Hampden Community Council - Zoning & Land Use Committee

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Adam Feuerstein - President
hccpresident@gmail.com

Gary Figurelle - Vice President hccvicepres@gmail.com

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Committee Chairs

William Critz
Education Committee Chair
williamcritz@gmail.com

George L Peters Jr
Zoning & Land Use Committee Chair
hcczoning@gmail.com

Jay Lazar
Clean & Green Committee Chair
sustainablehampden@gmail.com

2010-11 Board Members

William Critz
Genny Dill
Adam Feuerstein
Kat Feuerstein
Jay Lazar
Everett Noe
Ed Nueslein
Erin Nueslein
George L Peters Jr
David Sugar

Hampden Community Council
P.O. Box 19957
Hampden, MD 21211

hccinfo@gmail.com

Contact the Z&LUC

HCCZoning@gmail.com

Notice: © 2011
All content contained on hampdenhappenings.org is the sole property of the Hampden Community Council or its partners and can not be copied, used or distributed and is protected under federal copy write laws.

The Zoning & Land Use Report

By: George L Peters Jr
HCC Board Member
Z&LUC Chairman

You can email george at: hcczoning@gmail.com
or connect with george on twitter at: @mobtowngeorge

Report for December 2010

Union Mill − 1500 Union Avenue − Seawall Development

The exterior of 1500 Union Avenue has been cleaned and is ready to be "pointed up" by Stone Masons.
The Union Mill development is officially under way. The construction fences are up, the roll offs in place and the demolition portion of the project has begun in earnest. Construction crews are currently working to remove debris and all of the non-historical structures from site.

Later this month Seawall´s contractors plan to start the enormous task of re-pointing the 86,000-square-foot mill building.

Seawall will convert the mill buildings into apartments for school teachers, and non-profit office space. The project is modeled on Miller's Court, a similar redevelopment project that Seawall completed in Remington, which recently won and award for from the EPA. Stay tuned to future issues of the Historic Hampden Happening for updates and photos of the projects progress.

3505 Buena Vista − William Miciche

View of second story addition looking west from Sweet Air Street.
Mr. Miciche is seeking support for a height variance on a second story addition to an existing out building. The building, which he has already started construction on, is located at the rear of the property, abutting Sweet Air Street. We have asked that he provide letters of support from neighbors that could potentially be impacted by the construction. The architect´s plans for the project can be found online at www.hampdenhappenings.org/Zoning_Info.htm under the heading Current Zoning Projects. If you have any concerns about the construction project please email the zoning chairman.

3500 Chestnut Avenue − Granite Development, LLC

The exterior of 3500 Chestnut Avenue is still not finished as the
January 31st deadline creeps ever closer.
Resident who live near the corner of 35th Street and Chestnut Avenue will no doubt know the prominent corner house as a long time nuisance, a continuous cause of trash, vagrancy, and drugs and detractor of property value.

After being purchased by Granite Development, LLC. 15480 Annapolis Rd, STE 202, Bowie MD 20715 back in spring of 2007 the property was intentionally left to sit for years. Finally after the dogged persistence of a number of neighbors and literally hundreds of housing violations the building is being renovated.

Thanks in part to Councilwoman Mary Pat Clark, the owner of the property must finish renovations and have occupancy permits by the end of January 2011 or risk loosing the property to the City of Baltimore.

We have represented the community a number of times at the Board of Municipal Zoning Appeals regarding this property, and we hope that we won´t have to again. Our experiences with the owner of Granite Development, LLC and his Architectural firm of choice Green & Tice, LLC, have been less then encouraging. They seem to continuously rely on claims of ignorance and the "why do you have to pick on poor me" defense every time they are caught doing something wrong.

We hope that its owner will follow the letter of the law and get this renovation finished prior to the deadline. If he does not Mary Pat Clark has made it clear that she will aggressively pursue the matter using Baltimore City´s legal department.

4001 Falls Road − Red Fish Liquors

After a number of delays caused by paperwork mix-ups, the Circuit Court of Baltimore City sending out the wrong paperwork and the Liquor Board´s attorney filing her notice of appearance for the wrong case - it would appear that the logistics have been worked out for the hearing involving the liquor boards granting of a license to Red Fish Liquors LLC. Christina L. Schoppert, Esq. staff attorney at the Community Law Center, is handling the case. The hearing will be scheduled sometime after the first of the year and will most likely occur in the early spring. We will notify the community of when and where the case is to be tried as soon as we get that information.

