Dear Neighbors:
Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the City Council meeting on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 will be held remotely. The public can view the meeting on City TV (RCN -- 13, HD 1060; Comcast/xfinity -- 13, HD 997; Verizon Fios -- 28), on the City Council Video Page of the City website; on YouTube, or on Facebook. Sign-up for public comments will be open until 5:00 PM on Wednesday: Link to sign-up for Live Public Comments.
Here’s a link to the meeting agenda: https://takomaparkmd.gov/meeting_agendas/city-council-meeting-agenda-wednesday-july-22-2020/. It begins with an early session at 5:00 PM which will include a presentation on the New Ave. Bikeway. Then we’ll hear from the County Planning Office on the Takoma Park Minor Master Plan, their Equity Agenda to dismantle institutional racism in planning and zoning, and a study on pedestrian accessibility near the Purple Line.
The regular meeting starts at 7:30 PM. To begin, Kathleen O’Toole, the City Poet Laureate, will read a poem. We’ll then have votes on the forest policy and tree canopy resolution; the revised Tree Ordinance; two election related measures; the budget amendment introduced in last week’s meeting; and a resolution on our proposed State legislative priorities for the Maryland Municipal League. The Work Session will cover three topics: a resolution extending the terms of resident committee members; a resolution aimed at reinstating Takoma Park quasi-judicial proceedings, which had been suspended due to the pandemic; and appointments to the Youth Council. There’s more information on all of these issues below.
PRESENTATIONS
New Ave. Bikeway: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-1.pdf. This presentation will be an update from the engineering firm RK&K on the plans to convert the service road on the southbound side of New Hampshire Avenue into a two-directional bikeway with vehicular access to properties along the route.
Minor Master Plan and other Montgomery County Planning Initiatives: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-2.pdf. I look forward to hearing from County staff about these topics, all of which are important for Takoma Park.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ward One Virtual Community Discussion -- Tuesday, July 28, 7:00 - 8:30 PM: This will be another in the series of Zoom meetings I’ve been hosting in the absence of any ability during the pandemic to hold office hours or otherwise meet in person with residents. All topics are welcome. I’ll be sending out the log-in details via a separate email message.
City Manager Comments: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-manager/city-manager-comments/2020/City%20Manager%20Comments%20_%2007.15.2020.pdf. City Manager Suzanne Ludlow’s official comments from last week’s Council meeting, which includes information on the re-opening of City playgrounds, with some restrictions.
VOTING SESSION
Election Code Amendments to Accommodate Voting by Mail: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-3.pdf. These amendments to the Election Code have been drafted to enable the City to conduct the fall local elections entirely by mail (which we’re doing because of the Coronavirus). Recommendations on some of the specific timelines relating to when ballots will be mailed out to residents, when ballots must be received in order to be counted, etc., are still to be determined. This will be a first reading vote, with the final vote scheduled for next week’s meeting. I’ll be voting yes.
Election Ordinance. Background information on this ordinance, addressing other details about the fall election unrelated to voting by mail, was not available at the time I finalized this blog.
Tree Resolution and Tree Ordinance:
https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-5.pdf
https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-6-rev.pdf
We’re continuing to move toward passage of these two measures, which are inter-related. The resolution (a single vote on passage scheduled for this week) establishes for the first time overall urban forest policies and tree canopy goals for the City. The ordinance (first reading vote this week, with a vote on final passage scheduled for next week) revises many aspects of the ordinance, and also fits within the broad tree policy framework created by the resolution.
The three primary goals in the resolution are: increasing tree canopy coverage in neighborhoods with less coverage using a participatory process to create an equitably distributed tree canopy over time; no net loss of the urban forest canopy overall, with the baseline measurement being the approximately 60 percent tree canopy coverage citywide from our most recent measuring; and increased biodiversity with a focus on planting of native species and where appropriate, climate-adapted species. The resolution then goes on to spell out in more detail principles and implementation plans aimed at achieving these goals.
