Glenn Dale Citizens Association
Meeting Minutes – December 21, 2004
Prepared By Jim Titus, Secretary
Attended By: All officers plus Jim Wolf, Susan Wolf, Jackie Gentry, Lillian Howe,
Michael Bryant
Resolutions Passed:
No. 2005-1: "An officer of GDCA will represent GDCA at the hearing with the purpose of objecting to the fact that the sector map process has divided Glenn Dale without including the entirety of Glenn Dale."
Backlog of Pending Actions (meeting authorizing action)
Preliminaries
The President called the meeting to order at 8:00 PM. He regretted not sending out the email, and thanked Lillian for her service. Thus far, none of the incoming officers have the complete email address list of the membership. Lil and Henry agreed to attempt to resolve that issue before the next meeting. Jim Titus said that if all else fails he will send a notice using an old copy of the address list.
We all thanked John again for making the golf club facility available for this meeting.
Secretary Report. We had no minutes for the November meeting, but the Vice-President said she would bring them to the January meeting. We did, however, approve the October minutes.
Announcements from the P.O. Box
City Council of Bowie had a hearing on master plan update. We probably should attend these meetings: "Their master plan always has a concept of a Beltway around Bowie, including Md-193," the President said. Contact: Joe Meinert, Director of Planning. 301-809-3047 .
Wednesday, January 26, Green Infrastructure Plan. Designating areas—and corridors. No way to enforce it other than dedication. Looking for 40 feet. January 26, available on www.mncppc.org .
ICC: January 4,5, 8 Our hearing is Jan. 4@ 6PM at Eleanor Roosevelt HS. Subject: Location, design, public hearing. Web site: www.iccstudy.org or 1-800-462-0020. The Association has not taken stands in the last 5 years about whether to build the ICC. Consensus that Titus should go to hearing and represent GDCA in advocating for the ICC bike path, neutral on ICC.
Lottsford Vista and MLK: Hearing on 16 December. 410,000 square feet. Henry will follow up.
Mitchellville Montesori School . School at Prospect Hill wants to use playground for parking lot. They want a variance to dual-use playground and temporary parking lot.
Marietta: Nothing new to report.
Old Business:
Workers are starting to build office at the corner of Goodluck Road and Northern Ave. That was expected given the zoning. Trees are torn down, then replaced--some die, and are replaced again.
Soil Conservation Road improvement is moving along. Grading will start in 2005. Projected completion is 2006.
Glenn Dale Golf Course—detailed site plan was approved. Mary mentioned the possibility of creating an opening from trails there to Old Prospect Hill Road. Toll Brothers agreed to it. Highway departments sometimes do not like trails to come out into the middle of the block, but if approved Toll will do it. The current plan: 206 homes. Several people came to the recent hearing and objected on the grounds that it does not meet the site traffic plan. They were all told that it was too late to object to traffic, but they did so anyway. Sidewalks and trails will follow existing golf cart routes from the park on Daisy Lane to Old Prospect Hill, if Toll can get an easement from Holy Trinity School. Toll currently negotiating.
Palumbo Text Amendment. The letter we agreed to at the November meeting has not been written yet. Otherwise, nothing has happened.
Zoglio Property. Susan Wolf met with MNCPC staff, who will try to get acquisitions office to make an offer,; but no one thinks it is likely. The Zoglio property markers seem to be more generous to Zoglio than Susan Wolf recalled actual boundary location. Park and Planning asked for topographic map to see what viewshed is.
Jim Titus asked Lil if she followed up on the various items we discussed last time (e.g. bike outlet to the 450 bike trail). Lil had no recollection of planning to follow-up on this property. We have no minutes from November, so we are unable to reconstruct what action we planned to undertake. Maybe we will be able to do so in January when we see the November minutes.
BP Gas. Owner is filing detailed site plan. (This is the base of the triangle at Md-450/Md-193/Bell Station Rd..). Mary is inviting a representative to come to our next meeting.
Northern Estates. A number of small homes will be demolished soon.
Old Pond Rd.: Debra Samanski is trying to get Old Pond paved. Jim Titus mentioned that he got Fred Shaffer of MNCPP to include paving Old Pond on the bike trail priorities list for DPT&W’s maintenance.
New Business.
Pubic Forum January 13 on the Re-zoning of East Glenn Dale. Most attending the meeting think that this plan is objectionable because it divides Glenn Dale for no obvious reason. Mary moved to for Henry to go and officially represent GDCA objections to this proposed sector plan. Henry can’t make it that evening, but Mary can.
Mary amended:
Resolution 2005-1: "An officer of GDCA will represent GDCA at the hearing with the purpose of objecting to the fact that the sector map process has divided Glenn Dale without including the entirety of Glenn Dale." All present concurred. Motion passed.
Further background representing opinion of John .He thinks that it is essentially spot zoning. They have included a larger area so that it looks arguably like something other than spot zoning, which would be illegal. They are doing it too fast to allow citizens to organize coalitions to protest what they are doing. Recapping: Shields family had offered a preservation option entitling county to buy golf course at a 20% discount, but county did not act. Then, we later had HB 841. John opposed the swap—we knew it would not work. It was re-opening issues. All this was just about putting homes farther from Bowie. At Greenbelt: Peters asked if he supports development of golf course; he said he supports development of hospital. Peters claims there is an outcry against development of golf course. But outcry is actually minor.
This sector plan if it saves golf course, probably will re-open the hospital swap. Dick Padgett, now claiming to be a history buff, is claiming we need to look at slave cemeteries. This current sectoral process will be remanded. This is just a way to get something done that could not be done in the normal manner Realistically, golf is just not profitable enough to keep course open.
Glenn Dale would be divided into two pieces. Possibly, this is just another way of setting up development at the hospital.
Shields: Lets look at the 2002 plan. Or put all of Glenn Dale into the process. Peters never even took a position on the 9-hole course.
Discussion of what can we do. Suggestion: Get Bowie to protest? Unclear if they are willing to help. Suggestion: People from both sides to Md-193.
John explained how economics of open space requirements flood us with golf courses, reducing profitability.
Treasurer Report: Now in an interest bearing account $1520.92
Meeting Adjourned at 9:40.