise our
building is set back
and this is a fine balance that we tried
to play where
we're really trying to demonstrate that there's a beautiful new 21st
century school
on the site but also to create that
green buffer which was so important
in our discussions as that front area
and the face that we place to the to the
community
as we develop the site and again i
talked about how on old bayside road we
have the same idea
with the green buffer zone against the
existing building as well as the way
that
the road rises uh a little bit faster
than the site rises and our building
doesn't sit
that much higher than the road in that
elevation
um we hope to provide additional
amenities in addition to the green zone
in the park as well
and chris mentioned some of the
trailhead ideas and how we want to
integrate
fishing creek trail and we talked about
that at the planning commission hearing
and since then we've been able to take
an opportunity so there's some new
information on this slide in front of
you
to start to explore how we might make
those connections uh so i'm sharing that
for the first time here
but i'll talk about the circulation on
site uh in particular
i talked already about the the parent
drop-off and the parking loop
and how that is brought off of bayside
road to protect it
i talked about the uh bus loop which
will now go from three ingresses and
egresses to only two so we're gonna take
one of those
uh throats away we're going to create
appropriate turning radii
and and visibility for the bus loop but
on here also
is a diagram showing three three
levels of pedestrian
circulation on the site one is the most
formal
which is a series of 10 foot wide
sidewalks which take you directly in
very straight lines
from the bus or the parent drop off
directly to the front door
so that's a very clear formal
distinction to make sure that those kids
are able to move in and out
of their circulation sequence
appropriately the second
is a series of five foot sidewalks which
are a little bit more playful and
meandering
and they're intended to create to
connect to both the safe routes to
school system
to be part of the uh bicycle circulation
path that is ultimately envisioned for
the plan
of the town and it's a little bit more
uh
meandering through the site to
differentiate itself from that more
formal
walkway and we also talk about a even
less a third level down
of of walkway pathways which is more of
a nature trail kind of pathway
identified in these dots here and what's
new in the diagram here
is we started to envision how we might
now connect our school
to that fishing creek trailway that will
one day connect us all together and we
identify two different variants of that
connection
one is we'd like to take advantage of
that trailhead
in our learning environment so in this
location where it's directly adjacent to
our front plaza and learning and outdoor
learning
environment we'd like to develop that
trailhead as an outdoor classroom
and a classroom in which students can
learn about
stormwater management and how it affects
the bay and how it affects their local
ecology
also perhaps learn about what they're
going to see as they walk down that
trail and enjoy
the experience and learn about their
direct ecology and environment so
creating that outdoor classroom
becomes part of our pedagogy as well as
part of our trail head connection
at the other end of our trail we'd like
to look at some sort of marker
whether it be a trail rules or something
playful or a sensory trail or something
that identifies that you are now
entering that walkway down to uh fishing
creek and what you might learn
along the way as you take that walk
whether you're part of our school
or just a community member who's taking
that walk and connecting the two pieces
so we're just now beginning to explore
how we might connect that in
a more friendly or pedestrian way this
school itself will also provide
additional amenity to the town in
addition to being a great school
environment
if you know the teachers and the
principal and and the folks who
are so passionately involved in this
school you know the great service they
already provide
to their students in addition we want to
provide
a public function to the building itself
as well
and the gym is being designed to be
oversized to accommodate community use
in the gymnasium you can see in this top
right diagram the size of the existing
gym
and the size of the new gym which will
be a full sized
basketball court gym accommodated there will also be a community office
and a community
storage room to support any community
functions that occur within that gym
and this public area of the building is
designed such that it can be closed off
from the existing school so that the the
school in the evening is completely
secure from what will essentially
function as a community center for
evening and off-hour use
another opportunity that the school has
for community use
is this cafeteria space whether it's for
homeowners association meetings
community presentations
or performances
it's designed in such a way that the
stage addresses the cafeteria in this
trapezoidal shape
it really works two ways one for a
smaller audience
in the trapezoid it really provides
ideal acoustic
ideal view lines for evening use or
performances
but we're also planning to incorporate a
folding partition which will now
open that up to the gymnasium allowing
for extremely large much larger group
activities so whether it's a holiday
concert
or a a rented out
or or borrowed out for public use for a performance or an event
