Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a pleasant time with family and loved ones. Don’t forget about our Grand Illumination today at 6pm downtown.

Below you will find details on the holidays in Annapolis (and our parking discounts), as well as information on tomorrow’s Council meeting. Please let me know if you have thoughts on anything on our agenda.

I also wanted to remind you to fill out the community survey if you haven’t done so already. Today or tomorrow are your last days to do so.

On Wednesday from 5-6:30 is our Ward 7/8 community meeting regarding the City Dock redevelopment project. This project represents a complete re-envisioning and rebuild of our City dock area. The primary intention is to prepare for sea level rise related to the climate crisis, but at the same time we want to increase the amount of usable green/open space downtown and move the cars to our new garage.

Also, as you’ve seen in the newspaper, our local/state delegation has returned from the Netherlands. We traveled with two representatives from the Moore administration (Planning Secretary Flora and Risk Reduction Director Sara Bender) and the County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner Tanya Asman. Those from the Council included Mayor Buckley, myself, and Aldermen Schandelmeier, Gay, and O’Neal. We were hosted by the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the Netherland Water Partnership, who had created daily agendas packed with presentations, meetings, and tours of their infrastructure. We will be releasing more information about this shortly but suffice it to say it was an incredible experience that I wish I had done earlier in my first term. Hearing about and seeing the flood mitigation technologies, approaches, and mindset of the Dutch was incredibly useful as we face our own flooding challenges. We will be incorporating what we’ve learned into our projects and initiatives. The same can be said of the cycling infrastructure. To say they are avid cyclists is an understatement. They have complete infrastructure enabling and promoting cycling. I’ve never seen so many cyclists! In contrast with the United States, cyclists rule the road in the Netherlands. Building such networks enables healthier citizens (even seniors cycle out there regularly and use the paths for travel on their scooters), connected and more equitable neighborhoods, less traffic and parking issues, improved economic growth (known as bikeconomics) and more sustainable transportation (from an environmental and climate perspective). I hope we can incorporate some of what we learned to address the parking and traffic concerns we have locally. Expect more to come on all of this.

Town Hall meeting – NEW DATE – Tuesday Dec 12^th 7:30-8:30pm

Since I had to cancel the November Town Hall meeting, I’ve found a new date for Tuesday, December 12^th. The only catch is that we will only have an hour (7:30-8:30). For that reason, I’ll keep things short and just give you a 20 minute or so update and then we can have an open dialog for the rest of the meeting. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a better date/time. I’ll try to get the meetings scheduled out for this spring and next fall earlier so we can have more time for dialog or even a special guest. As always, I would really appreciate any help you can provide in spreading the word. I'll have flyers made up shortly to hand out in your communities. If you can help, please let me know.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

I only have a few items for you this week. First off, I wanted to remind you again about the important community survey. We haven’t done this in over 10 years I believe, so it’s important to gauge what the public’s views are of the services we provide.

Town Hall meeting – CANCELLED

I do apologize, but I need to cancel the Town Hall meeting I had scheduled for November 20^th. I believe we are having a special Council meeting rescheduled for that evening. I will get the Town Hall meeting rescheduled for December and let you know of the new date.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

On this Monday’s Council agenda is the introduction of a proposed moratorium on Short Term Rentals, which would give us time to deliberate on the other STR legislation before us. There is also a Resolution responding to the frustrations we have heard regarding the parking system at our new downtown garage. If passed, we will attempt to investigate the concerns we’ve heard and gather documentation so that we can, if needed, submit a complaint to the entity running the garage regarding contract obligations. There is also a public hearing on legislation that would limit usage of our street-end parks to only during the day time. I’m not yet sure why this is being introduced but I am trying to find out more. I have some concerns with this.

We also have a community survey. Please take the time to fill it out. This really will have an impact on the services we provide in Annapolis.

Town Hall meeting – save the date!

I’ve tentatively scheduled a Ward 7 Town Hall meeting for Monday, November 20^th at 6:30pm. I haven’t determined the topic or guest yet, so if you have any requests please let me know. Looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

Happy Autumn! Our Monday meeting has a rather short agenda, but there are two pieces of legislation up for a public hearing. More on those below.

Town Hall meeting – save the date!

I’ve tentatively scheduled a Ward 7 Town Hall meeting for Monday, November 20^th at 6:30pm. I haven’t determined the topic or guest yet, so if you have any requests please let me know. Looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

Please note that our Council meeting is on Tuesday this week, NOT Monday. Here is information on our next meeting:

Monday is our first City Council meeting after our August recess, so it’s a bit of a packed agenda with a number of new pieces of legislation being introduced. Here are a few highlights:

Short term rental licensing

I am introducing legislation that seeks to close a few loopholes with our short term rental licensing. We had an issue with some outside investors with shared financial interests who were buying up property and using different names or business entity names on their applications, in an effort to get around our 1 STR per owner rules. I am also seeking to clarify language around suspension and revocation of permits in an effort to deal with nuisance properties.

Noise ordinance updates

The second piece of legislation I worked on with of a few of my colleagues, that’s being introduced, seeks to update our noise restrictions in three ways: 1. Essentially bans gas-powered leaf blowers due to their noise and emissions, 2. Creates noise restrictions for the new party boats (and general boats) that are on our creeks, and 3. Bans the use of high-frequency sound emitters due to impacts to pets and some people.

