Last week was a bit of a rough meeting. Unfortunately, myself and Alderwoman O’Neil lost the vote on O-41-25, that created a new Deputy Chief of Staff position. We tried to get a postponement of only two weeks to address some of our concerns, but neither the Mayor nor enough of our other colleagues on the Council were willing to grant us that courtesy. Alderwoman O’Neal brought up the concern that we were approving a position’s pay scale without even being presented with a job description to justify that pay scale. I raised the concerns I expressed in my last newsletter, which was that I felt this should have waited until the budget when we could look at the needs of all of the branches of government at the same time, as the legislative branch (i.e. the Council) has significant needs that are not being met and we are not able to function as effectively as we otherwise could. Regardless, we lost the vote to postpone by just one vote. It’s a bit disheartening that none of my colleagues would grant us the simple courtesy of more time, and I hope this does not indicate how things will continue to operate under this new Council and Mayor.

This past Thursday we had a presentation on a proposed Comprehensive Rezoning. This effort will, for now, focus on the downtown area. Expect to see this rolled out over the next year.

The agenda for our Monday night Council meeting is light. We have a proposal to adjust the mooring requirements (O-2-26), a Council discussion on public parking (I believe this is on overview or this new Council), with two pieces of legislation being introduced: one to temporarily dissolve the Arts in Public Places Commission so it can be reconstituted from scratch with new rules, and another that would adjust the harbor lines associated with the Hawkins Cove water access improvement and shoreline restoration.

In case you are curious, at our last Environmental Matters Committee we received some excellent presentations from our city arborist and our stormwater group. Our arborist briefed us on the urban tree canopy program, and outlined how we will meet our goal of 50% tree canopy by 2050. Here are some of the benefits that our trees present to us.

Now that our tree program is covered by our watershed restoration fund, we have a dedicated funding stream and don’t have to worry about it being cut every year. Such cuts were why we were unable to meet our previous tree canopy target of 50% by 2035. One interesting tidbit is that only 7% of the Annapolis tree canopy covers impervious surfaces. This shows how and why we need to give attention to relaxing our parking requirements and converting spaces into tree wells.

On the stormwater front we received a briefing on how the fee is structured for non-residential properties, and staff explained how they will be moving to a model that is more equitable and accurately assesses the fee based on actual impervious coverage. This will also allow us to create a more effective rebate program to give property owners a way to reduce this fee if they make stormwater improvements on their property, which ties in with my previous comments about the tree canopy program.

Stay healthy and safe,

Rob

Next Council meeting – 2/23/25 (agenda)

This meeting starts at 7pm and will be televised on local cable, YouTube, Facebook, and the City website.  You can submit public testimony at http://www.annapolis.gov/testimony. This will be an in-person meeting.

Public Hearings

• O-2-26 - Mooring requirements in city waters. O-2-25 updates the City of Annapolis policy on the use of mooring balls in the City Harbor and other city waters: Prohibits moorings within 75 feet of a structure, shore, or another mooring.  Explains the difference between annual and transient moorings installed in City waters. Both annual and transient moorings are public, not privately owned.  Allows the Harbormaster to adopt rules and regulations consistent with Title 15 of the City Code as to the types and lengths of vessels that may use any mooring in City waters. This would impact the area below in yellow on Back Creek.
• 

Legislation being introduced on first reader

• O-4-26 - Temporary Dissolution and Restructuring of the City of Annapolis Arts in Public Places Commission.
• O-3-26 - Annapolis Harbor Lines at Hawkins Cove. The purpose of this legislation is to change the City of Annapolis harbor line on Hawkins Cove to allow for the implementation of the Hawkins Cove Restoration

Legislation up for Second Reader (i.e final vote)

There is no legislation up for Second Reader at this meeting.

Community & Political updates

No updates this week.