Glenn Dale Citizens Association
7:45 with all officers present except for the Treasurer.

Secretary’s Report. Vice President provided the minutes for the September meeting, because Jim Titus has been absent during that meeting. No corrections were suggested and we adopted the minutes.

Announcements

Henry told us about recent correspondence.

1. Councilman Olsen wrote MDOT requesting more MARC service along Penn and Camden lines. Jim Titus moved that we send such a letter echoing what the councilman said. This would support recent proposals by the MDOT Secretary.

Discussion: One member discussed cuts in the fence. He thought that instead of supporting MARC, we should attempt to extract concessions from MARC before we support expanded MARC because someone is making money. Titus suggested that actually, MARC is losing money and we benefit from weekend trains. The member continued that if they are going to improve service, they need to increase quality of the fences. In Aberdeen, they use a higher gauge of fence, he said. Henry suggested we amend the motion so there would be two letters, one supporting MARC service along the lines of Olsen’s letter, and one supporting security along the railroad tracks. Resolution passed without objection.

2. Director of Parks and Recreation will have public forums on capital improvement projects for the next 6 years at Harmony Hall. They will also accept written comments. Henry: Councilmember Turner is attending, as is Danielle Glaros from Olsen’s office.

New Business

Zoglio commercial property. This is at the NW corner of MD-193 and MD-450. #4-07051. It would be 3 stories. Enterprise Office Park. Right next to the new office building that is going in now.

Head of Historic Preservation Commission said that there will be a re-visiting of the historic preservation plan. The concern is that there may be a downgrading of historic sites that have already been listed. In that case, staff was willing to wipe out the historic designation.

The “McMansion Legislation” hearing moved back to November 8.

Delegate Levi spoke. House delegates will begin their local bill hearings. Oct 30, Nov 13, Nov 27. Levi will have a bill on power outages. There will be a local bill on the “McMansion” issue. She added:

1. The power outage bill seeks to impose a flat fee as a function of outages and rate of return. Funds would go into a grant program that can be used to support renewable energy. She added: if we don’t do something, we could see rolling blackouts as soon as 2011 on days with peak demand (generally in the summer).
2. Sen. Doug Peters and delegates Hubbard and Levi will cite a clean energy school in each county.
3. Special session on the deficit stars October 29.

Old Business

Bell Station development. Developer wanted to wipe out the tree buffer previously negotiated. They brought an arborist whose qualifications have not been explained.. The Chesley building has altered the topography in a fashion that severely harms the trees. So the trees may have been killed. One proposal: retaining walls. The question is: have the trees already been killed? A consultant—Tom Milbourne-- is working on how to save the trees. He came in to show his plans.

Palumbo is behind the new BP station. The Palumbos leased land to BP. Originally, there was the Magruder-Brannon house adjacent to the property. Consultant Milbourne then retold the story he told the last time he was here. The various approvals do not all match, he said. The Palumbos feel they should not have to preserve a tree buffer that was justified on the basis of a house that does not exist any more.

Last time, he could not answer all the questions. This time he has brought the Greenhorne and O’mara consultant that did the tree conservation plan. The grading on adjacent site had damaged the nearby trees. If community wants its own expert to look at the issue, they can do so. The Palumbos are now proposing to provide the standard landscape buffer, and provide a covenant to maintain the trees. The standard buffer would have to be maintained. Their position is that, realistically, the county is unlikely to insist on a 50-foot buffer for a building that no longer exists. And if they did, the landscape is so perturbed that the natural trees are unlikely to survive.

We had an extensive colloquy. Henry argued for a bit more on the edges, where preserving trees is clearly not futile. They will look as the issue further.

Tom added: “Henry I am very familiar with that drawing board”.

Staybridge “Hotel” Henry recapped previous events. We have concerns about height, roof line, etc. We have seen significant changes in the design. It drops to 3 stories in places. They gave up some rooms. It is more brick. Brick building with accents. It is not perfect, but we made a lot of progress with them on the architecture. We looked at various different shapes.

Levi: What is the level of green features?

Danielle (Olson’s Office) spoke up: It is not a “green building” per se—but our efforts have moved it in that direction. The developer recently went to a seminar on designing green and is actually quite enthusiastic and wants to learn more. Overall, the building will be pretty “green” in terms of energy conservation, but not in terms of the green-roof/cooler community perspective. They are looking at energy efficiency for the laundry facility, which uses a lot of energy at a facility like this where people tend to stay a week. A new product that insulates better. He was excited and sees this as a possibility for the future. GDCA made a difference by pushing this idea. This developer owns a few hotels in PG, but he usually purchases them—rather than build. Her sense is that he will be in the process, and he will continue thinking about it. Most of focus is on energy—not water conservation. We need to keep asking these questions. This hotel has no big meeting rooms. They have one meeting room, which will be two motel rooms.

Danielle: Staybridge seeks to be 70% full. They think 145 rooms could be filled—but now they only will have 120 units. Council has voted and approved. We had hoped to bring it back to the community, but you have time frames on when decisions need to be made. It will probably be built over the next few years. When will it be built? Don’t know. Probably in a few years.

Henry added: I have not seen the District Council do to a developer what they did this time. We got a lot accomplished.

That is the end of business.

Meeting Adjourned at 9:10 PM.

Presentation from Glenn Dale commons.

1. Mary reminded us of what has transpired to date. They are tearing down Greentech. We asked for $1 million for recreational facility as part of phase 1. MNCPPC decided that recreational building would happen with phase 2. Mary thinks that this needs to be guaranteed.

2. Douglas recently bought another 9 acres that would connect the senior area to the storm water. In effect, it fills in the “U” of what they already owned. Plan is for 68 townhouses, and 142 “2-over-2” units. Staff report had some conditions that seemed to be a market break from what they had been planning.

3. We discussed a letter from GDCA:

4. Perimeter fence. We agree it looks like concrete in image—but the actual fence will be masonry.

Size: Limit size to 210 units. But previously GDCA said 218 units. Previous agreement was 218. They want to maintain flexibility to raise it to 218.

5. Regarding the recreation: MNCPC did not like using the units for recreation, due to lack of accessibility/disabilities Act requirements (ADA). So instead the plan was for a facility nearer the single- family detached. Members suggested that instead of a $1 million bond, developer should reserve a unit and as originally proposed. This could be a private side deal with the community, and thus not subject to ADA.

Jim had to leave before the other presentation so there are no notes.