Forest conservation – update to appeals

The third piece of legislation I’m introducing is a tweak to our forest conservation laws. It would require that P&Z place a stay (halt) on any forest clearing if there is an appeal to a local appeal board, empower them to stay clearing on state appeals, move appeals to the Zoning Board of Appeals rather than the Building Board of Appeals (makes it more consistent with code), and closes an old loophole where Planned Development projects approved before a certain date received a blanket exemption to the laws.

Wells Cove water access public hearing

There is a public hearing on my legislation dealing with the Wells Cove public water access easement. If you support this access and want it fully unimpeded and fully enacted and signed by the City, please come out and support this legislation to submit comments.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

Here is some information regarding our Monday Council meeting. This will be our final meeting before our August recess. Please note that during August, my responses may be even more delayed than usual (sorry!), as I plan on spending time with family and taking a break from Council work (though I do aim to get some legislation finalized regarding short term rentals).

Of note this week, I'm introducing a Resolution with Alderman Arnett to ensure we allow immediate public access to the Wells Cove public water access easement. In case you didn't know, this was in question due to the property owner, and citizens had to take them (and the City) to court to get them to enforce this easement, as well as comply with the Council's Resolution from back in the 80's. Long story short, citizens won, yet city still dragging its feet pending appeal, even though the judge said there was no stay on appeal, hence my Resolution below.

There's also an issue with some Rec & Parks fees, similar to what happened with the Penguins, where they are charging high fees to non-profits without any advanced notice, changing decades old practices of waiving such fees, and are even trying to charge City fees for County fields. You can't make this stuff up... Aren't we supposed to be serving the public?

You can still comment on the draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan. I encourage you to take a look and review this plan as this will have impacts on our Ward for the next 10 years. Once your comments are received, the plan will go to the Planning Commission for review, and then it will come to the City Council for a final vote, remand, disproval, or amendments.

Public Safety Update: Our police department has put together a summer response plan to address the crime we have been having lately. While I do think this is good, I’m still waiting on them (it has been 2 weeks) to send me a list of all the incidents of gunfire and homicides for the past two years, indicating their causes and including any policy recommendations they may have. My goal is to get the data on the causes of these shootings to see what we, the Council, may be able to do to address the gun violence. This will help us determine if we need to try to hire more police officers, increase our social worker presence, pay for more recreational opportunities, or fund more conflict resolution.

 Stay healthy and stay safe,

 Rob

Town Hall meeting on 2040 Comprehensive Plan

This Wednesday there will be a public meeting on the 2040 Comprehensive Plan draft. I encourage you to take a look and review this plan as this will have impacts on our Ward for the next 15 years, guiding what type of development (or preservation) happens where. Once your comments are received, the plan will go to the Planning Commission for review, and then it will come to the City Council for a final vote, remand, disproval, or amendments. The meeting will be this Wednesday (July 12^th) at 6pm at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck Library. This will be a joint Wards 7 & 8 meeting.

Public Safety Update

I have submitted a request to our Police Department to send me a list of all the incidents of gunfire for the past two years, indicating their causes and including any policy recommendations they may have. I’ve also done the same as far as all of the homicides for the past two years. My goal is to get the data on the causes of these shootings to see what we, the Council, may be able to do to address the gun violence. This will help us determine if we need to try to hire more police officers, increase our social worker presence, pay for more recreational opportunities, or fund more conflict resolution.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

I wanted to let you know about a fundraiser this evening for the victims of the tragic June 11th shooting on Paddington Place. 

Due to today being the Juneteenth holiday, our Council meeting is scheduled for tomorrow evening  (not tonight) at the usual time (7pm).

Tragedy in our Ward

As you have likely seen, we had an absolutely tragic shooting in our Ward, killing three of our neighbors. My thoughts and sympathies go out to the victims’ families. I am appalled at the propensity of some to escalate disputes to the point where gun violence is perpetuated. We are still gathering information as to the exact causes of this event, as well as determining what we on the City Council may or may not be able to do to help prevent anything like this from happening again.

There are two Go Fund Me pages set up to help meet funeral costs for the families involved:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/funeral-arrangement-for-mario-nicolas-mireles

https://www.gofundme.com/f/rkx9f-for-my-nephew

Briefing by Annapolis Police Department

The Chief of the Annapolis Police Department will be giving us a briefing at our 7pm meeting tomorrow, speaking to this tragedy in our Ward, as well as to the other incidents we have had lately involving gun violence. I hope to emerge from this meeting with a better understanding of what the drivers are, as we figure out what we might be able to do locally to help. If there are any questions you would like me to ask, please let me know.

Edgewood Rd speeding

The Patrol squads have been given notice to increase traffic enforcement on Edgewood from a previous complaint, and the VMS sign has been requested again once the Juneteenth festival is over. The sign should be placed the Monday or Tuesday after the Festival.

Previous meeting summary

We passed the FY24 budget, as amended. We also passed O-55-22, which is my legislation that overhauls our sediment control inspections to help avoid contractor-driven pollution incidents like we had at Parkeside preserve.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob