There aren't any major pieces of legislation on the agenda for this Monday’s Council meeting. I will be withdrawing my proposed legislation that would create a Department of the Environment. The Mayor and I have come together to create a new proposal that I believe will meet both of our goals and continue to make the City the leader in the environment. Below I also comment on legislation that would update our adequate public facilities review to ensure development can’t occur if our roads are inadequate (currently they can proceed).

Also, please hold April 8th for our next Town Hall meeting at the library (7-8:45 PM). 

This Monday brings another Council meeting, as well as an opportunity for you to testify on the plastic bag ban that I’m proposing for Annapolis. There are details on that below, along with other updates for the meeting and other happenings in the City. 

Also, please hold April 8th for our next Town Hall meeting at the library (7-8:45 PM). 

I have two pieces of important legislation being introduced on Monday. The first is a moratorium on the issuance of all new Short Term Rental (STR) licenses, which would be in place while we update our zoning code to regulate the number (in some cases excessive number) of such businesses. The second is a “plastic bag ban” that would prevent all retail stores from providing plastic bags at checkout (this would not include trash bags, pet bags, or other bags that are not provided at the point of sale). Furthermore, it would assess a fee on paper bags to cover the retailer’s costs, to help the City pay for cleanup of all the legacy plastic pollution, and to provide reusable bags to those of lower income (this fee would only apply to retailers over 20,000 square feet). I have more information on both pieces of legislation below. 

Also, please hold April 8th for our next Town Hall meeting at the library (7-8:45 PM). 

For this Monday’s Council meeting, the issues of note include legislation that would ban Tattoo parlors from the entire City (except for parts of West street) the appointment of a new Planning & Zoning Director, and the introduction of legislation dealing with sprinklers in the Historic District. 

Also, please hold April 8th for our next Town Hall meeting (7-8:45 PM).

Happy new year! I hope you had a pleasant holiday season. As we kick off the new year, I’ll be identifying legislative and other priorities for the coming year. If there’s anything you’d like me to focus on, please let me know.

We have our first meeting of the year coming up on Monday. Here are some details on that meeting.

I hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving. We have another Council meeting coming up this Monday, and the big items are two appointments, legislation governing short term rentals (and limiting them, if my amendments succeed), and more legislation that would strengthen the Critical Area laws (even more so if my amendments pass). Here are some details:

Since this will likely be my last email before Thanksgiving, I’d like to wish everyone a pleasant and safe Thanksgiving holiday. I’m certainly looking forward to a break.

Here are a few updates regarding the next Council meeting and other issues going on in the City.

Our October Town Hall went well. I’d like to thank the City’s Planning & Zoning Department for coming out to brief everyone on their work on the 2020 Comprehensive Plan. If you should want to complete a survey for the plan, and ensure our voice in Ward 7 is heard, you can fill that out here. If you have any special guests you would like me to invite to our next meeting, please let me know. 

First thing I would like to update you on is that we will be having our autumn town hall meeting this Tuesday, October 15th from 7-8:30 pm. I know there’s a lot going on that evening, but that was the only date the library had available. I do apologize for any inconvenience. Staff from our Planning & Zoning Department will attend in an effort to update you, and hopefully gather your input for the 2020 Annapolis Comprehensive Plan. I expect that to only take a half hour at the most, and then I’d like to transition to our normal open question & answers format, after I give some brief remarks. I hope to see you all there! Given that this is a busy boat show weekend I’ve been short on volunteers, so if you can help distribute flyers in other parts of the Ward please let me know and I’ll let you know there areas that still need to be hit. 

September is proving to be quite a busy month as the Council gets back into the swing of things after our August break. I’ll provide a few legislative updates below. I also wanted to take a moment and let you know that I’m going to try to get a fall town hall event scheduled for either October or November, depending on the availability of the library. I’ll also probably setup at least three meetings next year, including another picnic in the summer.