Glenn Dale Citizens Association

Meeting Minutes – February 15, 2005

Prepared By Jim Titus, Secretary

All officers attended. The Treasurers attendee list did not email successfully and hence will be included in the March minutes.

No. 2005-4: We shall send MNCPPC’s questionnaire to our email list and post it on our web site.

No. 2005-5. GDCA continues to support the Folly Branch Trail to Upper Marlboro. We will take whatever actions are prudent to support MNCPPC’s efforts to obtain the next segment connecting WB&A Trail south under Md-450 and on to Rt 50. If prudent, we shall encourage the Council to ratify the deal negotiated between MNCPPC, the community, and the owners of the new shopping center near the site of the Old Lanham Raceway.

The President called the meeting to order at 7:40 PM.

Secretary’s Report. Jim is posting the minutes on the web before the meeting and people brought their own copies. The minutes from the January meeting were approved.

Old Business:

Glen Dale Business Park. Mary had drafted a thank-you letter addressing the tree restoration issue. Some trees had died, some were apparently stolen. GDCA thanked the owners for restoring the trees that had disappeared. She also copied Laurie Shirley, Environmental Division, and MNCPP.

Letter from Senator Leo Greene: He told us that he has always opposed the ICC, but that he supports a complete bike trail along the entire length of the ICC if the highway is built. He also sent us copy of SHA’s response to our lane-striping letter. (That was fortuitous: from SHA: Although we were the addressees of the letter, we had not gotten received the letter from SHA. On the other hand, we had neglected to send Senator Greene our letter to SHA.) The district engineer for SHA wrote that they will study the issues we raised and respond within the next 90 days.

East Glenn Dale Sector Plan. Area north of Lanham-Severn: The workshop will be February 24, 6:30-9:00. At the fire station. View exhibits, tasks, ground rules. Northern Avenue. Call Joe Chang or Judy Gambrosi. 301-952-3551 or email Mr. Chang at Joseph.Chang@ppd.mncppc.org. (Secretary’s Note: That meeting was postponed due to snow and will be made up on March 16 at the fire station.

Wed March 9, 2005. Also at fire station. Post workshop meeting. Prospect Hill area. 6:30-9:00. (Secretary’s note: that meeting will be pushed back a few weeks due to the postponement of the February meeting).

Park and Planning is doing a survey of community leaders. They sent an email asking questions, and asking the names of other people to fill out the questionnaire. Mary read the questions and discussed what she did. The questions asked for specific governmental actions to be taken. John noted that it was a bit leading to ask about preservation of the golf course.

Motion to send it out and put on the web. Discussion: We will not alter the questions.

Resolution: We shall send MNCPPC’s questionnaire to our email list and post it on our web site. Passed unanimously.

Process Issue: It will go to the membership. Do we include an explanation? Simple explanation should be enough. This Thursday, the sector plan will be given to the planning board.

Letter from Councilman Peters to Mary and others (who live in his district). Peters enclosed "questions and answers that resulted from the meeting (charette). He has a series of questions and answers, representing citizen questions and Peter’s answers. John: He was quite selective about what he chooses to deal with. Mary: "Why only the East Sector Plan" Answer: Because east and west side folks got mad at eachother and that approach will keep them from getting mad again. Also: Most of west Glenn Dale is not in his District. We decided not to respond to those Q’s and A’s.

Zoglio Property. Application denied for failure to post prior to hearing. They posted 6 days before hearing. They will now move for reconsideration. Jim Wolf: "Zoglio" refers to the property at the Northwest corner of Md-193 and Md-450. Meanwhile, the developers visited Marietta to look at the land. They said they would deed 10-feet beyond the crest of the slope to Park and Planning. And they will put up some sort of barrier between Marietta property.

Glenn Dale Forest. It is being built. John obtained the tree-conservation plan. They said they have a 50-foot buffer. They have complied. Rumors about smaller lots or attached dwellings seem to be unfounded.

BP reps decided not to come to tonight’s meeting because dealings between BP and the franchisee have slowed. (This station will be at 450 and Bell Station. By the new light.)

We discussed the Folly Branch Trail to Upper Marlboro. Previously, we had decided that we support the extension of the Folly Branch trail from the WB&A Trail south under Md-450 and on to Rt 50, from the new shopping center near the site of the Old Lanham Raceway. We believe that the trail ought to connect to the shopping center, because some on bicycles may want to have a coffee at Starbucks or buy a small item. Last week, the deal that planner Fred Shaffer had negotiated with residents and the shopping center fell apart. At first, we decided to support MNCPPC. Then we decided that although we support the trail, we will not express support to the council if any of the citizens groups oppose a trail through their neighborhoods. Jim indicated that he had been playing telephone tag with Fred Shaffer on that issue and did not have all the details, but felt that whatever we were going to authorize we had better do so soon, because the Council will hear the issue before out March meeting.

Backlog of pending actions: We are still waiting for a letter on the Palumbo text amendment. .

New Business.

Glenn Dale North: 31 Lots RE and RR. Near Springfield Rd. This will be part of Bowie and Glenn Dale (Bowie post office but not annexed Bowie).

Glenn Dale Hospital. St. Paul’s has aligned itself with developer Dave Adler, who built _ at the PG/Howard line along MD-198. They wanted to meet with Crysta Williams and Henry. Their proposal is to adaptively use the 3 signature buildings, put in a housing development, a golf course, and even purchase some of the federal USDA lands. They met with John and told him that they would not build a golf course. They were talking about the whole Glenn Dale site except the wetlands. (Too little room for a golf course.) All agreed that the proposal was well "beyond the pale."

Dave asked: What is our vision: We support adaptive re-use of 60 acre site for continuing care, and passive use for the rest.

Recent murder in Lincoln Vista. Murder in front of a house, Feb 9. Commander of 2^nd district of police. Lincoln-Vista folks invited Hendershot, and us. There was a second shooting. The meeting is Thursday evening Feb 17 at Seaton Memorial Church at 7PM. Henry will try to make it. They had a neighborhood watch, which lapsed. Details on the crime are sketchy. Murder is on the increase in PG County. We don’t get that much attention from police.

Lil: Question from county if snow removal was satisfactory? Mary got the same call? She was invited to a community meeting on snow removal.

Jim Wolf: Park and Planning is deeply into negotiations for the acre of land on either side of Dorsey Chapel, to be used for park. On side away from chapel.

Mockingbird Lane. Jim Titus recapped out previous efforts to get Park and Planning to fix the WB&A trail and Mockingbird Lane. It turns out that instead of writing to Park and Planning, we should filled out the "service request form" and given it to DPTW. We agreed to do so, given that the residents and trail users all want to see that stretch of trail fixed.

Treasurer ‘s Report. 1575.29 + 18 + 1593.29.

We adjourned at 9:10.