Mayor & City Council

WORKSESSION MINUTES College Park City Council Tuesday, December 6, 2016 Council Chambers 7:30 p.m. – 11:24 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Wojahn; Councilmembers Kabir, Nagle, Brennan, Dennis, Stullich (arrived at 7:53 p.m.), Day, Kujawa, and Cook. ABSENT: None. ALSO PRESENT: Scott Somers, City Manager; Bill Gardiner, Assistant City Manager; Janeen Miller, City Clerk; Suellen Ferguson, City Attorney; Terry Schum, Director of Planning; Bob Ryan, Director of Public Services; Gary Fields, Director of Finance; Leo Thomas, Deputy Director of Finance; Miriam Bader, Senior Planner; Chris Keosian, Student Liaison. Mayor Wojahn opened the Worksession at 7:30 p.m. CITY MANAGER’S REPORT:  One Warm Coat drive through December 15  Leaf collection schedule is updated on the website  Duvall Field construction update  Breakfast with Santa on Saturday from 10 – 12 at College Park Community Center  Public Works modular building update – Deed of Easement from WSSC is needed APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA:  Move item #5 up one place on the agenda (Kabir/Nagle)  Approve as amended (Nagle/Dennis) 7 – 0 – 0. AGENDA ITEMS: 1 Auditor presentation on the FY ’16 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). Guests: Bill Seymour, S. B. and Company:  Audit of the 6/30/2016 Financial Statement. No issues found.  This is an “unmodified opinion” which is the highest level he can issue  No evidence of fraud or weaknesses in the City’s internal controls.  “Effective” rating received throughout the report  Question about why the undesignated reserve balance so high? It is 52% whereas the charter requires 25%. Response: it fluctuates, but the $2M pension expense in 2015 drove the reserve down. A large portion of that will go to the City Hall CIP. 2 Discussion with University of Maryland representatives about their full plan of parking reductions and the impact to the City and discussion of a comprehensive parking study (joint with UMD). Guests: David Allen, UMD Department of Transportation and Carlo Colella, Vice President for Administration and Finance:  Loss of parking due to several construction projects on campus; reviewed projects and the impact of each on parking. College Park City Council Worksession Minutes December 6, 2016 Page 2  When you lose parking spaces you either need fewer cars or more parking. The University is in favor of fewer cars because it is more sustainable and less expensive that providing more parking.  Freshman and sophomore resident students will not be allowed to bring a car to campus. There are exceptions: people with jobs or certain physical demands.  The parking expense for those people with cars will also increase  At some point in the future they may build a 3,000 space garage, but the timing and exact location is TBD.  Mitigation options being considered: off-site (satellite) parking locations served by Shuttle UM; additional ZipCars on campus; subsidized mBike registration; subsidized employee vanpool program  Regarding impact on City neighborhoods: a City residential permit parking program is the solution. We don’t have to charge our residents if expense is a concern. Also, competitive parking fees in our lots/garage.  They would consider engaging in a joint parking study. Put together a scope-of-work.  Department of Residential Life is conducting a housing study which will ask about cars.  Importance of providing students with education about use of public transit.  Consider a carpool app to help people connect with free transportation  Consider an app to help people find parking 3 Detailed Site Plan for Honda – Miriam Bader. For the applicant - Tom Haller, attorney, Abbas Khademi, Honda Dealership General Manager, and Michael Lyles, Project Engineer.  They are proposing a 10,000 square feet addition at the rear of the existing building consisting of 18 service bays  Planning Board date is December 15  No change proposed to US 1 access  Issues: cars are being parked on the site out of compliance with the site plan. They are also using satellite parking across the street at the Queenstown RV site out of compliance with that U&O – both sites are over-parked.  A side agreement will be needed re: car-washing and satellite parking across the street. The applicant would prefer not to have a side agreement and would rather put the condition in the DSP.  Honda and the Hyundai have the same owner  Tom Haller: o Applicant agrees with proposed condition #s 1, 2 and 4. o Regarding #3, lighting – should be subject to SHA approval. Rather than “prior to obtaining building permit” they prefer to revise the site plan to show the lighting. The lights will go on their poles but will aim toward the sidewalk. o Regarding #5A – Car washing: this will be done in the new service bays with proper controls. Prefers this be a site plan requirement rather than a side agreement. o Regarding #5B – parking across the street: that property has a different owner and he doesn’t want to record an agreement on their property. They have a College Park City Council Worksession Minutes December 6, 2016 Page 3 lease to use that property but it has nothing to do with this site plan. They will address the concern. This issue remains unresolved. 4. Discussion of Comments on the County Zoning Rewrite:  Follow-up to Chad Williams presentation last month.  Comments have already been submitted on Module 1  Module 2 is Development Standards and Public Facility Adequacy; Module 3 is Zoning Processes and Subdivision Regulations  There will be additional opportunities to comment in the future  Ms. Schum reviewed the first part of the staff report  Circulate fence language, neighborhood compatibility standards.  Chart on when certificate of adequacy expires.  Weigh-in on the call-up provision.  Postpone the rest of the discussion. Prepare a letter for next week with comments on what we have covered so far. 5 Comprehensive discussion of proposed development and the ability of our infrastructure to support it: Councilmember Nagle is interested in the impact of additional development on traffic, fire, police, and in areas beyond US 1. What additional amenities will we need to support the additional residents? Are our public facilities adequate? Wants to see traffic studies and number of units for approved developments. What impact are they having on our residents, i.e., difficulty getting out of their neighborhoods? These are quality of life concerns. Terry Schum: this type of review is done by the County during their evaluation of specific projects. The City does not have planning and zoning authority to control this. The City can influence density when a master plan or a sector plan are done by the County. She can look at various factors for existing development but cannot anticipate future development. She will see what updates she can get from the County for fire, police, and schools. Return future Worksession. 6 Resolution to establish a “College Park Seniors Committee” Higgins suggested an amendment to the purpose section. To agenda next week (Brennan). 7 Discussion of Ordinance 16-O-10, an ordinance to amend the City’s Fence Code: ----Postponed due to time---- 8 Requests For/Status of Future Agenda items:  Regarding a parking study: review the scope of work and see if we can do any of it in- house. Reluctance to spend money on another study (Cook)  Request to put the Branchville Fire Department video back on the agenda (Kabir) 9 Appointments to Boards and Committees:  MLK Committee: Brittany Crawford. Sue Rishworth honorary member  Candidates’ Debate Workgroup: Shawn Anderson and Molly MacLaren. College Park City Council Worksession Minutes December 6, 2016 Page 4 10 Mayor and Councilmember Comments:  Kabir: NCPCA meeting Thursday  Keosian: Winter break  Wojahn: Purple Line artist competition  Start up Shell  One College Park Committee (formerly diversity dialogs)  CPCF Gala 11 City Manager’s Comments:  Review of Public Safety study proposals: email top three to Council ADJOURN to Closed Session: Day/Kujawa 11:24 p.m. 8 – 0 – 0. ____________________________________________ Janeen S. Miller, CMC Date City Clerk Approved