Crucially, it also calls on City staff to develop a multi-year plan to address inequities in tree coverage, promote a strong tree canopy with an appropriate focus on native and climate-adapted species and in other ways further the purposes of the resolution. That plan, which of course the Council and the community will have significant input into, will give us a long term tree plan that will go beyond the permitting and replanting procedures that are part of the ordinance.
A key change in the ordinance is that it moves away from the current heavy emphasis on using the permit process to maintain the tree canopy. It will still be necessary to replace healthier trees that are removed with multiple smaller new plantings. But we’re likely to approve this week a proposal which, for less healthy trees, limits the tree replacement level to one for one. If adopted, that change would mean there’s a gap we’ll have to fill through some of the increased planting concepts in the resolution that would make maintaining or increasing the canopy more of a shared community-wide responsibility. Our initial ordinance draft, which would have exempted a wide range of less healthy trees from any replacement requirement, went too far and left a replanting gap that was too large. I anticipate we’ll be reducing that gap significantly in this week’s voting session.
As a member of the Council working group that spent a lot of time drafting the ordinance amendments and the resolution, among the areas on which I placed a high priority in our work were ensuring that equity and native species were emphasized, and trying to make the tree removal permit process somewhat easier for residents. I believe we’ve made significant strides in these and other key areas in both of these measures, and I’ll be voting yes on both.
Budget Amendment: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-7-8-rev.pdf
https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/Meeting-Documents/FY21-Budget-Amendment-Presentation.pdf. With the new fiscal year having begun on July 1, this budget amendment is needed primarily in order to transfer unspent funds from last year’s budget to this year’s. That’s a standard practice around the switchover to a new budget year, given that certain expenditures are often slower than anticipated (typically because of staff absences, delays in matching funds from other sources, unanticipated programmatic challenges, etc.). While the vast majority of the items in this amendment were in last year’s budget, it does include three new items (totaling a little over $17,000) for technology and communication equipment and services for City staff to be able to continue working effectively during the pandemic. In addition, the amendment also transfers some of the COVID fund monies we approved during our budget deliberations in May into this fiscal year. I anticipate voting for the amendment, but I will be looking for more details on how these COVID funds are being used.
MML State Legislative Action Requests. The Council discussed several options for this year’s MML submission. While the draft resolution wasn’t yet available, it will most likely focus on COVID relief proposals and Police Reform, with the possibility of adding climate related legislation or workforce development (though that latter concept may be folded into the economic impact aspects of COVID relief).
WORK SESSION
Term Extensions for Resident Committee Members: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-9.pdf. The City has been conducting a comprehensive review on the structure of and recruitment process for our resident Boards, Committees and Commissions, with a key goal of having a more diverse membership. That process hasn’t been completed, in part because of COVID-19. But a number of appointees to these bodies are scheduled to have their terms expire. Given the challenges connected to recruiting new members and familiarizing them with the committees’ work during the pandemic, we’ll be considering a proposal to extend the membership (for those who wish to continue serving and who are not subject to term limits) to June 30 of next year. I’m generally supportive of the idea, though I do have some questions about how leadership positions will be treated, as well as what would happen if membership were to fall below the quorum level.
Quasi-Judicial Hearings. We previously suspended the activities of our quasi-judicial commissions (the Tree Commission, the Commission on Landlord-Tenant Affairs, and the Noise Control Board), owing to the challenges involved in conducting their proceedings remotely during the pandemic. However, with no immediate end in sight for the pandemic and more confidence having formed around the idea of convening such proceedings remotely, the City is moving toward reinstating hearings. The purpose of the resolution is to lay out the procedures for doing so, but the draft wasn’t yet available.
Youth Council Appointments: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200722-12.pdf. The proposed appointments will be announced in the meeting.
As always, please feel free to be in touch with questions or comments about any of the topics covered in this blog.
Peter Kovar, Takoma Park City Council, Ward One
240-319-6281; www.councilmemberkovar.com
(He, Him, His)
Important Privacy Notice: All correspondence, including emails, to or from City of Takoma Park agencies, officials, and employees is subject to the Maryland Public Information Act and may be disclosed to the public.