this we hope that this will become a
great venue and community amenity
uh much beyond just the school's use of
the of the facility
uh imbalancing our project with the
environment
is a critical focal point of our project
as well
our project will be built to a lead
silver standard
when completed and seen here just some
of the
implementation that you'll see from the
outside of the building
of how we're starting to address those
components
one is our solar orientation uh being
east to west we get ideal
solar orientation we we have one broad
south face and one broad north face so
we can control
solar heat gain and lighting but the
other nice thing about
identifying our building in this uh
arrangement
is that the shadow lines with with our
building facing east west are all onto
our site
a lot of times when a building is built
the shadow it casts on its neighbors
can be an issue uh for for impact to the
neighbors
uh being that that our neighbors are
mostly to the south of us we really have
no opportunity to cast a shadow on any
of them
also the stormwater management which is
the concept is currently in
for how we're addressing that across the
site is not only something that we can
make a very beautiful amenity across the
site
we also anticipate using it as you see
here in our bottom left image
as part of our learning environment and
really
conveying the idea of my environmental
stewardship to our students
uh particularly when they get to see the
result of that stewardship directly on
their local environment
is was a really strong uh discussion
point among our stakeholder group
in the elevations we also took
significant measures to
make sure that our project is consistent
with the architecture and ideals of the
region and the town but also break the
scale down of the building
understanding that we're in a medium
density residential zone
we take a number of architectural moves
to break the massing of our building
down
majority of our building the east side
and the west side will not be
above the 35 foot minimum but despite
that
understanding that we're putting a
school in a community we took measures
to break down the building by
changing the facades and planes so that
we get shadow lines
and break down the massing change of
materials to break down that massing as
well
we also implement a design strategy that
we call local symmetry
so rather but and what that means is
rather than designing
a building where all the windows are
equally spaced across the entire facade
that would make this entire facade feel
like one big piece
by designing windows and in groupings so
that they're
in smaller groupings that you identify
as separate little pieces
that is what we refer to as a local
symmetry and starts to break that facade
down even further so our idea is to
really
articulate the building to make the
scale of the building consistent with
the scale of the community it's in
uh from a design standpoint that then
starts to
migrate into the materiality of the
building and how that building looks and
addresses
both the community as well as you know
present the appropriate front
uh to people arriving at the school
and understanding that this is a
state-of-the-art
21st century learning environment and
i'll give you just a little insight on
two different options that we're playing
with right now in that materiality
one is what we call our landscape
palette it's one that
looks to have our building meld into the
landscape a little bit
very and not contrast with the landscape
so natural materials between the
masonry's and the and the woods and
the metal uh roofing perhaps or stone
and and wood pallets are really what
we're trying to look at
in the landscape palette and likewise we
are looking
at another palette that we're calling
the lighthouse palette and this is one
that
starts to employ the the nautical
vernacular
that is so consistent throughout the
downtown of chesapeake beach
in our architectural as well both in the massing and the shape of our
building but also in the materiality
with the standing seams the vertical uh
lines through the building that that
connotate that vertical uh siding
components
so a lot is going into developing our
design in such a way that it is
consistent with the architecture
and the feel of the of the community
um so with that i'm going to end the
kind of the formal presentation
since we are looking at the special
exception first i'll conclude
this part with just how we address the
six requirements of the special
exception
um one is that i believe we believe that
as the applicant that the project will
not be detrimental or endangered to the
public
uh hopefully i was able to convey how
far we went to really
articulate the the safety on site and
the safety and connections to the
ultimate safe routes to school project
uh our design is striving to be
harmonious with the regional and town
character both in its massing
its materiality and the way we're
addressing the site of the town
of the of our the way we're addressing
that green space
uh to the to the town itself uh we we
don't think we'll be an impedance to the
development of json properties
in fact all the adjacent properties are
already developed
uh we don't believe also as chris
indicated that we will have an adverse
impact to local public facilities in
fact
i'm hoping that we will provide a public
amenity to the community at large
and great effort was taken to evaluate
the pedestrian and vehicle traffic
uh both in immediate implementation and
how we
uh articulate that through our site and
of course to the ultimate
