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Sponsor: Jones
Benefits: MC Owings Mills, LLC, owner of old Franks Nursery & Craft at 10550 Reisterstown Rd
This bill, as introduced, is an attempt to provide a special allowance for a single property at 10550 Reisterstown Rd, the old Franks Nursery & Crafts, by stating that it applies to a 2 acre+ parcel in BM or BR that has been vacant for 5 years and has at least 250ft frontage on a Principal Arterial Road.
The parcel in question, which Councilman Jones identified at the Jan 15 work session, is 2.85 acres, 265ft of frontage on Reisterstown Rd, which is a Major Arterial Rd, so neatly fits the criteria of the Bill, just as Councilman Jones explained he had carefully done.
However, the current BCZR, in Sections 230.3 for BL, 233.3 for BM, and 236.2 for BR already allows for automotive service stations by Special Exception, which may have a convenience store up to 6,000 sq ft, with no requirement that the parcel had been vacant or fronts on one of these roads. (Note that the BCZR uses the terms "Fuel Service Station" and "Automotive Service Station" interchangeably, which is part of the confusion.)
Note that the Bill referred to "Principal Arterial". They are called "Major Arterial".
What Mr. Jones, and others, really should be concerned about is the impact a huge new gas station (Royal Farms?) would have on several existing stations, one 500 ft to the north, one virtually adjoining on the south, and another 2,400 ft south. Any of these closing before the new one is approved should have stopped the new one.
Followup: How ironic that the development plan (Sept 2019) is now for a huge "storage facility and future retail use". So the gas station idea fell through pretty quickly.
Introduced Dec 17, 2018; passed Jan 22; to be effective Feb 4, 2019
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