Investing in Workers and Workplaces: A Livable Frederick Economic Opportunity Plan (IW2)

IW2 rezoning requests for Planning Commission consideration must be submitted to DSuperczynski@FrederickCountyMD.gov 

by 5 PM on Friday, February 6, 2026, 

to allow for required public notification.


IW2 Mission and Purpose

This plan – undertaken in partnership between the Livable Frederick Planning and Design Office and the Division of Economic Opportunity – will enhance the County’s economic infrastructure by increasing the amount of land designated for targeted economic opportunity uses through the review of select growth areas and current land use designations. Critical factors that influence economic success in a community, such as housing availability, transportation access, and educational/training opportunities, will also be considered. The IW2 Plan will ensure these re-tooled - or expanded - employment growth areas maintain a sense of place and are a positive investment for the entire County, while meeting the needs of workers and employers. A comprehensive rezoning will follow the IW2 Plan adoption to implement the Plan’s recommendations.

Plan Objectives include:

  • Express a strategic vision for how the County can accomplish its economic development goals while maintaining its character, leveraging its economic advantages, and improving the lives of current and future residents
  • Expand the non-residential tax base
  • Prioritize targeted industry sectors for growth in Frederick County
  • Ensure an adequate supply of appropriately designated, regulated, and infrastructurally adequate land for the redevelopment or development of employment sites

Investing In Workers and Workplaces Draft Plan for 60-Day Review

FAQ

Questions and Answers about the Investing in Workers and Workplaces Planning Effort

IW2: Organization, Process, and Timeline

Organization

The plan will be organized around a series of questions or topics that reflect the full breadth of economic development strategies such as:

  1. Identifying Targeted Industries or Business Types: To Focus or Not Focus?
  2. Is the Workforce Here and Is It Ready?
  3. Where Should the County Grow Its Employment Footprint?
  4. Can Our Infrastructure Support Our Targeted Industries?
  5. What Is, or Can Be, Frederick County’s Competitive Edge? Regionally? Globally?
  6. Do Our Land Regulations Match Our Intentions?
  7. What Are the Likely Future Stressors on Existing or Targeted New Employment?
  8. Dollars & Cents: How Do We Define a Taxable Base for Livability
  9. How Does the Livable Frederick Vision Incorporate Economic Resiliency?
  10. Housing Availability: An Economic Development Incentive?

An IW2 Advisory Group was appointed by the County Executive and serves as both a sounding board for initial plan discussions and as one of several sources of information regarding the economic climate in Frederick County. 

Public input began prior to the development of any planning document and included public workshops and more targeted information-gathering efforts, such as outreach to worker support organizations and various local small business organizations. These outreach efforts will continue during the development of the plan with both the Planning Commission and County Council conducting workshops and public hearings as part of their regular review and approval processes.

Process

IW2 Infographic

Timeline

Spring 2024
Appointed Advisory Group

May - September 2024
Advisory Group Meetings (6)

Fall/Winter 2024 -2025
Public Outreach Meetings/Outreach to Small Business & Worker Reps

Spring 2025
Present Major IW2 Themes to Planning Commission

April - July 2025
Plan Development/Planning Commission Review

April 16, 2025
Planning Commission Workshop

June 18, 2025
Planning Commission Workshop

July 23, 2025
Planning Commission Workshop

Summer 2025
Revised Land Use Maps & Novel Zoning Tools Prepared

December 2025
State's 60-day Review Period Begins/Public Workshop

January 21, 2026
Planning Commission Workshop

February 18, 2026
Planning Commission Workshop

March 18, 2026
Planning Commission Public Hearing

March 2026
County Council Review Begins/
Comprehensive Rezoning for Study Areas

Spring 2026
Plan & Primary Implementation Complete

Staff is also available to meet with interested organizations. Please contact Denis Superczynski at DSuperczynski@FrederickCountyMD.gov to schedule a meeting with your organization.

Framework for Implementation: 

What Does the Livable Frederick Master Plan Have to Say?

The IW2 Plan is conceived as an update to the County’s Comprehensive Plan, following past efforts such as the South Frederick Corridors Plan (2024), the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan (2022), and the Water Resources in Frederick County plan element (Draft Recommended by the Planning Commission, Nov 2024). The Livable Frederick Master Plan (LFMP) set the stage for these implementation documents in the same way that the County’s previous Comprehensive Plans established a protocol for the County’s Region Plans in the 1990’s-2010’s.

Here is what the LFMP has to say about implementing plans and plan updates:

“The ultimate strategy of the Thematic Plan is to achieve a pattern of development that employs a jobs-based approach to growth and that is centered on multi-modal accessibility in Frederick County, taking advantage of the existing transportation systems in place, the future systems and technologies for moving people and products, and the innovative land use patterns that support transportation choices.” (Livable Frederick Master Plan, p.4)

“The scope of this comprehensive planning document [LFMP] is all-inclusive…to allow subsequent, more narrowly focused plans to be developed for specific issues, projects, or places. These more detailed efforts will provide discrete and definitive measures for implementation.” (Livable Frederick Master Plan, p.8)

“The Livable Frederick Master Plan functions as a core document, guiding the continual practice of producing and updating a collection of interrelated planning documents in Frederick County. It provides a framework for future planning that takes into account a deep understanding of the forces shaping our future and our shared aspirations about the kind of place we want Frederick County to be. Future planning in Frederick County will occur under the banner of Livable Frederick Comprehensive Planning.” (Livable Frederick Master Plan, p.13)

