Mayor & City Council

MINUTES Special Session of the College Park City Council Council Chambers Tuesday, July 8, 2014 PRESENT: Mayor Fellows; Councilmembers Kabir, Wojahn, Brennan, Dennis, Stullich, Day, Hew and Mitchell. ABSENT: None. ALSO PRESENT: Joseph Nagro, City Manager; Janeen Miller, City Clerk; Suellen Ferguson, City Attorney; Bob Ryan, Director of Public Services; Bob Stumpff, Director of Public Works; Michael Stiefvater, Economic Development Coordinator; Steve Halpern, City Engineer; Terry Schum, Director of Planning; Miriam Bader, Senior Planner. Cole Holocker, Student Liaison. During a regularly scheduled Worksession of the College Park City Council, a motion was made by Councilmember Mitchell and seconded by Councilmember Wojahn to enter into a Special Session to consider a piece of County legislation that is time sensitive. The motion passed 8 – 0 – 0 and the Council entered into a Special Session at 10:24 p.m. CB-42-2014 Single Family Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay Zone Terry Schum provided Council with an overview of County Bill CB-42-2014 which is scheduled for consideration at the PZED (Planning, Zoning and Economic Development) Committee hearing next Tuesday. Council is interested in the concept and believes the bill could have a benefit for the community, but there were many questions. Council entered into the Special Session with the intention of authorizing a letter to PZED with comments on the bill. After discussion about possible language for the letter, Council decided not to take any action or formal position on CB-42-2014 at this time. ADJOURN SPECIAL SESSION: A motion was made by Councilmember Stullich and seconded by Councilmember Dennis to adjourn the Special Session, and with a vote of 8 – 0 – 0, Mayor Fellows adjourned the Special Session at 10:32 p.m. CONVENE SPECIAL SESSION: A motion was made by Councilmember Day and seconded by Councilmember Wojahn to enter into a Special Session to authorize the City Manager to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the State Highway Administration. The motion passed 8 – 0 – 0 and the Council entered into Special Session at 11:04 p.m. The possibility of this Special Session was listed on the Worksession agenda. 14-G-71 Authorization for the City Manager to sign an MOU with State Highway Administration for the design of underground utilities on US 1 from MD 193 – College Avenue in an amount not to exceed $300,000. City Attorney Ferguson stated that she has been in negotiations with the SHA on the MOU for the design of undergrounding utilities on US 1 and that the version in the confidential envelope is the latest that she submitted to SHA. Some of our changes were accepted but there is one significant change that they declined: they declined to include their intent to apply for a TIGER grant in this Special Session of the College Park City Council July 8, 2014 Page 2 MOU. They said the reason is that it was not a part of this agreement, which could imply that they were not going to guarantee that they would apply for a TIGER grant. Ms Schum said we received a separate letter from the SHA Administrator that said that while they cannot guarantee any funding for the undergrounding project, they would seek funding through future CTPs and through TIGER, so they did make reference to TIGER in that letter. Ms. Ferguson continued that we received clarification other matters – overhead from SHA is expected to be $58,000, and they clarified what type of bicycle improvements would be on the roadways. She concluded that this is the best we are going to get from them. A motion was made by Councilmember Stullich and seconded by Councilmember Mitchell that the City Manager be authorized to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with State Highway Administration in substantially the form attached for the design of undergrounding utilities on US 1 from MD 193 to College Avenue in an amount not to exceed $300,000. There were no comments from the audience or from the Council. The motion passed 8 – 0 – 0. ADJOURN SPECIAL SESSION: A motion was made by Councilmember Stullich and seconded by Councilmember Dennis to adjourn the Special Session. With a vote of 8 – 0 – 0, Mayor Fellows adjourned the Special Session at 11:06 p.m. _____________________________________________ Janeen S. Miller, CMC Date City Clerk Approved