Planning Commission delays vote on 610-unit development in New Market for third time | CPT PPP Coverage

Frederick County Councilman Steve McKay, who represents the district that includes the development area and lives four-and-a-half miles from the site, questioned whether the developer was eligible to pay a school construction fee that would allow building in an area where schools are over capacity.

McKay said the Planning Commission should require the developer, Frederick-based CBM Consulting, to either build more public school capacity in the area or wait until the county has done so.

Soo Lee-Cho, a lawyer representing CBM Consulting, said McKay took a section of the county’s Code of Ordinances out of context and said to the Planning Commission members, “I would implore you not to get confused.”

“It’s a way for development to pay for the capacity,” Lee-Cho said of the school construction fee.

The school construction fee is an option available to developers that entered agreements with the county before 2016, which CBM Consulting did. The County Council voted to amend the ordinance, and the change took effect in July 2016.

If the project gets the Planning Commission’s approval, CBM Consulting expects to begin construction at the end of 2024 and have the first 100 units available at the end of 2027. Construction would be complete by the end of 2032, according to the proposed timeline.

CBM Consulting would contribute $25.5 million in school construction and impact fees. The proposal features a site that would be dedicated to the Frederick County Board of Education to build a middle school.

Lizzie Thompson, who runs a nature-based preschool called En Haus Academy adjacent to the Gordon Mill site, called on CBM Consulting on Wednesday to build a tree buffer between the development and the preschool grounds to obscure the new homes and limit construction noise.

“Our curriculum is based on this. This is what our children and our parents are used to,” Thompson said. “We spend over 1,200 hours outside every year. We’re not talking about half an hour a day. We’re not talking about minimal impact. We’re talking about a large impact to our students and our environment.”

Lee-Cho said CBM Consulting has agreed to build a fence, but not a buffer with trees, which would allow the preschool to “usurp” the property rights of CBM Consulting.

“I don’t think looking at rooftops is that offensive to a nature-based preschool,” Lee-Cho said.

Planning Commissioner Joel Rensberger, though, sided with En Haus Academy.

“Since you’re the late arrival,” Rensberger said to the developers, “I think it would be a good decision to accommodate her on her property.”