2 days ago
Planners approve part of Brickworks project with 231 townhomes
A developer received combined preliminary plat and final site plan approval from the city of Frederick's Planning Commission on Monday for a lot in the Brickworks project that would include 231 townhomes.
The site — Lot 5 — received planner approval to develop the 18.31 acres with the townhome lots, 4.48 acres of roadway and .89 acres of private parkland within four pocket parks, according to city documents.
The commission unanimously approved the combined preliminary plat and final site plan.
Overall, developers of the Brickworks project seek to turn 64.61 acres on the east side of Frederick into 1,260 housing units and 130,000 square feet of retail space, according to city documents.
The mixed-use development gets its name from the Frederick Brick Works that used to produce, at that site, mulch, gravel, sand and other construction materials that give the city and surrounding area much of its distinctive look.
The owner of the site is Brick Works Development LLC, which has a P.O. Box in Carlsbad, California, according to the documents. The developer is NVR Inc., based in Frederick.
Lot 5 is due east of Lots 4 and 6 that received final site plan approval from the Planning Commission in May.
Lot 6 received approval to turn a 4.52-acre site into a three- to five-story residential building containing 340 multi-family units, according to the documents.
Lot 4 received approval to construct 73,571 square feet of retail in three separate multi-tenant buildings on a total of 9.27 acres. The lot would be anchored by a 36,908-square-foot grocery store, according to city documents.
Lot 5 will have six public local streets internally and connect to Lots 4 and 6 via Brickworks Street.
Additionally, the plan is for six-foot-wide sidewalks throughout the development.
One modification sought by the developers concerned the street tree planting density.
The plan is for 83 street trees on a site that requires 75 along the public local streets, according to city documents.
Chris Smariga, president and CEO of Harris, Smariga and Associates, a civil engineering firm, said, on behalf of the project, that the modification was not in an effort to get around the code, but to allow the design to place the trees in different spots on site.
The new locations throughout the site would accommodate utilities and other critical infrastructure, according to Smariga.
The city staff found that this modification fits the intent of the code in the report.
In addition to the combined preliminary plat and final site plan, Lot 5 received unanimous approval of its preliminary forest conservation plan on Monday.
All of the townhomes will have garages in the backside of the house accessible by alleys, according to the documents.
Smariga said that while the design team considered other orientations, they settled on this arrangement for a 'pedestrian friendly network' that drew inspiration from the city's planned form-based code.
Another modification seeks to allow homes to front private open spaces that will be owned by the homeowners' association on three areas at the site.
'By doing this we save on impervious surface — that you would normally build a street in front of these units,' Smariga said. 'It also allows us the ability to create these pocket parks that are optimally laid out within the rest of the neighborhood to be used by not just the neighbors adjoining them, but then also up and down the blocks.'
