We don’t have any legislation up for a public hearing on Monday. I’m introducing some legislation seeking to reform our commission/board nomination process, in the hopes of creating a backup nomination process (details below). My gas-powered leaf blower ban legislation has finally made it out of committee and is ready for review by the entire Council. Details on that below as well. Eagerly awaiting quieter summer and fall days… My Short term rental legislation will also need to be postponed again, but we are making progress in committee. There’s a lot in there to get through, I admit.

 That’s about all. Hope you all are enjoying this warmer weather. As someone from the Poconos, I am eagerly awaiting the return of cold weather.

 Stay healthy and stay safe,

 Rob

There may appear to be a lot on the Council agenda for Monday, but most items are getting postponed due to the Committees needing to finish their work. This includes my short term rental legislation and my gas-powered leaf blower ban. Nothing much to report except that we are once again extending outdoor dining for another year via Resolution, to buy us more time to complete our permanent code changes.

Besides that, the Planning Commission has held their first public hearing on the City Dock reconstruction project. If you support it or have other comments you are able to submit public testimony directly to the Planning Commission or do so in person (virtually) at their next meeting on February 1^st.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

I hope you had a pleasant holiday and I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year. I look forward to the opportunity to represent you for another year, and if you have any concerns or comments please let me know.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the community survey. If you are curious as to the results, you can view them here.

Carr’s Beach final acquisition

Tonight we are set to authorize a supplemental appropriation (SA-19-24) of additional Program Open Space Money for the acquisition of the Moore property. This is the last piece of the puzzle that will allow the City to preserve the remaining portions of Carrs/Elktonia Beach.

Brewer Hill Cemetary stormwater restoration

The second supplemental appropriation (SA-20-24) is an authorization for us to utilize State grant money to restore part of the stormwater outfall in Brewer’s Hill cemetary. This is an historical African American cemetary that was/is experiencing erosion associated with a stormwater outfall under West Street. This particular outfall was connected to when the Severn Savings bank building was constructed, and up until a few years back the developer had not properly restored this outfall per original permit conditions. This lead to erosion in the cemtary that atually exposed skulls and graves. I believe this has now been largely resolved when the developer installed a plunge pool, but apparently there is still erosion further downstream that this grant money will be addressing.

Not like it needs to be said, but I’m inclined to support both of these SAs.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

On Monday next week we have our one and only Council meeting for this month. Nothing is up for a public hearing, but there is plenty of legislation on the agenda for second (final) reader. Please let me know if you have thoughts on any of them.

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

This will be a short meeting, given that I could only book the library for an hour. I’ll schedule a longer one for later this winter or spring, depending on demand/requests. Since it will be shorter, I’ll limit myself to 20 or 30 minutes to give you a few updates and then open the floor to Q&A.

Public meeting on proposal for Taco Bell at Bay Ridge Giant shopping center – Dec 19^th 6pm at library.

A developer is proposing to construct a Taco Bell with a drive-thru at the corner of the Bay Ridge Giant shopping Center at Bay Ridge Rd and Edgewood Rd. The meeting will be on December 19^th at 6pm at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck library. I personally have concerns about adding yet another drivethru to this area, due to the traffic and the auto-centric nature of such development. We are trying to move to more mixed use (i.e. walkable/bikeable shops and housing), and utilize more of that lot for some actual stormwater management (they have none) or for a mobility/transit hub. Allowing for this suburban sprawl will do nothing to help us get to that point and will instead make us like every other chain-store USA suburban street. I don’t know about you, but I have higher hopes for Ward 7.

Netherlands presentation

If you would like to learn more about our work study delegation trip to the Netherlands, you can view our presentation here (Youtube).

Midnight madness

Lastly, we have two more Midnight Madness events left! Hope to see you at one of them (Thursday nights).

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

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