uh goal with in that 2040 vision once
the safe routes to school project
and the interconnected town is developed
we hope to just literally click in right
to that plan
when it's ultimately envisioned and seen
through
so also having implemented the goals of
the town's 2040 vision
and the fact that this is our always
been a school and plan to be a school
we hope that you find that the project
is consistent with that comprehensive
plan as well
uh so in conclusion those are the six
criteria of the special exception
which uh we're happy to answer any
questions and take any comments that you
may have
appreciate your time this evening
are there any questions from the board
i do have one question uh this is jody
hunstar um i
i'm wondering about the word uh existing
in your plans does does something like
existing tennis courts mean that it is
going to be untouched by your uh project
or is that just a conceptual thing that
the tennis courts will
stay in the right place like are you
planning on making any modifications or
changes there
we're not and i think that is maintained
right now by parks and recs not the
school system
so our intention is to leave that in its
current condition thank you
mr jacobiak do you have any questions
of the applicant
you're muted chris
i'm sorry and thank you whoever said
that i appreciate that um
yes i have one question and i also have
two
things i'd like to mention uh first is
the the applicant referred to rand
referred to the
2040 vision what that
is is a vision
statement that the planning commission
has put together
as part of the current comprehensive
planning process
it reflects what the planning commission
is is um
as understood as the um
the priorities of the town and it's it's
drafted in a way to encompass
the results of a series of public
meetings and a survey that
the planning commission conducted so
it's not official yet because it hasn't
been adopted
it would be adopted when the new
comprehensive plan gets adopted
of course it may change it may be
refined over time
and it's a draft right now but to date
it really does
accurately reflect where the town uh
citizens are thinking when they engage
with the planning commission
and candidly it's not a huge departure
from
the current comprehensive plan so iran
is spot on and i it does appear that this project does
really seek to reflect those um
those elements in that vision
second the um planning commission met on
this project
because the zoning ordinance says that
the board of appeals
refers special exceptions to the
planning commission
for a recommendation and the planning
commission
did review this two weeks ago and they
did make a recommendation
and their recommendation was that the
board of appeals approved
this special exception um and i'll give
you the recommendation on the variance
uh later the last thing i i
would just ask the applicant and
specifically ran
iran could you uh just for the record
and for the
board's benefit explain who you are as
an architect
what your degree is and uh your
professional qualifications because i
think it helps round out the discussion
and adds a context for your testimony
certainly so my name is ron ilkovich i i
represent
calvary county public schools is my
client i'm an architect
my firm is small enamored ilkovich
architects and i'm principal
and president of that firm but
really and i appreciate you bringing
that up i i represent
not only the school system but the
stakeholder advisory group that really
participated in this process uh because
it is a collaborative process
uh certainly what i would dream up in my
bubble is very different than what gets
worked out together when we all
collaborate my personal
uh cv i i'm
local to the area i grew up here in
state of maryland
montgomery county i went to school at
the university of maryland for my
undergrad
achieved my bachelor's of science last
century
and my masters of architecture as well
from the university of maryland
in 1998. i've been
at this position and i've been in this
firm for 24 years
this month in my current firm
and i've been principal of the firm for
12 years
so those are my personal background
story
i've been working with calvert county
public schools
since 1996 my first project that i did
with calvary county public schools
was dow elementary school and i've had
the great pleasure to work with calvert
county public schools
pretty consistently ever since then and
it's been just a great relationship
uh and and one that i'm and has produced
projects
like dale elementary school like calvert
high school like the vocational center
uh that i i consider cornerstones of my
career and i'm extremely proud of so
i've long since appreciated working in
calvert county
and i also appreciate the seafood to be
quite honest
no further questions from me uh
okay um
now we'll hear from the public sharon
has anyone signed up to speak
on the uh no
okay uh is there anyone on this call
that would like to speak on this matter
and ask questions of the applicant
and so now is your time
yes this is mike schissler principal of
the school i i just want to share as
ron's alluded to several times
this has been a multi-year process
getting to this point and i want to say uh i continue to be amazed
at what ron and his firm have done
with the plans and with the ideas that
they've collected from us
uh and they continue to uh
improve on them i mean just tonight he
shared again with you ideas
that they took from the planning and
zoning hearing that we had a few weeks
ago
and have incorporated them uh into the concept especially the
