26-04-2025
Proposed Frederick planning budget includes new planner position, fee increases
The proposed $2.8 million budget for Frederick's Planning Department for fiscal year 2026 includes funding for a new planner.
The department's proposed fee schedule includes increases for historic preservation-related fees.
The planning budget is just one part of Mayor Michael O'Connor's proposed $238 million budget, due to be voted on by the full City Council at a May 15 meeting.
The planning budget includes around $2.8 million in expenditures, an approximately $290,000, or 11.5%, increase over the fiscal year 2025's approved budget expenditure of around $2.5 million.
Planning Department budget
The Frederick Planning Department's budget over time. Fiscal years 2021 through 2024 are what the Planning Department actually spent. Fiscal year 2025 is in progress, and the new fiscal year starts July 1.
The Planning Department projects also projects around $280,000 in revenue — the same as fiscal year 2025.
The proposed fee schedule for fiscal year 2026 includes a number of increases around Historic Preservation Commission filing fees, which are necessitated by inflation, City Clerk Phyllis Hane said during an April 3 City Council Government Operations Committee meeting.
This includes increases to filing fees to the Historic Preservation Commission for applications for complete or partial demolition of a historic structure, rehabilitation of historic structures, and additions to historic structures.
The proposed budget accounts for around $206,000 in salary increases over fiscal year 2025. This includes a new community planning & urban design planner position, according to a document provided at a Thursday City Council work session.
'[The position] is really needed to support our long-range planning functions,' Deputy Director of Planning Gabrielle Collard said Thursday at a City Council Land Use, Public Safety and Community Development Committee meeting.
Collard said the current number of planners — three — is 'probably not sufficient to do that.'
The budget also includes a proposal for $35,000 for the Sites of Enslavement Program's second phase, according to a document provided for a City Council work session.
The program started in 2024 and is meant to identify sites in the city associated with slavery.
In 2024, the city unveiled a marker in front of the historic Emancipation Association building at 160 All Saints St as part of the program.
On May 12 at 6 p.m., the city plans to host a symposium at the Visit Frederick building.
'That is going to be a summation of that phase one contact study,' Collard said. 'We hope that it will build a lot of enthusiasm for phase two moving forward.'