“The Communities and Corridors Process is expanded in Livable Frederick to include provisions for large area and functional planning. According to this model, the Livable Frederick Comprehensive Plan is, and will be, composed of the Livable Frederick Master Plan, the Comprehensive Plan Map, future Community and Corridor plans, future ‘large area’ plans, and future functional plans. As Community and Corridor plans, large area plans, and functional plans are adopted, they will constitute amendments to the Livable Frederick Comprehensive Plan." (Livable Frederick Master Plan, p.14)

“Other means of amending the Livable Frederick Comprehensive Plan include large area plans and functional plans…Functional plans will provide focus on specific “infrastructure” throughout Frederick County, such as transportation, agriculture, or natural resources. For example, the Green Infrastructure and Agricultural Infrastructure themes of the Thematic Plan are intended to pioneer focused planning efforts that will serve to update the comprehensive plan as a whole. A Multi-Modal Accessibility Plan could be developed as a comprehensive plan update to modify land use classifications and road classifications, or to indicate new connections.” (Livable Frederick Master Plan, p.17)

“The concept of “consistency” as described in the Maryland Annotated Code Land Use Article § 1-303 states that ‘…when a provision in a statute listed under §1-302 of this subtitle requires an action to be “consistent with” or have “consistency with” a comprehensive plan, the term shall mean an action taken that will further, and not be contrary to, the following items in the plan: (1) policies; (2) timing of the implementation of the plan; (3) timing of development; (4) timing of rezoning; (5) development patterns; (6) land uses; and (7) densities or intensities.’ According to the Maryland Office of Planning Models and Guidelines publication Achieving Consistency Under the Planning Act of 1992 (Consistency Report), the method of examining consistency varies with the specific type of consistency being considered. However, some universal concepts are provided. These are related to: ‘1) clearly identifying what is supposed to be consistent with what; 2) identifying shared characteristics and looking for conflict, support, or neutrality; and 3) applying principles of logical coherence and reasonableness.’

As a general rule of thumb, the following statement from the Consistency Report provides a guideline about determining consistency relative to land use regulations: ‘land use regulations and land use decisions should agree with and implement what the Plan recommends and advocates. A consistent regulation or decision may show clear support for the Plan. It may also be neutral – but it should never undermine the Plan.’ In the end, determining consistency with the comprehensive plan should not be a forum for reversing adopted policies, but rather should support development that results in an implementation, over time, of the comprehensive plan’s vision for the future.” (Livable Frederick Master Plan, p.18)

IW2 Consistency with the Comprehensive Plan

The IW2 Plan will be created within the framework established by the Livable Frederick Master Plan and subsequent Implementation Programs, which have been carefully created to enable planning that encompasses a broad spectrum of purposes. Three overarching types of implementation plans are described in the LFMP, as dictated either by geographic scope or practical focus. These are small area plans (communities and corridors), large area plans, and functional plans. Any of these plan types can be initiated by the County - and for a variety of planning purposes. Among these are plans that serve the purpose of achieving vision and policy objectives, plans that enable the periodic appraisal of land use and infrastructure capacity required to maintain responsible and coordinated growth, and plans that are a response to particular challenges or opportunities that inevitably arise and that require swift, focused, and strategic forethought and preparation.

Plans that are initiated in response to this third reason are referred to as Opportunity Plans and Challenge Plans. They may focus on limited geographies, functional aspects of the County, or general thematic factors such as economic development or sustainability. Four categories of Opportunity/Challenge Plans are identified including:

  • Economic Opportunity (EOP)
  • Environmental Challenge (ECP)
  • Infrastructure Opportunity (IOP)
  • Livability Challenge (LCP)

Each category is designed to target a type of thematic, or specific, time-sensitive question that often comes up in the wake of changing market conditions, evolving social behaviors, or unanticipated changes in the physical and natural environments in which we live.

Opportunity Plans, such as the IW2 Plan, are intended to be nimble, flexibly-formatted, and completed in a relatively short time-frame – in 9 to 18 months – depending upon the complexity and scope of the topic being addressed in the plan.

Meetings

Livable Frederick and Economic Opportunity staff hosted three initial outreach meetings for the Investing in Workers & Workplaces plan beginning in September 2024. In this early, information-gathering stage of the planning process, these meetings were intended to provide members of the public with information about the purpose of the plan as well as to provide an opportunity for citizens to share comments with planning staff. As with previous Livable Frederick plans, members of the public will be invited to continue to participate as the plan is developed during Planning Commission workshops, during the Planning Commission's public hearing process for their draft document, and again as the Recommended Plan moves forward through the legislative process with the County Council.

June 26, 2024
Frederick County Planning Commission

April 16, 2025
Frederick County Planning Commission

June 18, 2025
Frederick County Planning Commission

July 9, 2025
Frederick County Planning Commission

July 23, 2025
Frederick County Planning Commission

September 10, 2025
Frederick County Planning Commission

October 8, 2025
Frederick County Planning Commission

November 12, 2025
Frederick County Planning Commission

Agendas and Minutes

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Documents

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Public Comment

Public Comment 2024

Public Comment 2025

Public Comment 2026

Advisory Group Members

Andrew Brown, Cohn Property Group

Chris Smariga, Harris Smariga & Associates

Louise Kennelly, Frederick Arts Council

Danielle Adams, Frederick County Building Industry Association

Brian Sweeney, Frederick County Farm Bureau

Brian Morris, Matan Companies

Lisa Graditor, McCurdy, Dean & Graditor 

Karen Cannon, Mobilize Frederick 

Taylor Davis, Morgan Keller 

Don Pleasants, Pleasants Development

Eric Soter, Rodgers Consulting 

Kai Hagen, Smarter Growth Alliance for Frederick County

Matt Holbrook, St. John Properties

Tony Checchia, Verita Commercial Real Estate