Brickworks project gets preliminary subdivision approval

A preliminary plan to subdivide the Brickworks property in downtown Frederick was approved by the city of Frederick's Planning Commission on Tuesday, including several modifications to the land management code.

Eric DeVito, chief transactions and legal officer with Greenberg Gibbons, the developer, said at Tuesday's meeting, that the project received conditional approval for the master plan in December 2023 and unconditional approval last month.

The project would add 1,260 housing units and 130,000 square feet of retail space in a mixed-use development on land around the intersection of East Street, South Street and Monocacy Boulevard.

DeVito said the preliminary plan is an interim step to "carve up the property" to then do specific site plans for the various uses, including retail and residential.

The 64.61 acres will be divided into six main lots, plus three out lots for future construction and dedicated parkland.

Chris Smariga, the president and CEO of Harris, Smariga & Associates, a civil engineering firm, said the modifications the development team requested were "related to trees in some form or fashion."

One modification allowed a required 10-foot shared-use path to become a three-foot grass strip and an eight-foot shared-use path. Smariga said this would preserve existing trees.

"If you drive it today, they're actually mature growth trees — six-, seven-, eight-inch (diameter) trees — very nice canopy," he said. "It'd be a shame to take them out."

Another modification involved not planting any new trees next to the existing ones where a canopy already exists.

Smariga said if new trees were planted there, "the trees would grow into each other," which would make it "very tight along that sidewalk."

The final arboreal modification concerned trees along Monocacy Boulevard.

Smariga said the boulevard serves as a dam and thus is regulated by the Maryland Department of the Environment and State Highway Administration.

Planting trees would violate MDE's dam safety policies, according to state documents provided for the meeting.

Commissioners Ronald Beattie, April Lee, Natasha Valencia and Dorothy Menelas voted unanimously to approve the preliminary subdivision plan, as well as the modifications.

Commissioner Joan Strawson and Aldermanic Member Ben MacShane did not attend the meeting.

Their preliminary forest conservation plan will come before the commission at the Dec. 9 meeting.

During public comments, Heather Goddard, a board member of East Frederick Rising, a community group that advocates for revitalizing the eastern side of the city, proposed building a mixed-use path underneath power lines on the site.

Goddard said the lines make gravel paths there unable to be developed and wanted the developers to check what Potomac Edison's rules are for the site.

She added that exploring options for community assets near or under power lines would provide guidance for other community amenities.

"It's just a great way to maximize and leverage an unbuildable lot for the community for the city of Frederick," Goddard said.

In response, DeVito expressed interest in exploring options for how best to use the land identified by Goddard.

"We really like the idea and definitely would consider it," he said.

Hannah Nickerson, also a board member of East Frederick Rising, expressed concern for the homeless encampment on the existing site.

"I just hope that those individuals are dealt with dignity and given some resources in their relocation," Nickerson said.