Planners endorse draft ADU parking waiver, send edits to town council

Town planner Sarah Franklin and the Chesapeake Beach Planning & Zoning Commission on July 22 agreed to refine a parking-waiver draft required by recent state ADU legislation and to send the revised language to the Town Council for consideration.

"Part of the ADU state law that was passed says that if you're gonna have a parking requirement for your ADUs, that you need to have [a] parking study," Franklin said, explaining the town's study showed constrained lot widths and limited on-street parking. The draft divides ADU rules by size (over 650 square feet and 650 or less), prohibits using a front yard as required on-site parking, and sets alternative waiver criteria tied to road width, transit proximity or municipal lot availability.

Commissioners pressed staff on practical enforcement and the wording of the waiver criteria. Commissioner Ellie Hahn said she was concerned the draft could be written so narrowly that "no one could get the waiver" if the tests were read conjunctively; Franklin said the intent is that the criteria operate disjunctively (an "or" situation). Members asked that the principal-use parking conform to the town's standards and requested the town attorney review the final text. Franklin said about 12 roads and roughly 50 lots meet at least one of the waiver criteria; she also agreed to confirm cost figures in the parking study before transmitting the package.

The commission asked Franklin to format a readable version for members and directed her to forward the amended waiver and related land-use table language to the Town Council for introduction in August and potential adoption in September.