Report from June 19th Council Meeting - Saturday, June 23, 2007

Development On Rhode Island Avenue – The Council voted for a 90 day extension of an agreement to work exclusively with the Landmark Atlantic Company to develop the downtown area, especially the block that includes Thrifty Rental, the former Bass Liquor property and the funeral home on the corner of Eastern and 33rd St. These properties are an eye-sore and everybody would like to see something nice developed on the area. I voted against the extension because it is my understanding is that another developer, Robert Holland, has site control (i.e. signed agreement) with two of the property owners (Bass family and Larry Solomon of Thrifty Car rental). I thought we should see what kind of vision and proposal he has for the area directly and not work through an intermediary. The majority of Council felt more comfortable working with Landmark Atlantic. Hopefully it will work out for the best. We all want to see the downtown developed. The exclusive arrangement with Landmark goes through Oct 1, 2007.



Parking Tickets - Prior to my joining the Council, the city hired a contractor to collect over 11,000 unpaid tickets. Many people have recently received notices of having to pay fines of $250 per ticket. Some did not know of the original violation and others just forgot to pay the original ticket and were shocked to find they owed $250.



The Council agreed that there should have been a second notice to ticket violators giving them a warning that if the ticket was not paid in a certain number of days the fine would double again. We will be discussing at the next work session a proposal to amend the ordinance to allow people 30 days to pay (now 15 days) the original fine and then be sent a second warning to pay a fine before it increases to $120 after 60 days and $250 after 90 days.



I proposed that we give an amnesty to all people who were willing to pay the original ticket so they would not have to pay the $250 fine. Others in Council disagreed because of the administrative problem of refunding money to the 100-200 people who have already paid the fines. The Council will be discussing it further at the July 17th work session.



Parking Meters- The Council passed an ordinance changing the meters on the 3300 blocks of Rhode Island Ave and Perry St and the 3700 block of 34th & 33rd Sts. from a one-hour maximum time to two hours. We heard comments from businesses on Rhode Island Ave. who supported and objected to the change. In the end the Council decided to make the change to help the new cafes and art galleries that have customers who stay in their facilities for a longer period of time



Business licenses for artists: The current city code prescribes a $25 yearly fee for home occupation businesses (work at home; customers come regularly to the house & have up to 2 employees) and $50 -$200 (depending on size) a year for non-residential businesses.

This has been applied mostly to such businesses as day care centers and hair dressers. This fee is often not enforced for artists who work and sell art out of their homes, which some businesses feel is unfair. The question is whether, in recognition of the arts district the code should be changed to specify an exception in the case of artists. A committee of three resident-artists volunteered to look at how other towns and cities ‘regulate’ artist/businesses and report back to a future town meeting. Nothing was done to change the current ordinance.



Cell tower at the old firehouse on 34th St. – The old firehouse has a cell tower that is used by Cingular for its wireless phone service. The city and a number of people close to the fire house recently received letters regarding plans to add a 10 foot extension to the existing cell tower. Sprint and T-mobile also want to use the tower and it is T-mobile that wants to expand the tower another 10 feet. The owner-occupant of the firehouse, a couple of neighbors, and representatives of the owner (American Tower) of the cell tower spoke before Council. The cell tower company used to lease the property from the Fire Dept and now lease it from the current owner, who operates a photo studio.



There was a question as to whether the cell tower should be allowed on the property since the property was not owned by the Fire Dept any more. More research had to be done as to whether there was an appropriate permit for the tower. There was also some discussion as to whether it was better to have more phone companies use the same cell tower as opposed to building more cell towers in the community. Other issues were raised including whether the appearance of the tower could be improved and whether removing it will hurt mobile phone service. There definitely will be more hearings before the tower is extended.



Maryland Municipal League (MML) Convention - Sunday through Wednesday I will be taking some vacation days from work and attending the MML Convention in Ocean City, MD. I have a lot to learn and hope to find out how other cities in our state deal with similar issues to the ones we have in Mt. Rainier. I hope to send out a short report when I get back.