The big news I want to share with you is that my Ordinance O-27-18, “no net loss of forests”, passed with only one dissenting vote! What this means is that development projects like the Village at Providence Point (aka Crystal Spring) and Parole Place (a large development in the headwaters of Church Creek) will need to mitigate/replace every acre of forest they remove. This will help to ensure that our water and air quality doesn’t get worse for our next generation. I want to thank all of you who supported this legislation. We now have the strongest Forest Conservation laws in the entire State.

In regular news, there is only one City Council meeting in December: this upcoming Monday. There are a number of pieces of legislation up for a public hearing and final vote, which I’ll tell you about below. The one that will likely be of most interest to you is Ordinance O-8-18, which would address school overcrowding by preventing development for 6 years in districts that are over 100% capacity. I’ll go into this more below. Otherwise, I wish everyone happy holidays, and in case this is my only email update this month, happy new year!

This month there are two City Council meetings on back-to-back Mondays: the 19th and 26th. Tomorrow’s agenda is packed and I’ll include highlights below. The theme with most of the legislation up for a final vote is development, including my “no net loss of forests” Ordinance.

I’d also like to take a moment to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels next week.

I’d like to start this week’s newsletter by asking you for some assistance. As you are hopefully aware, we have a fall Ward 7 Town Hall meeting scheduled for Wednesday, October 24th, from 6-8 at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck Library. I need some help getting the word out and distributing flyers for the event. We will be having a special guest, Mr. Andre Dillard, the principal of Georgetown East Elementary School, who will be speaking to you about the school and how you can help, whether or not you currently have kids of that age. But the majority of the meeting will still consist of the open Q&A format, with opening remarks from yours truly. However, for this to be a success, I once again am requesting your assistance. If you are able to help, let me know and I will get flyers to you for distribution in your community. It should take no more than an hour or so of your time.

Here’s the rest of my update:

For my first legislative push I've decided to focus largely on development issues, as every day that passes means more projects get approved that will impact our quality of life. I campaigned on tackling this issue and that's just what I'm trying to do. But it isn't easy. The Capital recently wrote an article on my efforts, and you can read that here. In it, you'll see that I'm getting quite a bit of pushback from the development industry, who has labeled me as “dangerous”. Well, if dangerous means honoring my campaign promises, pushing back against an entrenched special interest, trying to improve the quality of life for all Annapolitans, and trying to undo all of the impacts from the out of control development we've experienced, then I'm guilty as charged. I will need your help if I am to improve this legislation and get it passed. If you have any comments or suggestions on any of this, please contact me.  Also, If you are able to attend or submit testimony in support of any legislation you feel strongly about, that would be quite helpful.

I’ll have a few other Ward 7 updates below, and please mark your calendars that my next Town Hall meeting will be on October 24th from 6-8pm, at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck library.

What a busy month! This past week I went to the ribbon cutting event for the removal of the fence (located on Victor Parkway) dividing Victor Haven and Fairwinds. The fence has been replaced with removable bollards, as it will not be open to regular vehicular traffic. The good thing is, we now have a detour route off the peninsula when there are accidents at the corner of Bay Ridge and Forest Drive (happens too often!), it’s much more bicycle friendly, and represents the One Annapolis that I think we all are striving for.

Additionally,  I have a number of pieces of legislation working their way through the process that I would like to update you on, and hopefully get your support for. You’ll have an opportunity this Monday to comment on some of them. I’ll include details on the Council meeting, legislation, and various Ward 7 updates below, including my fall Town Hall meeting.

As promised, here are the details on this Monday’s City Council meeting (final vote on the Annapolis Rising festival fee waiver, public hearing on zoning code updates), as well as a few other announcements (Planning Commission gave a favorable recommendation to my "no net loss" of forests ordinance).  

September is looking to be a very busy month! Here’s a rare mid-week update for you, before I send my pre-Council briefing this weekend.  

I hope you have had an enjoyable August. Given that the Council is in recess all of August, I took the opportunity to go on a nice two week family vacation. But now I’m back in the swing of things responding to your concerns.

Here are a few things I wanted to notify you about:

There are a few things going on next week that I wanted to keep you abreast of, including a City Council meeting on Monday and the Summer Ward 7 Town Hall meeting on Wednesday (6pm at the library).

I hope you had a pleasant 4th of July. While it was nice to spend time with family, my thoughts were with the staff at The Capital. They are our friends, family, and voice of our community. I’m tired of these types of tragedies, and will do what I can to build a better world where people come before guns, and civility comes before aggression.

I have a few updates from the last Council meeting where the budget passed, information on Monday night’s Council meeting, and some assorted community notes. Please note that I will be holding my second town hall meeting on July 25th from 6-8 at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck Library.