Rewriting the Baltimore Zoning Code

The Baltimore City Planning department is asking for public comment on he 1st draft of the Baltimore Zoning Code, in preparation for a second draft to come later this year. The April 2010 Draft updates many sections of the existing code with some new zoning districts, design guidelines, more charts and graphics. It does not include any mapping of those districts other than the design sub-districts for the Central Business District. The document will be open for comment until February 15, 2011. You can down load a copy at http://www.transformbaltimore.net/portal/zoning-apr-draft

When to Contact the Zoning Committee

If you have questions or concerns about these or other projects in the neighborhood, or if you wish to speak with the HCC Zoning Committee regarding a project of your own, please contact us at HCCZoning@gmail.com

Please remember, if you own a property in Hampden and are planning on making any changes or performing construction that needs a Variance, Conditional Use, PUD, or other community-process, you must contact the HCC Zoning Committee. All projects that go to hearing without inclusion of the Community will be formally opposed to BMZA.

Hampden Community Council
Zoning & Land Use Committee

The Mission of the HCC Zoning & Land Use Committee is to provide educated, balanced and forward thinking guidance to the Hampden Community Council, its Board, Elected Officers, and its General Membership. We encourage beneficial development and land uses that preserve and advance the neighborly feel and quality of life in Hampden through business-friendly collaboration, cooperation, citizen assistance, and the advocacy of all applicable Zoning Codes and City Laws.

Contact the Z&LUC HCCZoning@gmail.com

the next Z&LUC meeting will be
02-07-2011 @ 6pm
the next HCC general meeting will be
01-31-2011 @ 7pm

The Z&LUC Process

If you are seeking a variance, conditional use, P.U.D. or any other exception to the Baltimore City Zoning Code that requires the approval of the BMZA or City Council, please read below.

"The BMZA appeal process involves both public notification and a hearing. Applicants who file for appleal are encouraged to discuss their plans with their neighbors and their community association."

If your are seeking the suport of the HCC for your building project, you must follow our procedures. It is the HCC's formal possiution that those who choose to go before the BMZA or City Council with out contactioning us first will be formaly opposed at any and all hearings.

The HCC's process starts with a meeting between the developer or builder and the Hampden Community Council´s Zoning & Land Use Committee. You should be able to provide the following at our first meeting:

⊕ A completed developer questionnaire.
(you can download this form at the bottom of this column)

⊕ Detailed plans that match those submitted to the City. (we will check) A copy of your plans should be emailed to the Zoning & Land Use Committee as a PDF or a J-peg file, prior to our first meeting.

⊕ A list of all of the variances and / or conditional that uses you are seeking.

⊕ A signed petition or letters of support from the neighboring property owners. petitions or letters should include the following information 1. A clear statement of what the signators are agreeing with or supporting. Clearly printed names, addresses, and phone numbers of each signator 3. An actual signature. In most cases we will give you a list of properties that we feel will be affected by your project and we will require you to notify those property owners prior to issuing a letter of support. Also it is worth noting that we will follow up on each letter or petition name to ensure their legitimacy.

⊕ important: Please bring copies of all pertainent documentation that can be left with the Z&LUC.

At the conclusion of our first meeting we will make recommendation and or comments about you project and if we feel further community input is needed we may call a public meeting to further inform the affected neighbors. When we feel that we have enough information and documentation to vote on your project we will do so and then forward our recommendation to our Board Directors or to the HCC General Membership. They will be asked whether we, as an organization and the neighborhood association of record for Hampden, should support or oppose the project. Once this vote is recorded an official letter will be sent to the BMZA or City Council outlining the HCC´s position.

As a rule of thumb this process can take 30 days to complete, but can vary greatly depending on how thourgh and prepared you are when we first meet.

If you have further questions about the zoning process, need a variance for your project, or need help with any other zoning or land use issue please feel free to contact George L Peters Jr, Z&LUC Chairman, at HCCZoning@gmail.com

Current Zoning Projects:

3505 Buena Vista - rear addition (PDF)

3500 Chestnut Avenue - renovation (PDF)

1500 Union Avenue (Union Mill)- PUD (PDF)

3000 Falls Road (Mt. Vernon Mill)- PUD (PDF)

Previous Zoning Projects: