Dear Neighbors:
Here’s a link to the agenda for the February 19 City Council meeting: https://takomaparkmd.gov/meeting_agendas/city-council-meeting-agenda-wednesday-february-19-2020/. There are no votes this week. We’ll continue our discussion of the proposed climate change resolution (which has been significantly revised), as well as the proposed stormwater fee re-structuring plan. City staff will also present the quarterly financial report. See below for more details on these agenda items.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
District 20 Night in Annapolis -- February 17. State Senator Will Smith and Delegates David Moon, Jheanelle Wilkins and Lorig Charkoudian will host the annual District 20 night from 6:00 - 8:00 PM tonight in Room 170 of the House Office Building. The District 20 delegates are providing round trip transportation from locations around the Silver Spring, White Oak, and Takoma Park area. For more information email Noah at info@willsmithformaryland.com.
Azalea Awards Votes -- Deadline February 20. This is your chance to vote for local residents who help make vital contributions to our community. There are 11 categories on the ballot. https://www.takomafoundation.org/events/azalea-awards-ballot
Ward One Meeting on Climate Resolution -- February 24. Please join Mayor Stewart and me at a Ward One community meeting to discuss the proposed climate change resolution on Monday, February 24 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM at the Community Center Azalea Room. See below for more details on the revised resolution.
Adventist Community Services of Greater Washington Environmental Education Forum. On February 21 ACSGW, in collaboration with the Takoma Park Youth Council, Maryland Out of School Time Network, Friends of Sligo Creek, Anacostia River Keeper, and Takoma Park Mobilization, is sponsoring an Environmental Education and Community Engagement Forum from 3:30 - 6:30 PM in the Community Center. This will be a roundtable discussion on environmental education and civic engagement connected to current environmental challenges.
Census Jobs. A Census job recruiter will be in the Computer Center rotunda in the Community Center on Wednesdays in February from 5:00 - 7:00 PM and Saturdays from 1:00 - 4:00 PM. Residents who may be interested in working on the 2000 Census are encouraged to stop by.
Sign up for City Updates. Residents can sign up to receive the Takoma Insider, Police Department Bulletins, Sustainability News and more though this link: https://takomaparkmd.gov/sign-up/
UPDATES FROM LAST WEEK’S COUNCIL MEETING
City Manager Comments. City Manager Suzanne Ludlow’s comments are posted after each Council meeting and serve as an overview of topics she presents immediately after the Councilmember comment period. In the past I’ve occasionally included excerpts from Ms. Ludlow’s comments in my weekly blog, but I think it makes sense to include the entire summary in the blog. So I’ll plan on doing that going forward. Here’s a link to her comments from the February 12 Council meeting: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-manager/city-manager-comments/2020/CityManagerComments_CouncilMeeting_02122020.pdf.
Forest Policy/Tree Canopy. We continued our discussion on the tree ordinance and tree policies, including a detailed review of a lengthy series of proposed changes to the ordinance. I’ll provide more details on potential ordinance changes in a future blog, but I did want to mention a couple of key issues from the discussion. First, I think there needs to be a more explicit reference to safety as being among the criteria taken into account in determining whether to approve a tree removal permit, and I urged that that change be made. Secondly -- and several of my colleagues also expressed a similar view -- I don’t think there should be a tree replacement requirement for dead, nearly dead or hazardous trees that are approved for removal.
On the other hand, we do want to have an active planting program that ideally would more than compensate for the loss of such trees, and so we discussed adding language suggested by the Mayor aimed at establishing a pilot program for new planting on private property tied to a community engagement process. And we also separately discussed a resolution providing a framework for our forest policy and tree canopy goals, which I hope we’ll be able to pass at the same time we vote on the ordinance changes. Details on all of our tree discussions can be found here: https://takomaparkmd.gov/meeting_agendas/city-council-meeting-agenda-wednesday-february-12-2020/
THIS WEEK’S WORK SESSION
Stormwater Issues: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200219-1.pdf. All single family homeowners currently pay a flat $92 stormwater fee. This fee is the same for all homes regardless of the extent to which a given property contributes to stormwater flow within the City. For apartment buildings, commercial structures, etc. the fee is calculated based on the actual impervious area on site. The City is required under Federal and State guidelines to treat stormwater flow from at least 20 percent of our impervious areas. Our current budget allocated a little over $700,000 for stormwater programs in the City.
