“My main focus is workforce housing,” Republican candidate for Frederick Mayor Tom Trott said in a podcast interview with The Frederick News-Post.
Trott, a Republican, is running against two-term incumbent Mayor Michael O’Connor.
O’Connor won the city’s Democratic primary early in September over his challenger, former planning commissioner Ron Beattie, by about 900 votes, or 15% of the vote total.
General election map
“We were a bedroom community for so long, and still are,” Trott said. “And we can do better. We should have businesses here. We have a very skilled workforce, in biotech and research, and we just need to have more of those employers right in Frederick, as opposed to letting them go down the road to Virginia or Montgomery County.”
He said he wants to try to reach out to state and federal agencies to try to put workplace hubs in Frederick, where government agencies would work.
That would bring economic activity back to the city, he said, and reduce traffic on Interstate 70.
Trott also said he’d like to work to bring the less-used upper floors of many downtown buildings up to code, so they can be residential and business spaces.
“What I’ve noticed is a lot of restaurants have closed, and also a lot of restaurants aren’t opening for lunch now, and if we get more people downtown, it’ll be more robust like it was 8, 10 years ago, and we’ll be able to really be thriving,” he said.
Trott co-founded Victory Mortgage Solutions in Frederick. He said his work helping people with mortgage loans has helped him learn about the local housing market.
He said he would like to raise fees in lieu that developers are allowed to pay rather than meet the city’s requirements on installing affordable housing in new developments.
The city’s moderately priced dwelling unit ordinance requires that 12.5% of new housing developments be moderately priced, a term that is based on the county’s median household income.
However, developers are allowed to pay a fee rather than meet this requirement, and the funds raised from the fee are put toward affordable housing. Several other candidates have said they want to consider eliminating the option for developers to pay the fee and force them to build the units.
If the fee amount is raised, Trott said, developers might “actually build some of the moderately priced dwelling units instead of just paying the fee in lieu.”
The fee is based on square footage, with higher square footage developments paying a higher fee. The city lists a baseline rate of $2 per square foot.
Trott did not propose how much higher he would make the fee.
He said if elected, he would like to offer a $10,000 interest-free second mortgage to city employees.
“I feel that we should have a big emphasis on that, at least helping people to stay here locally in the town that they’re working in,” he said. “And that’s a lot easier on our infrastructure, the roads and everything else.”
Though write-in candidates are allowed in the city’s general election, five of seven City Council seats have Democrats running unopposed for them.
Trott said he does not think working with Democrats will be an issue.
“I’m happy to be working with whomever is in the City Council,” he said.
He said with the upcoming Frederick County elections in 2026 nearing, he wants to focus on supporting county candidates who are willing to take a look at the county’s property taxes.
People who live in the city pay both the county’s property taxes and the city’s.
“Their elections are coming up in a year, and one of the things I want to do is unite as a city, whether we’re Democrats, Republicans or independents, and I don’t think we’re getting a fair shake on the property tax distribution,” he said.
Trott said he is against a proposal to rezone an area in the southeastern portion of the city to allow plans for a cricket stadium to move forward.
The proposal, by professional cricket team the Washington Freedom, is for the stadium to have a maximum capacity of 25,000, though it would typically seat 10,000.
The decision around the rezoning is paused during election season.
There may be other places in the county and city where the stadium could be built, he said. He said he does not see the infrastructure around the area where the stadium is currently proposed as viable.
The full 34-minute conversation can be heard on Apple Podcasts. Listeners can hear Trott also talk about topics like the federal government, immigration, and other city ordinances.
For the general election, ballots for all registered voters in the city will arrive in the mail between Oct. 5 and 14, according to the city.
After receiving ballots in the mail, voters can drop them off in drop boxes or mail them back to the city.
In-person early voting for the general election will be held Oct. 24 and 25.