connection to the fishing creek trail
and i just want to say for for
everyone's benefit again just uh
for a point of transparency um when
mayor wall got the trail um you know the
idea started with bruce wall and it took
10 years to get there
that we still have a ways to go um the
school system can
certainly work what's on its property
and work on improving a trail
but uh the the town or the whomever is
going to follow up with the trail
is going to have to you know build
another access across fishing greeks and
have to build
um a boardwalk through the marsh or
around the marsh
to connect with our school property in
so those are several steps that um
have to be done before we do make that
connection so
once this the school is finished in the
summer of 23 doesn't mean that that
trail connection is going to be finished
although it would be you know great that
it's in the pipeline with other efforts from other groups and
committees so
but again i want to thank dr spencer and
all your
appeal board members tonight and again i
just want to say that
ron and company have done a fantastic
job in our opinion
thank you thank you
okay does the applicant have any
cross-examination of any speaker
no ma'am if noah
closed this part of the meeting and now
we will turn our attention
uh to the variance let's start again
with mr
jacobia
i can be very brief now because i think
there's a
nice presentation already of the
building um
but the applicant is requesting a
23 foot variance
to the 35 foot
maximum height standard in order to make
the building
58 feet tall so um
currently the zoning ordinance caps
building height at 35 feet
in the residential medium density zone
buildings can exceed 35 feet
well the roofs can pop out over 35 feet
but
essentially it's a 35 foot maximum
height
the applicant is proposing a portion of
the building to
go 23 feet higher than that so that
the total maximum height will be 58 feet
and i believe i've got that right so um
that's the request um and you remember that uh
fred sussman the attorney has reviewed
with you the standards for granting a
variance
and the variance standards are
essentially
related to the existing site
and the impact of the variants on adjoining properties so
what the applicant has to demonstrate is
that
there's something unique about this
property the physical
aspects of this property that require
them
to exceed the maximum height limitation
you simply can't come to the board of
appeals and ask for a variance just
because you want one
you have to point to a physical
condition
that limits your ability to comply with
the strict
code right and uh as a zoning
administrator or
as the planning commission we have to
apply the code strictly
but an applicant come can come to you
and ask for relief and
i i go through this because i know most
of the members right now are relatively
new
on the board of appeals and you haven't
seen many variances
but the applicant can come to you and
ask for relief and they have to point to
something unique about their property
that suggests
they can't comply with the standard um
so i think what i'm doing is shaping the
testimony that i think ran has to
provide you
uh he's gonna probably talk about the size of the lot the
presence of the existing school the uh
conditions of the environment like steep
slopes and wetland buffers and the
forest buffer
and and the fact that there's not much
land left to build on and
as a result variance is requested so you
can build it up a little higher and the
kids can continue to go to school
which is pretty important um those are
the essential things
the last thing is that the applicant has
to say that
he would experience a hardship if you
couldn't get this variance
and of course you could imagine what a
hardship might be that the applicant
would experience the the lot is such
that
physical conditions prevent you from
building uh
a low building and as a result um
there's a hardship that's felt in this
case the hardship may be public
rather than just simply private in the
sense that
uh a school's uh an essential element of
the community and certainly supported by
the community and
while in today's world
we're all learning from home at some
point the kids are going to go back to
school
and they need a place to study and learn
in
and missing that opportunity will
certainly provide a hardship
to the residents of chesapeake beach so
i just summarized quickly the six seven
standards that the variance
requires and um and that dr spencer
concludes my my quick summary unless the
board members have any questions
okay if there are
no more questions
i will close the discussion
and the board will go into deliberation
and decide quote
madam chair madam chair fred sussman
the applicant has to make his
presentation regarding the variance
thanks so
i'll i'll in in my uh
in my discussion on the variance i'll
simply just address the five
points that are the points of
deliberation that were
presented at the beginning of the
meeting
as well as kind of summarized in chris's
presentation earlier
one is addressing item one i believe our
variance is in harmony with its
surroundings
uh we hope to improve the public welfare
in town just with the redevelopment of
the school but also with the re
development of the site and we hope we
were able to demonstrate that
it's consistent with that town vision
and the town ideals and the architecture
of the town
number two it's the continued use of the
site of the if
number two is about the use permitted by
the zoning
and with the special exception that we
