South Frederick Corridors Plan Approved By County Council

It covers an area near the city of Frederick.Frederick, Md (KM) In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the Frederick County Council approved the South Frederick Corridors Plan. The document covers 6.3 square miles of land near the city of Frederick with I-70 to the north, the Monocacy River to the south, and New Design Road to the east. That area is where residential development will be concentrated because it has the infrastructure to handle it.Councilman Steve McKay called the plan “a very, very exciting vision for that area of Frederick County.” “I can’t tell you I know exactly how it will get there from here. But that’s okay. We don’t need to have those answers. Private industry is going to figure a lot of that out for themselves. We set the stage,” he said.Fellow Councilman Mason Carter gave a lot of praise to the County’s staff for their work on this plan. “This is a really well thought out plan that obviously you took your time on,” he said. “It was certainly done the right way with the right amount of community engagement; the right amount of discussion among this body, and those part of our community.”Carter also said the residential development in that area  could help alleviate the housing shortage in Frederick County and the rest of the state.Also joining in praise of the plan was Councilwoman M.C. Keegan-Ayer. “This is an incredible plan. It is taking a very small six-mile area, and increasing density like we have never seen before. And that’s exciting, a little scary,” she said.Even though he voted for the plan, Councilman Jerry Donald had this advice to the current board and any future Council. “In doing this, we are sort of making a promissory note to these people who move here in the future that they will have these schools and other needed facilities that are in this plan,” he says. “We can’t just say ‘come here. Here’s what we think we’re going to have’ and not do it.”As a way to alleviate the projected student population growth, the plan calls for four new elementary schools, two new middle schools and one new high school.By Kevin McManus