CITY OF TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND
SPECIAL SESSION AND WORKSESSION
OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Monday, September 15, 2008
MINUTES
(Minutes adopted November 3, 2008.)
CALL TO ORDER
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PRESENT: |
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Mayor Williams
Councilmember Barry
Councilmember Clay
Councilmember Robinson
Councilmember Seamens
Councilmember Snipper
Councilmember Wright
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City Manager Matthews
Public Works Director Braithwaite
City Clerk Carpenter
Code Enforcement Specialist Ciccone
Deputy City Manager Ludlow
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The City Council convened at 7:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Takoma Park Community Center -- Sam Abbott Citizens' Center, 7500 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland.
Mr. Wright commented the passing of Dean Hoge of Holly Avenue.
Mr. Wright reported that he had been interviewed by CNN about noncitizen voting in Takoma Park. He affirmed that allowing noncitizens to vote is good for Takoma Park and can encourage people to seek out citizenship. He noted that it is not in any way connected to federal elections.
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Williams commented that they were also interviewed.
Ms. Clay commented that Washington Adventist Hospital was about to announce its plans for disposition of the Hospital land. She said she was disappointed that it took over a year for the City to appoint members to the WAH Land Use Committee and was disappointed in the closed process the Hospital used to solicit input from the community.
Ms. Clay also commented on the need for the City to have a sidewalk policy.
Mr. Williams noted the County Transportation Department was looking at revising road standards. He said they Council may want to weigh in on the proposed standards when it is timely.
ADOPTION OF MINUTES
Minutes of July 28, 2008 were adopted upon motion by Mr. Seamens, second by Mr. Barry.
Mr. Williams announced agenda items to be addressed at upcoming meetings.
Maxine Hillary, 702 Chaney Drive, commented on the value of allowing lost pet signs to be posted. She requested that more public bulletin boards be placed in the community.
Pat Loveless, 7620 Maple Avenue, commented on the Takoma Park Folk Festival.
CITY MANAGER’S COMMENTS
Ms. Matthews suggested that the City Council take up the issue of signs in the public right-of-way given the interest in reviewing the ordinance. She said the City Attorney had suggested that the Council may wish to have a worksession to discuss its ideas and then the City Attorney could provide advice and draft code amendments.
SPECIAL SESSION
Mr. Wright commented that he did not think encouraging people to take down signs was a good approach to solving the problem.
Mr. Williams asked Ms. Ciccone for clarification on what types of signs were legal to post in the right-of-way.
Ms. Ciccone responded that the Code allows signs to be posted for 14 days, not exceeding 20 inches in any dimension. The name of the poster and date of posting must be on the sign.
Mr. Williams noted that if the resolution is approved, the Council would be helping to enforce the City’s current law.
Mr. Seamens said he hesitated to support the resolution. He did not want to encourage vigilante justice. He said the Council would stand the risk of dividing the community rather than unifying it. He said although he appreciated that there is a significant problem, he did not want to encourage taking down of all signs.
Ms. Clay said she believed that residents are more nuanced than that. She said she believed that they would leave up lost pet signs.
Mr. Barry agreed. He said the emphasis is on activism and public education, which outweighs the fears he would have that the wrong type of signs would be torn down. Mr. Barry said that the problem is so serious in some parts of the city that the City needed to become more aggressive in enforcement.
Mr. Robinson said he liked the idea for people to learn to date their signs and take them down after the event. He said he would support the resolution with those caveats.
Mr. Williams said the issues were not as clear as the Council first thought. He said he would schedule a worksession to discuss signs.
Ms. Matthews commented that there is no ambiguity on the legality of placing signs on public facilities. She said there may be some leeway in placing signs on the weedstrip between the sidewalk and the street.
Mr. Wright said he believed a more comprehensive policy was needed.
Motion Moved by , seconded by . (VOTING FOR: Mayor Williams, Councilmember Barry, Councilmember Clay, and Councilmember Robinson; AGAINST: Councilmember Seamens, Councilmember Snipper, and Councilmember Wright)
Resolution 2008-64 (attached).