were requesting earlier this evening
that is an acceptable use uh item number
three
is the special circumstances and the
site limitations and i've brought that
slide again up on the screen
uh to just reiterate the the limited
area of the site that's available for
construction
between the steep soap the buffer
setbacks the wetlands
and the existing school that must be
retained in operation during our
construction process
uh those are the special circumstances
and the physical limitations of the site
the hardship of course is at the 35 feet
which is really
intended for residential construction
because this is the medium density
residential zone
really doesn't address the needs of a
multi-story elementary school
and the footprint that's available for
us construction
on because of those site limitations
really requires us
to go to a multi-story elementary school
and particularly in this case to a
three-story elementary school
to accommodate the program the hardship
of course
is that if we can't build this building
vertically
we cannot accommodate the quantity of
spaces in classrooms and therefore not
can accommodate the capacity uh
of that the building requires to serve
the needs of the population the students in and
around the town of chesapeake beach
so that that is really our hardship that
we can't meet the
needs so to address item number five we
hope you find our variance
requests as reasonable and of course
necessary to accomplish the goals of our
project
so just in summary that's the the
request that we're making
uh directly related to the five
questions
that we've been asked to answer for that
this is the second time that i've
watched this presentation um
and i'm really very impressed
but that's a personal note i need to now
take it back to the board
and we need to deliberate uh so
um
i think that you need to uh see whether
any of the board members or mr jacobiac
have any questions uh for the applicant
and also if there are any members of the
public who would
like to speak on this part of the
application
okay we'll do
mr yakubiak do you have any comments
yes the only one i wanted to mention
that the planning commission offered a
recommendation on the variants as well
even though they they weren't required
to by the ordinance they did
recommend approval of the variants they
made that part of their motion
when they approved this special when
they recommended the special exception
and that's all i have to comment on
anyone else
madam chair uh dave ferguson here i
would
just like to ask whether any of the
residents
in that neighborhood have expressed
concern about the height
well um i can take and take a stab at
that
i've not heard anything and we haven't
received any comments
um in the mail or phone calls at the
town hall as far as i know
certainly sharon could uh help answer
that question too
but typically i would hear about it um
and the property has been posted
extensively so sharon
yeah no there's been no comment good
uh this is sushita warner with calvert
county schools if i may add
um we made the presentation
initially to the board of education
goodness it's probably been a little bit
over a year ago
uh when we went about uh embarking on a
feasibility study
and we were looking at a variety of
options
for beach elementary school and at the
time
the three-story option was certainly one
of the items
or one of the schemes that was presented
out in the public and it was covered in
the local papers a long time
ago and we have heard nothing but
positive comments so i just wanted to
put that out there
for everybody great
anyone okay
um madame chairman this is jan rutkay um
i have a question regarding
the vision for the town that includes
enhanced walkability and i'm impressed with the fact that ran
has already uh offered up several ideas
as to how the school property might
potentially
connect to what will be a future
walkway and board wastes and boardwalk
system
i think my question might be to chris
perhaps
is that since this is important to the
town
um is this something ran
is this something that we have your
commitment
on doing
i mean is it actually it seems like it's tentative at this point maybe i'm
wrong
about that i mean the sidewalk system
that we're proposing
is part of our design
okay so so depending upon how you
choose to eventually at some point in
the future connect the school ground
uh with uh walkways boardwalks and that
sort of thing
you're committed that that will be a
part of your plan correct so
a number of components one is the safe
walks to schools
project our project connects sidewalks
to every corner
um i think chris also highlighted his
report how we're also planning
crosswalks
at the major intersection of bayside and
old bayside to connect to the
interconnected town sidewalk system uh
and the components that i spoke of
earlier of the connection down to
fishing creek
we really want to make that gateway and
then connect that
at a future time great okay that was
uh i'm a member of the walkability
committee and that was something that
was of uh tremendous focus and interest so
good thank you and and jan if i can just
to build on that point
um it would be extremely difficult
within the scope of
the school's project and budget to lay
out
the specific alignment for an extension
to fishing creek trail
at this point and being involved
15 years ago in the first trail linkage
that we built
that process is quite extensive and
involves the
many state agencies um and uh
it will take a lot of time and uh the
town needs to know
where the alignment is going to be where
