Jimmy's Ward Report - Sunday, October 19, 2008

Council Discusses New Standards to Maintain Mt. Rainier’s Unique Character – On Thursday Oct 17th the City Council held a public hearing on taking the first steps in establishing an Architectural Conservation Overlay Zone (ACOZ). Bruce Yarnell from the Design Review Board wrote a very good article on this in the last issue of the Message. You might want to look over it if you haven’t read it.

Here’s my take: People in our community are rightly concerned about traditional houses being replaced by newer houses and rehabilitations that change the nature of the community. Right now as long as a builder meets county building codes there are very few restrictions on what can be done in terms of rehabilitating a house in most of the City. (The downtown area is already covered by the Mixed Use Town Center zone, which does have restrictions that mandate changes have to keep the character of the downtown area.)

Bruce’s presentation included examples of rehabilitations that had closed off porches, a building with a new third story that towered over other houses, and some houses that were rebuilt with absolutely no windows facing the street. If you would like a copy of the CD with his presentation, let me know.

The next steps on this would be for the City to ask the County that a plan be developed for the City. The County Planning Board would do this with input from the City. After this is done (could take a couple of years), it would have to be approved by the County Council.

If such a zone were implemented new houses and major rehabilitations would have to maintain the existing character of the current house. This would be especially important for the fronts of the house – we want to discourage porch conversions, try and place garages in the rear or side, and additions behind the roofline of the current structures.

No one would have to make any changes on existing houses. It would not be the intent to restrict the nature of materials used for renovations but just the overall character of the building.

This could be a big change for the way rehabilitations are done in the City and people should weigh in as to whether they think it is a good idea or not.

Leaf Pick-up Schedule: The schedule was published in the October issue of The Message. But don’t worry; pick-ups do not start until the week of December 2nd. I will send out a reminder schedule next month.

City Needs Information on Needed Street Repairs: Public works has asked us to send them a list of streets that need to be repaired, curbs that need to be painted, trees that have to be trimmed or taken down, and signs that have to be repaired or replaced. If you think something should be taken care of, please let me know and I will forward it on to public works.

Council Hears Presentation On New Library Building - The Council on September 30th heard a presentation from Schick Goldstein to re-develop 3409 Rhode Island Avenue, the current library building. It was a very exciting presentation featuring a four-story building with a beautiful facade that would definitely be a great improvement to our downtown area. Their proposal called for a library on the first floor, a community room on the second floor, and office space on the third and fourth floors. Unfortunately the cost of such a redevelopment could be over $6 million. So, the Council discussed with them financing or possible having only a two-story facility. One option that intrigued me was a lease-purchase arrangement where the developer owns the building and signs a long-term lease with the city with the option for the city to purchase the facility at the end of the lease. The Council plans to follow up with Schick Goldstein as well as hearing from another firm, Jair Lynch. As I mentioned in a previous report, if we do nothing regarding this property we stand to lose over $200,000 in federal money that has already committed to the project. So we definitely want to take some action.

Council Passes Charter Amendments on Private Sale of Bonds and Election Procedures - I covered this in some detail in my last report. The Council approved both charter amendments that now have to be advertised in the local newspaper before they go in effect. The City expects to finalize the purchase of the Bass property sometime in November.

Public Hearings On Purple Line Scheduled for November - The purple line is the proposed rapid transit line that would link the red line in Bethesda to the green line in New Carrolton. It would go through Takoma Park, Langley Park, and College Park. Even though it does not pass near Mt. Rainier, it would be a major improvement in getting around the City without having to use a car. I encourage people to attend. There will be hearing in College Park on Nov 19th and one in Takoma Park on Nov 22nd. For more information on the purple line and with details about the public hearings, go to this web site: www.bi-countytransitway.com.


Important Local Election – Tuesday November 4th - Many of you may be wondering what this article is all about. The Mayor and two of the Council members are not up for election until next May and the state legislature and County Council are elected in 2010. But I repeat that this year’s election will be the most important for the residents of our City,

Every day, as a Councilman I receive new messages detailing new cuts in state and county funding. Thursday we received a note that the Community Legacy funding had been cut by 1/3 – from $7 million to $4.7 million. On the same day we were told that the Maryland Board of Public Works approved a growing deficit caused by the ‘worldwide economic downturn.’
What I have learned from my 1-½ years on City Council is that the city’s revenue is largely used for city services. Money is used for police, trash pick-up, code enforcement, recycling and a few other services. But there is absolutely no money in our budget for any kind of capital improvements in our City. For the last few years we have received $100,000 a year in Community Development Block Grants from the Federal Government for street improvements, but that money does not even scratch the surface in the physical improvements that are needed in our City and I am scare that even those grants may be cut back.

Our City’s bridges are in disrepair; there are curbs and pavements that need to be repaired, and streets that have to be repaved. There is absolutely no money in the City budget for this and there is unlikely to be any money in the future. The property tax base in our City does not produce the revenue needed for the infrastructure improvements in our City.

We can only make major improvements in our city if we can get a share of the federal income tax base that produces a much greater stream of revenue than the property tax. We, in Mt. Rainier, need some of that money through federal and state grants. This will only be done when there are new policy makers in Washington who change the priorities of our government and shift money away from overseas interventions and back into investing in our own communities.

This is probably the most important election that I’ve ever voted in. Please make sure you vote and cross your fingers.