Mayor & City Council

WORKSESSION MINUTES College Park City Council Tuesday, March 7, 2017 Council Chambers 7:30 p.m. – 10:15 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Wojahn; Councilmembers Kabir, Brennan, Stullich (arrived at 7:40 p.m.), Day, Kujawa (arrived at 7:34 p.m.), and Cook. ABSENT: Councilmembers Nagle and Dennis. ALSO PRESENT: Scott Somers, City Manager; Janeen Miller, City Clerk; Suellen Ferguson, City Attorney; Bill Gardiner, Assistant City Manager; Terry Schum, Director of Planning; Bob Stumpff, Director of Public Works; Bob Ryan, Director of Public Services; Brenda Alexander, Assistant Director of Public Works; Miriam Bader, Senior Planner; Ryan Chelton, Economic Development Coordinator; Chris Keosian, Student Liaison; Brandon Carroll, Deputy Student Liaison Mayor Wojahn opened the Worksession at 7:30 p.m. CITY MANAGER’S REPORT:  Items in the red folder  The City received the GFOA award  Senior Social Center tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA: There were no amendments to the agenda. AGENDA ITEMS: 1. Discussion of the City’s tree canopy – Brenda Alexander, Assistant Director of Public Works, and Joe Smith, Chair, Tree and Landscape Board: a. Tree Canopy Enhancement Program: Funded in current-year budget for planting trees on private property. TLB has worked out the guidelines for discussion tonight and approval next week. Then the program can be advertised. Program will reimburse a household up to $150/year with an approved application. Select the tree from the attached list. If the City’s allocation of $1,000 is depleted, the CBE has funds they could add. Encourage people to think about shade trees. Consider a map to track where trees have been planted under this program. To consent next week for approval of guidelines. b. Tree Canopy Assessment: Much of the loss is on private property. The map does not include UMD or Park and Planning property; Council is interested in seeing the whole picture. Should we establish a goal for our tree canopy? This would be done as part of the Tree Canopy Assessment. Funding for this is requested in the FY ’18 budget. College Park City Council Worksession Minutes March 7, 2017 Page 2 2. Prince George’s Community College “Community Wins” grant application – Ryan Chelton, Economic Development Coordinator: Grant is provided by the US Conference of Mayors. PGCC is applying for a “Virtual CFO” program to help small businesses. They want to partner with the City to assist City businesses. Staff would help by identifying eligible businesses. He does not anticipate this would be a burden. Cook: a lot of new businesses are owned by immigrants – how would they communicate with people who speak different languages? Deadline is March 17. Ask them to attend next week’s meeting to answer questions. 3. Review of Updated Plans for Hollywood Wind and Weather Park – Terry Schum, Director of Planning; Zolna Russell, Flora Teeter; Kua Pau Lian, PI.KL. Studio, architect: This project has been on the shelf for several years. In the meantime, the additional property required is now under contract, the negotiations for the needed easement are complete, and the existing house has been razed. Ready to move forward. They are suggesting a change to the pavilion feature which should reduce the cost of the project and would enhance the gateway design element. Completely optional. Tall steel structure with flutter skin. Sign feature on upper level. Lower area can be closed off and will be well lit. SHA will provide a guardrail on US 1 but it will not wrap around. The site is constrained by the topography. Kabir does not like the name “Wind and Weather” Park and prefers “Gateway Park.” They still hope that NOAA will still do some programming there. We have a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant for site improvements that expires at the end of the summer. This change of design would not delay the project, and would help lower the overall cost. If there is consensus to move in this direction, no Council action is needed. No concerns raised – OK to proceed. 