we'll enter uh
this neighborhood if you will before we
could even ask the school
uh right but they have indicated to work
with us and would go back to planning
commission we'll have a firmer idea
about
roughly where those connections were
going to be and we even heard from the
principal tonight
um about the general support for the
interconnection here and that's that's
so uh gratifying
and uh it's nice to see this long-term
plan coming to fruition
slowly but surely over time
thank you chris uh madam chair if i made
this is fred sussman again
uh i think that we should make sure that
the applicant
offered for the record the all the
application materials and supporting
documents
they've been referred to and they've
been provided to
the various commission members but i
think we should have on the record
uh a request to have those application
materials made
a part of the record so uh
mr ilkovitz if you would make that
profit
uh yes absolutely
sharon
you're still with us correct
yes she is i believe she might be muted
let me just
no i'm yeah
yes i'll entered into the record the
application
and the supporting document thank you
sharon
uh-huh thanks fred
is there anything else before we
go into our deliberation
okay madam chair may i before you go to
deliberations
this is fred sussman yes
okay uh we've uh dealt with a number of
applications before together
in uh i don't know if we had any of the
past year but certainly within
the past two years and the way we've
handled them
is that the board what it deliberates
uh may come to a tentative decision
and makes a motion directing or
requesting
me as the board's attorney to prepare a
resolution
uh to reflect the board decision i
do that and it comes back to you as a
board
for uh review and final approval
so i would recommend that whatever way
the board ultimately decides to want to
go on
these two applications then we follow
the same process
that the motion be that the attorney be
directed or requested
to prepare a resolution to do x y and z
thank you
can i hear the board's opinion
this is the way that we've been doing it
and i recommend that we do now
but i'd like to hear from the board
because we have new members on now
board members dave ferguson here i agree
with
the process but in the past we've had to
meet in purple
in person uh i would recommend that we
instead do another virtual meeting or
telephone conference to discuss
your resolution
and and then we could each
come by town hall individually and sign
it
i don't have any problem with that but
on the board
uh have to consider the resolution
in a uh in a public meeting and
it could certainly be a virtual meeting
as we're doing here today
or it could be a meeting done by
teleconference as long as proper notice
is given
uh so i don't have any uh issue with
what you're
suggesting uh but we were doing this uh
a year or two ago
there was no need for virtual meetings
we were actually meeting in person
so in today's environment certainly for
the foreseeable future
i think business is going to continue to
be conducted
the way we're doing it today no
go ahead go ahead and eat
well well i think what we need to agree
to
hear um
[Music]
is the resolution is preparation of the
resolution
um and we can talk later about how
um we follow up with what has to be done
what's your opinion on the resolution
again i'm in agreement with david
out well with fred sorry
to have fred our attorney prepare
a resolution and then we
decide how we will sign it
given today's environment
each of us went to the
town hall to sign
uh that would be an issue how do we
handle that
yes i could always do a docusign
um and send it to each one assigned that
way
okay which i have done
in this covet uh
us being home and doing meetings
virtually
through the council i have done through
the docusign for them to sign
documents
dr spencer i like that idea because uh
it may reduce the time it takes to get
this
decision official uh and anything we can
do
uh to give the school board clear
direction on what your decision is
um as quickly as possible would be
i'm certainly preferred by everybody
involved
so if it means expediting the opinion
the resolution and the signing let's see
what we can do because i know the
applicants want to get in front of the
planning commission soon for
a site plan review and you know that
process
is another step uh that has to take
place
thank you okay
is there anything else before we do
you know i'm i'm i'm hesitating here now
um
fred what are we looking at in terms of
time
uh probably uh two weeks
yeah perhaps a little bit sooner but
this is going to be a
relative a little bit more detailed
resolution
and i do have other uh commitments and
priorities to other clients
so i understand that there's a little
bit of urgency and i'll do what i can
uh but you know if you're saying you
know uh what's
uh the timetable i would say uh i would
get done within two weeks
and sooner if possible
mr sussman dave ferguson here did i
understand
you that we need to have a public
meeting to approve the resolution
and sign it yes uh not to sign it but at
least
uh improvement to prove it
it's business of the uh commission of
the upside
of the board yeah if we have to have a
public meeting
we have to advertise it what is it
sharing three weeks
prior uh
no um two weeks would be sufficient
two weeks okay so perhaps after our
deliberate
deliberations we could uh you know
go ahead and uh set a date for the next
meeting
uh if mr sussman thinks he can you know
have it prepared by then and
you could go ahead and advertise the
