Council looks at areas of action

Annapolis seeks to add public safety, ward-specific priorities in comprehensive plan

As the Annapolis City Council continues to work through the city comprehensive plan, city staff have identified areas of action that they will incorporate into the plan, including making public safety a priority.

Dialogue on the council about the the Annapolis

Ahead 2040 plan began late last month when they agreed that the document needed to be more accessible to city residents both in its language and its goals. The draft, which is more than 450 pages in its current version, lays out a detailed vision for the future use of land, water and other natural resources in the city as well as parks, streets, open spaces, community facilities and more.

Eric Leshinsky, chief of comprehensive planning for the city; Chris Jakubiak, director of Planning and Zoning; and Alex Pline, a member of the Planning Commission, returned to the council on Thursday with a list of items they are working to incorporate into the document. These items include: adding a section to address the growing senior population; addressing the overall readability of the plan; adding ward area maps and profiles that list recommended actions for each district; and adding public safety as a priority — something that has been emphasized since the beginning of the planning process.

Despite committing to writing public safety in the list of priorities, they are “working out how [they] are going to do that,” said Leshinsky, who has spearheaded the comprehensive plan through a mix of community meetings and crowdsourcing over the last three years. These changes were initially sent to the council as a memo on March 22 and come on the heels of the Annapolis Fire Department labor union calling on the council to make public safety a priority in the plan.

The plan also sets goals related to public water access, pedestrian, bicycle and transit connectivity, and affordable housing access, and focuses on priorities

that are related to the environment such as building infrastructure that will make the city resilient to sea-level rise and reducing its carbon footprint.

One of the focuses of the plan is implementing form-based zoning, which “provides specific guidance on the look of the buildings and their surrounding site, particularly as the building relates to the streetscape,” said Leshinsky. It also focuses on moving city land use toward mixed-use development, allowing multiple uses in a single building or property. Part of form-based zoning includes defining what buildings should look like conceptually.

At the first work session on Feb. 29, there was confusion among council members as to what formbased zoning is and how it will work in Annapolis.

“The inclusion of it in the comprehensive plan is a direct response from hearing from a lot of communities … this desire to preserve the character of the city, to enhance it, to extend the character that people identify with Annapolis and have more of the city have a consistent character,” Leshinsky said. It involves a “really deep analysis of the sub-areas that make up a general zoning district,” Jakubiak said.

During his presentation, Leshinsky pointed to the Historic District, Eastport, inner West Street and Germantown/Homewood as areas that already have a semblance of form-based zoning called “conservation zones” that have led to “very predictable results.” However, he pointed out that most of the city does not have such standards.

Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell Charles, a Democrat from Ward 3, said that she finds form-based zoning “rigid” and asked the group what the difference is between that practice and small-area planning and how and if the city can integrate the two.

Form-based “ordinances” codify parameters and standards for developments so that planning staff, elected officials and community residents don’t have to “fight the fight” every time, Jakubiak said. Small-area planning, which involves participation and input from the community, could take place within form-based ordinances, he added.

City planning officials are trying to work descriptions of small-area planning along with its role and benefits into the draft plan.

Alderman DaJuan Gay, a Democrat from Ward 6, asked how it would be possible to create a system in which “the progress of one ward is not hindered by the progress of the another.”

Small-area planning becomes key in doing this, Leshinsky said. The city could create a zoning district that is unique to Tyler Avenue, Leshinsky said, noting that officials have made many “piecemeal changes over the years.” The city currently has 31 different zoning districts, he added.

“It is more rigid, [but] it allows predictability,” Jakubiak said. “Right now, with our current zoning code, you can’t tell me what the next development on West Street is going to look like; it’s simply impossible. But with a form-based approach, we at least know where that building line is going be set, maybe the number of stories and we know it has to draw its inspiration from the buildings around it or across the street from it,” he said. “The degree to which it’s rigid can vary … but it involves the community upfront in setting the standards.”

Any major changes or anything “substantive” made to the plan need to be sent back to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and further deliberation, Jakubiak has said. However, the changes that were presented before the council Thursday afternoon will not require that, Leshinsky said.

“I’m excited about the idea; I think that we can get a lot of creative and interesting projects out of this that gives us more flexibility [on] the needs of the communities,” said Alderman Brooks Schandelmeier, a Democrat from Ward 5.

The council has 90 days to work on the plan, including proposing amendments. The 90-day period started Feb. 12 when the council passed a resolution introducing the 2024 Comprehensive Plan for the City of Annapolis and will end May 11.

April 29 is the next scheduled council meeting before the 90-day period expires. State law allows local governments and jurisdictions to request a 60-day extension if necessary. The deadline for the council to pass the comprehensive plan if it decides to request an extension is July 10.

The next work session has not yet been scheduled, Leshinsky said.