In January of last year an outside contractor presented the findings of an updated impervious area study, based on overhead Lidar imaging and other mapping technology. This study measured impervious areas on privately owned property throughout the City. Apparently because of increased building activity (home additions, etc.) and the use of the updated technology (the last such analysis was conducted in 1996), the findings showed a near doubling of the total impervious area in the City. We now have specific impervious area data for each property, which means that it’s possible to develop a fee structure that more accurately reflects the contribution of each property to our stormwater flows.
City staff has suggested, and the Council has discussed, the idea of a tiered fee structure to take this into account. I’d like to see us move in the direction of a system that more accurately reflects the actual conditions on each property. But with that approach there would be significant fee hikes for some homeowners, as well as the likelihood of a large number of appeals by homeowners (since the technology used to measure the impervious surface area won’t capture stormwater treatment systems on site and may not detect factors like driveways composed of permeable materials). It’s my view that we need to think more about those points before deciding how to proceed.
The staff proposal for single family households would assign a value of $25 for each unit of 500 square feet of impervious area. This would mean for example that a single family property with 2000 square feet of impervious surface would pay a fee of $100. You can see how your own property would be treated under this proposal, as well as data on the average fee impacts, through the map and other agenda materials in the above link. For Ward One, with 903 single family households, 162 would see a drop from the current $92 fee, 204 would be pegged at $100, and the remaining 537 properties would see an increase, with 131 paying $200 or more.
While residents would be able to appeal their fees in order to ensure that factors like permeable driveways or other stormwater management systems are accounted for, these proposed increases are concerning. At a minimum I’d like to see a phase-in of potential higher fees, and the agenda materials show a few options for that approach. I think we should also consider payment flexibility for seniors and others on fixed incomes who end up facing a fee increase if we go with a tiered approach. Not to mention that the number of appeals could be significant and we’d have to figure out how to handle a high volume and what kind of standards would apply for appeals.
Beyond those points, though, there are other aspects of the stormwater program I’d like to understand better, including whether we’ve met the 20 percent requirement in recent years, whether the 20 percent requirement is expected to remain in effect going forward, whether we’re able to spend the amount budgeted for stormwater programs each year, why with a big increase in impervious surfaces we’re still looking at spending the same amount of money on the stormwater program in the coming years, the breakdown on fees that are paid by commercial and multi-family properties, and how our stormwater efforts are connected to our climate change work. I’d like to have more clarity on these and related questions before making a decision about adjusting the fee structure.
Climate Resolution Background & Revised Resolution: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200219-2.pdf.
I was a strong supporter of last year’s resolution declaring a climate emergency and calling for City staff to develop proposals that could help us reach a net 100 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. As noted above, the initial staff draft climate resolution aimed at achieving that goal has been significantly revised. Of particular importance, based on feedback from residents and Councilmembers, the new version clarifies that the resolution is a framework for further analysis and discussion over a period of years, rather than a set of future mandates we’d be deciding on now. I’m pleased that this crucial structural shift, which I and several of my colleagues had argued for, is a central theme of the revised resolution.
In addition, some other points in the first draft which I thought needed to be strengthened or added have been addressed in helpful ways in the new version. This includes a greater emphasis on such areas as the importance of community engagement in considering potential policies and ordinances; the role of the County and other levels of government (and the need for us to lobby them for some of the changes we’re seeking); adaptation and resilience; the way the climate plan connects to other key City initiatives; having a clear understanding of the City’s legal authorities to make the kinds of changes that are being contemplated; and areas like transportation and sustainable investment and banking.
With these and other changes to the resolution, I think it lays out a more workable way for taking steps to address climate change that are appropriate for a City like Takoma Park. I’m optimistic that we’re now on a path leading toward approval of a resolution that maps out an effective process for us to explore how to reach our climate response goals over the next 15 years. That being said, I do anticipate additional changes being made to the resolution -- taking into account further input from the community, including comments from residents at the Ward One community meeting on February 24 -- before we take a vote.
Quarterly Financial Report: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200219-3.pdf. This report provides a snapshot on the status of various City funds and revenue sources, and it offers a good opportunity to assess how our revenues and expenditures are keeping pace with the overall budgeted and projected amounts for the year.
Please feel free to be in touch with questions or comments about any of the issues covered in this message.
Peter Kovar, Takoma Park City Council, Ward One
240-319-6281; www.councilmemberkovar.com
(He, Him, His)
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