4. Shaban Property Rezoning Request from C-S-C and O-S to M-U-I and CSP-16002, 9900 Rhode Island Avenue and 4926 Edgewood Road – Miriam Bader, Senior Planner; Matt Tedesco, Attorney for the applicant: Staff: Four parcels involved; request to rezone to either MUI or CSC. Staff can’t support MUI at this time; recommends CSC with conditions. No proposed development; just a rezoning request. Tedesco: Disagrees that MUI conditions have not been met, but they are OK with CSC. Property owner has been at this for 7 years. In 2012 they pursued a zoning map amendment for two of the parcels. The District Council downgraded the zoning to Open Space (OS) and the owner didn’t find out about it until after the record closed. They would now need to pursue a permit for non- conforming use for the existing buildings. Tedesco was brought on-board a year ago. They filed an application last year for MUI. Residents and staff prefer CSC and the applicant will go along with that. They are not proposing any development at this time. Cook queried Chad Williams (M-NCPPC) about the impact the zoning rewrite would have on this. They don’t know for certain. Tedesco said they want to fix what they feel like was a mistake before the rewrite is completed. The Planning Board hearing is March 30, and then there is a mandatory review by the District Council in April. Request to fix the striping in the parking lot that makes those spaces impossible to use. Councilmembers will take this back to NCPCA on Thursday night, then may go to next week’s Council meeting depending on that outcome. College Park City Council Worksession Minutes March 7, 2017 Page 3 5. Approval of amendments to our contract with Optotraffic – Suellen Ferguson, City Attorney: State law requires a change in the way speed camera vendors are paid; need to update our contract by June 1. It was previously a percentage of the paid citations; now it is a $1.00 charge per camera per year, plus a set fee for review of each citation. Not too much change to the income that the City will receive. Also, Optotraffic is now operating under a different corporate name. She is still reviewing the language to ensure it is consistent with state law. Assuming everything is OK, this can go to Consent next week. 6. Discussion on creation of a public art fund – Terry Schum, Director of Planning: Councilmember Brennan requested this agenda item. Ms. Schum surveyed other municipalities and reviewed the three options outlined in the staff report. Councilmember Brennan asked if we can provide a comment during the zoning rewrite process about including public art as a density bonus. Schum will review. Might be hard for existing staff to manage a large public art program, but we can do individual projects and can apply for grants. We applied for an NEA grant jointly with the UMD – it we get that award, it would provide a Master Plan of Art and Culture for the City. Future discussion about how we will decide these issues. Greenbelt has an Arts Advisory Board – City may consider something similar. Pursue options 1 and 2 from the staff report for now. 7. Letter of support to the County Executive for a north County Animal Shelter – Bob Ryan: Feasibility study is complete but has not yet been released. This letter will encourage the County Executive to keep the DOE budget proposal intact. Revise letter to broaden the justification. Consent Agenda. 8. Review of legislation: Ranking the bond bills: #1 – College Park Woods Connector Trail (requested by M-NCPPC), #2 - Duvall Field Lighting, #3 – Complete Streets (Hollywood Road, Fox and Cherokee). 9. Requests For/Status of Future Agenda items:  Question about Hollywood Streetscape item – Schum has a conference call tomorrow. 10. Appointments to Boards and Committees AND Appointment of the Board of Election Supervisors – Next week. 11. Mayor and Councilmember Comments  Cook – PGEMW  Kabir – NCPCA Thursday night at YFS  Stullich – CHCA March 8, 7 – 9 p.m. at City Hall  Brennan – Proclamation for Irish-American Heritage Month; Third Thirsty Thursday on March 16, 5 p.m. at Ledo’s; add link to the City’s homepage to the CPCF 5K registration page  Keosian – UMD home bicycle race in Hyattsville – Route 1 Rampage – will shut down Southbound Route 1 on Saturday May 1.  Mayor – MML Essay contest; WMATA budget does maintain the B30 route but cuts it significantly; reboot of CP Estates/Yarrow civic associations; attending the NLC Congressional Cities conference next week College Park City Council Worksession Minutes March 7, 2017 Page 4 12. City Manager's Comments – Left lanes on US 1 both north- and south-bound to be closed next week between Campus Drive and Lakeland Road. ADJOURN: Into Closed Session to discuss the possible acquisition of real property for a public purpose, and matters directly related to said acquisition; to consult with Counsel on a legal matter; to discuss a negotiating strategy before a contract is awarded; and to consider matters directly related to a business relocating in the County (Calvert Road negotiations) - Brennan/Day, 6 – 0 – 0, 10:15 p.m. ____________________________________________ Janeen S. Miller, CMC Date City Clerk Approved