Ms. Matthews commented that the Geocache Trail was an initiative from the MML Communications Committee as a way to promote tourism in Maryland's cities and towns. She said she had the idea of partnering with OTBA or other city business organizations.
Sabrina Baron commented that the program had a great potential for pinpointing historic sights around the city.
Motion to adopt Resolution 2008-65 Providing for Participation in the Maryland Municipal League Geocache Trail Program. Moved by Councilmember Wright, seconded by Councilmember Snipper. (VOTING FOR: Mayor Williams, Councilmember Barry, Councilmember Clay, Councilmember Robinson, Councilmember Seamens, Councilmember Snipper, and Councilmember Wright)
Resolution 2008-65 (attached).
Mr. Wright said he believed the fees would work for 99 percent of projects. He asked if there would be a situation where parcels are combined, where it would cost more to do the work and costs could not be recouped.
Ms. Braithwaite said that just because you have a large lot does not necessarily mean that it will be filled with impermeable surface. There are a lot of unknowns until the situation is reviewed.
Mr. Robinson said that from a small developer's perspective, they are hit proportionally greater. He said he felt that all developers should be treated equally.
Ms. Braithwaite said there are various ways to look at the permit fee. The concept review takes most of the City Engineer's time. Once that is done, he will know what he will see in the permit application. Once the stamped drawings have been submitted, the design work has been done by the developer. The permit fee is the charge to enable the City to handle the stormwater.
Mr. Robinson said that the review fee should have no cap, but that the permit fee minimum seemed too high. He said he would like to see the minimum permit fee reduced, and not cap the review fee.
Mr. Williams agreed that the maximum should be taken off the review fee because that's there the most cost is.
Ms. Braithwaite said that one condition of the permit is you have existing conditions and after-development conditions. The developer cannot ratchet up the stormwater beyond what is already existing. The whole reason for the process is so we know that stormwater is managed and how it will be handled. It has to be controlled for quantity and quality.
Ms. Braithwaite agreed to review the suggestions with the City Engineer and provide additional scenarios for second reading of the ordinance.
Motion to adopt First Reading Ordinance 2008-38 Amending the Takoma Park Code to Revise the Stormwater Review Fee and Permit Fee for Institutional, Industrial and Commercial Facilities. Moved by Councilmember Snipper, seconded by Councilmember Clay. (VOTING FOR: Mayor Williams, Councilmember Barry, Councilmember Clay, Councilmember Robinson, Councilmember Seamens, Councilmember Snipper, and Councilmember Wright)
First Reading Ordinance 2008-38 (attached). Editorial note: the ordinance was never adopted.
The Council recessed for a scheduled break at 8:50 p.m. and reconvened at 9:00 p.m.
(4) Continued Refinement of Council Priorities
The discussion was tabled until October 13.
WORKSESSION
Sabrina Baron and Lorraine Pearsall were present to represent Historic Takoma, Inc.
Ms. Matthews said she was seeking clarification from the City Council as to whether the funding for HTI was contingent on HTI receiving matching funds from the Montgomery County Arts and Humanities Commission and what consideration the City should receive from HTI as a condition of the their receiving the funding from the City.
The Council was comfortable with not requiring the matching funds from the County Arts and Humanities Commission, however, the Council did want the funds to be used as matching funds for other grants.
Councilmembers discussed what should be included in the MOU.
Mr. Snipper commented that he would like the City to have the possibility of storing records of historical value at the facility and use of the facility as a meeting space.
Mr. Robinson agreed with adding those to the MOU.
Mr. Seamens agreed. He said he would like clarity in the MOU about having access to the facility for meeting space when available, without a fee. He said he would like to have as a goal for HTI to be the formal archivist for the City. Mr. Seamens said he would like to see a duration in the MOU.
Ms. Clay said she did not think the services should have to be provided in perpetuity to the City.
Mr. Barry agreed that it would be a positive to have access to the facility for meeting space. He also suggested that HTI be asked to organize a series of public programs to be held at the Community Center.