meeting
so that that clock is running
makes sense
uh this is suchita warner may i ask a
question
uh i just wanted to find out
in terms of the time frame uh and chris
please jump in if you would
uh in terms of the next planning
commission meeting
certainly we're anxious to be able to
make our next presentation which i
believe is sometime in september is the
next planning commission meeting
uh and then we also have a clock that
we're trying to move towards
in terms of design development and with
the state
um you know as far as submission and starting the design development
process
so i guess my question is
uh is that um the resolution
the process of the resolution is that
set in stone or is there any way
to be able to take up um
the motion and uh accept the the variance and the special exception
tonight just trying to
the voice and the voice rules require
that there be a written resolution
and they contain findings of facts and
conclusions of law yeah just as this is
an administrative hearing
administrative process so uh at least
you will know uh tonight presumably
if the board has directed me to prepare
a resolution
to approve the special exception and or
variant or
to deny it at least you'll know that
and the next planning commission meeting
is september 23rd
and um
there's you know we like to have the
agenda set
a couple weeks in advance uh we could
certainly place this on the agenda for
site plan review
and obviously there's a risk there that
something
could conceivably happen in the
resolution not be signed
but i would expect that this resolution
would be signed
by the 23rd of september
thank you i actually should say
factually
to be fashionably correct the next
meeting is is august 26th
but you're not going to make that agenda
obviously that's next week
um but uh the the next meeting where we
can actually have this on the agenda
this
is the 23rd of september
if the board
votes to to approve
then directs
you fred to do the resolution
is that acceptable yes that's uh
essentially i thought that's what we
were talking about yeah because i i
think i i
you know i think that's where we are
uh i'd like to hear from from the board
you know um
before i make my comments i'd like to
hear
from the board i'd like for us to really
make our decision uh that's
what i had hoped to do tonight
and i think we need to uh
we need to do that so
moving forward special exception
uh jody hunsar here um the reasons given
seem to fit with the requirements and i
support moving forward with the special
exemption
dan i agree
i think they they meet the requirements
and i think it's a great looking plan i
think it makes sense in every way
david i agree
uh we have a recommendation from the planning and zoning commission that
it be approved
and uh i think the uh
stakeholders support it and
ron has made a great uh presentation
so i'm i'm in full agreement
jody
yes in agreement
okay um
that special looks
moving now to the variance
madam chair
do you are we gonna formally vote or are
we just discussing right now
yeah we're discussing that we're
following your recommendation okay i see
are we i do have a question dars are we
is the public still with us are we in
this meeting by ourselves or
just out of curiosity
yes i i can tell you there's 25
participants to the call
um and unmuted unless they've muted
themselves
okay
dan was that a an issue no i just wasn't i haven't done this
before so i wasn't sure
what at what stage we were i guess
that's what i'm saying whether it was
our
meeting together to just make the
decision or or what
okay we've gone through the again
special exception what about the
variance
uh jody hunsar speaking again it seems
that all conditions are
satisfied um i i believe it's in the
interest of the board to vote this
forward
david ferguson here i agree
i believe it should be approved
and this is jan rutkay and i i concur
okay with with that uh
is fred still with us yes i am mountain
chair
um
based on
the feelings of the award
i'm requesting that you prepare
[Music]
a resolution madam chair i think you
need to take a formal vote of the board
and i would suggest that you entertain a
motion
from a member of the board to direct
the attorney to prepare a resolution
that uh grants these requested special
exception
and the requested variance
all right we'll do the formal vote um
[Music]
as you're indicated about
the first vote would be on these
special exceptions
jam i vote yes
to approve david ferguson
i vote yes approve
jody holmster yes
and that motion included uh specif
specifying that uh
fred sussman would write the opinion a
resolution right
just for the record make it clear yes
okay uh
variant
i vote to approve
david ferguson i vote to approve
jody i vote to approve
okay
fred what do we need from you now or to
give you
nothing madam chair i've been here i've
read all the materials i
have them and i have on my note from
tonight's hearing
so i have enough uh to prepare a
uh resolution for you madam chair did
you vote
on either of the two motions no
okay
so i think that would conclude uh the
business of the board on
the application yeah
thank you very much for your time and
your evening appreciate everybody's
attention
and care for the project well thank you
i mean i can't you know
you all done a wonderful job
thank you all thank you for taking the
time to hear our presentation
we're excited about the project
it's an exciting project
thank you dr spencer thank you holly
thank you all the board members
appreciate your time and effort you're
welcome
the meeting is adjourned
thank you