ST. MICHAELS, MARYLAND — Town Planner Steve Ball's memo to the Waterways Management Advisory Board quotes Town Attorney Lyndsey Ryan's view that the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum cannot use a variance to extend floating piers beyond the town's mapped Harbor Development Line.
The memo is dated for the Sept. 8 meeting and is included in the materials for the board's Nov. 10 meeting. Ryan wrote that the code's definition says amendments to the line shall not be permitted. She said she believes the code "specifically precludes the application of a variance from the harbor development line." In her reading, the museum's only choice is to develop within the line or seek an amendment to it.
Ball's memo says the town commissioners retain the sole authority to consider such an amendment. It asks the advisory board for a recommendation to forward to them.
The museum's Aug. 25 letter describes a proposed floating-pier system reaching about 140 feet from mean high water, beyond the mapped harbor line. The Nov. 10 agenda calls for review of the museum's draft site plan and request.
Separately, a handwritten note on the Ordinance 576 draft in the meeting materials lists a commissioners' public hearing for adoption on Nov. 18. That ordinance concerns the town's boat-slip waitlist and usage rules.
The waterways board meets Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 4:30 p.m. at the Boy Scout Cabin, 407 St. Mary's Square, with a Zoom livestream listed on the agenda.
Source: Town of St. Michaels
Drawn from public records; drafted with AI and edited by Peter Gorman before publication.
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