(6) Discussion of Community Indicators Project Funding
Kathy Porter and Bruce Baker were present to represent the project.
Mr. Williams noted that two members of the Council and one spouse serve on the advisory board of the project and asked if there was any conflict or appearance of conflict of interest.
Ms. Matthews responded that the initial impression was that there was not a conflict of interest.
Mr. Baker explained that the advisory board was an informal group of people supportive of the project who provide uncompensated advice. He said that when the project becomes incorporated, a formal board would be formed with clear guidelines for legal ramifications for those who serve on that board.
Mr. Baker provided information on the status of the project. The organization understood that it had a pledge of funding from the County Executive’s Office, but the pledge was withdrawn. Mr. Baker said his contacts at the County continue to remain supportive of the program. He said the board had developed a fundraising plan and have put in proposals to funding organizations, but it is difficult to begin to obtain funding for a new organization.
Mr. Baker said the board had decided to focus on housing indicators first. All of Takoma Park and the Long Branch community would be included in the project. He explained that the work would not be divisible. In order to do Long Branch without Takoma Park, the program would need to pay for the same thing twice. He suggested that the Council could include in the agreement that no funds be used for a project specific to Long Branch.
Council was supportive of the focus on housing in the first round of indicators.
Mr. Wright indicated that he was in favor of some kind of matching funds, but was open to flexibility.
Ms. Matthews suggested that the MOU state that if there was no additional cost to include Long Branch in the indicators, the funds could be used.
Mr. Wright suggested a matching requirement for Long Branch indicators.
Ms. Porter reported that the working group process would begin in October. They would be interviewing a facilitator for the project.
(7) Discussion of Proposal for Council Grants Program
Ms. Matthews noted that the Council had included $5000 for grants in the FY08 budget. The funds were distributed to Historic Takoma, Inc. In the current budget, for FY09, $5000 was again included for grants. She referenced the materials provided on the Rockville Neighborhood Matching Grant Program.
The Council discussed how a grants program might look.
Mr. Seamens agreed with using the model as a starting point, but noted that different neighborhoods have different needs. He said he would want to include a provision of social services.
Mr. Robinson said the Council's priorities should guide the focus of the grants program.
Mr. Snipper supported using procedures and an evaluation structure similar to Rockville, but did not want to limit it to neighborhoods.
Ms. Clay said she wanted to use the grants process to deal with all the funding requests that the Council receives, to help the Council decide how much it wanted to provide to nonprofits, neighborhoods, or groups of neighbors. She did not want to include social services unless it was a pilot program, and would then reduce the funding in two years. Ms. Clay said the key thing is that this is the funding the City provides. For example, the funding for the House and Garden Tour would be in this program (but not the funds for the HTI building).
Mr. Seamens asked, as a follow up, would Council agree to use the grant funds for training for people to move to a higher level of self sufficiency?
Ms. Clay said she thought that might work, if it was for community empowerment. Ms. Clay emphasized that it is not sustainable to use the money for baseline social services.
Mr. Williams referenced the County Council grant program. He said the Council President makes the awards and it is not a public process.
Mr. Williams suggested a $1000 maximum grant amount, given the amount budgeted for the program.
Ms. Matthews clarified that the Council did not wish to include the in-kind festival funding in this process.
Ms. Clay stated that she would like the Council to have a well articulated reason for funding some things and not funding others. She would like a fair and reasonable policy at the beginning of the budget cycle, so that decisions are not made on a case by case basis. She said she believed that there is a perspective that the current process is not transparent and equitable to all the different segments of the Takoma Park community.
Mr. Williams noted that the application process would have to be in place to provide a deadline in advance of the budget season.
Mr. Robinson suggested that staff begin to estimate the cost of the things that the City already does.
Ms. Ludlow reviewed for the Council information she had prepared on Council's suggested ideas for State legislation. A number of the items were more suitable as state-wide legislation than for submission as local bills and some items required more research.
Mr. Wright agreed to contact Delegate Mizeur regarding the just cause eviction issue.
ADJOURN
The Council adjourned for the evening at 10:47 p.m.