vendredi 25 décembre 2015

Trout Run Narconon

Historic designation bill headed for council

As early as the first week of January, the Frederick County Council might consider changes to the process for registering historic properties in the county.


A six-month moratorium on new applications for properties seeking inclusion on the County Register of Historic Places — which council members pursued after the controversial application by a Church of Scientology-owned camp on Catoctin Mountain — expired earlier this month.

Councilwoman Jessica Fitzwater said she has drafted a bill that would change portions of the county’s Historic Preservation Law and other parts of the county’s ordinances.

The aim is to clarify some uses for historic properties and to ensure that uses are compatible with maintaining the historic character of a site, Fitzwater said.

The bill may be introduced as early as the council’s Jan. 5 meeting. Fitzwater said she wanted to avoid releasing specific details of the proposal until she gets feedback from county staff members.

“I don’t think they’re going to be huge changes, but I think they’ll help clarify the uses,” Fitzwater said.

[h=Moratorium declared]5[/h]
The council voted 5-2 on June 2 to impose the moratorium on applications.

The move came less than two hours after the council voted against placing Trout Run, a rustic camp near Thurmont, on the register.

Residents against Trout Run’s historic designation told the council they were concerned that the owner of Trout Run had applied just to get a special exception from county zoning laws that would allow it to operate Narconon, a substance abuse rehabilitation center, on the site.

The property is owned by Social Betterment Properties International, a company acting as a real estate arm of the Church of Scientology.

County law allows the Board of Appeals to grant a special exception in any zoning district if the property is historic and will be converted into a restaurant, inn, antique shop, museum, information center, business or professional office, group home use, or event facility, and if off-street parking requirements are met.

The Board of Appeals would have allowed Narconon to operate as a “group home” at Trout Run, which is resource conservation land, if it were on the register.

Councilman Jerry Donald proposed putting a hold on new applications, so the council could examine the county’s historic preservation processes before continuing. There may be “side effects” to the historic preservation ordinance that weren’t expected when it was passed, Donald said then.

The Frederick County Community Development Division stopped accepting applications for additions to the register on June 9, following an executive order by County Executive Jan Gardner.

Fitzwater said drafting a bill to address the concerns took slightly longer than expected because the historic designations and possible special exceptions are mentioned in several areas of the county’s code.

[h=History of the register]5[/h]
The first properties were added to Frederick County’s Historic Register on Oct. 5, 1999.

Historic Register properties include private homes, farms, a store with an attached residence in Urbana and Petersville Methodist Episcopal Church.

Frederick County’s Historic Preservation Law aims to safeguard the county’s history, improve property values, foster civic beauty and develop awareness of the value of preserving and restoring places of historical, archeological or architectural significance.

To qualify for inclusion on the register, a property must meet at least one of 10 specific criteria. Those include: a property was the site of a historical event, is associated with a person or group who influenced society, was built by a master craftsman or is a rare example of a particular period, style or construction technique, among other factors.

The Frederick County Historic Preservation Commission considers applications and recommends placement on the register to the County Council.

Until the application for Trout Run, the county’s elected board had approved every property the Historic Preservation Commission recommended.

An ongoing court case over the Trout Run property is scheduled to be heard by a Frederick County Circuit Court judge on Jan. 4.
Trout Run Narconon

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