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WARD 7 NEWSLETTER
Alderman Rob Savidge · City of Annapolis · July 24, 2026
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| MARK YOUR CALENDAR |
| Mon, Jul 27 |
City Council Special Meeting — final votes on O-9-26, O-16-26, R-29-26; Bay Ridge Road annexation preliminary review · City Hall, 7 PM
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| Thu, Jul 30 |
No Harm Resource Pop-Up, Newtowne Drive, 3–6 PM · State energy program webinar for nonprofits and local governments, 10 AM (details below)
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| Wed, Aug 12 |
Deadline: cover art submissions for the 2026 Around Each Corner youth poetry book — ages 15–20, details below
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| Aug–Sep |
No Harm Resource Pop-Ups continue — Bywater Aug 6, Annapolis Gardens Aug 20, Clay Street Aug 27, Bowman Place Sep 3, all 3–6 PM
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| Tue, Sep 15 |
Next regular City Council meeting — the Council does not meet in August · City Hall, 7 PM
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Monday, July 27 — What’s on the Agenda
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7:00 PM at City Hall, in person. Televised on local cable, YouTube, Facebook, and the City website. Submit written testimony anytime at annapolis.gov/testimony. The full agenda is on Legistar. This is a special meeting, added so the Council can finish its work before the August recess. |
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Honoring Dr. Charlestine Fairley
We open with a citation for Dr. Charlestine Fairley, who is retiring from the Anne Arundel County Community Action Agency after years of service to families across our community. Come early if you would like to help us thank her.
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Bay Ridge Road annexation: the process begins
The Council will conduct a preliminary review of a petition to annex roughly 5.4 acres on the south side of Bay Ridge Road, across from Georgetown Road, into the city. Ward 7 residents know this property: it is the former C&C Liquor site, once proposed as a Lidl grocery store. The petitioners (GSX Solutions and Lidl US Operations, the current owner) propose annexing into Ward 7 with city R3 residential zoning, and their concept plan shows a townhouse community at about 9.3 units per acre. The land today holds vacant structures and undeveloped ground, with no residents.
Here is how the process works, because Monday is only the first step. The Council reviews the petition to decide whether it is complete and whether the annexation review should proceed. If it does, staff analyze the proposal, an annexation resolution is introduced, and a formal public hearing is scheduled and advertised. Only after that hearing, and the review that goes with it, does the Council take a final vote. Nothing is being approved Monday, and you will have a real opportunity to weigh in before any decision is made. I will make sure Ward 7 knows when the hearing is scheduled.
My view: this property sits at our city boundary, surrounded by city neighborhoods, and its future affects Ward 7 more than anyone. Bringing it into the city puts its development under our standards, our stormwater and forest protections, and our review process, with our residents at the table. I support this annexation, and I will be watching the details closely as the review proceeds.
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Short-term rental report
Planning and Zoning will present its report on short-term rentals, required by the short-term rental moratorium ordinance the Council passed last year (I voted against that moratorium, as many of you will recall). The written report is brief: 304 licensed short-term rentals citywide, 36 registrations limited to Commencement, boat shows, and special events, and 2 new enforcement actions in June. If short-term rentals are an issue you care about, Monday's presentation is worth tuning in for.
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Two more items worth noting
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On the consent calendar, I am pleased to nominate Rebecca Britt, a Ward 7 resident, to the Anne Arundel County Community Reinvestment and Repair Commission. Thank you, Rebecca, for stepping up to serve. |
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We will accept $408,500 in state energy grants: $300,000 to convert 628 of the city’s outdoor light fixtures to LED, and $108,500 for an energy audit of our outdoor lighting and an efficiency action plan for the Pip Moyer Recreation Center. Lower energy bills and lower emissions, at no match from city taxpayers. |
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Public hearing — your chance to weigh in
O-12-26 — Special Residential Parking District 5 (Alderwoman O'Neill). This ordinance would remove Forbes Street and Monterey Avenue from Special Residential Parking District Number 5, ending the residential permit parking requirement on those streets. This one does not affect Ward 7, but if you have a connection to those streets, Monday is your chance to speak, in person or at annapolis.gov/testimony.
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Final votes Monday (second readers)
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O-9-26 — Fixing how legislation reaches our committees (my ordinance, co-sponsored by Aldermen Smith-Brown and Schandelmeier). In nine years chairing the Environmental Matters Committee, I have watched environmental legislation skip past the committee entirely. Title 21 of our code contains two chapters that are squarely environmental, Forest Conservation and the Critical Area, yet changes to them are not automatically referred to Environmental Matters. This ordinance fixes that, and it does it surgically: rather than sending all of Title 21 to the committee, it refers only the specific environmental chapters, so we are efficient with Council and staff time. It also updates the other committees' scopes and sets clear rules for automatic and discretionary referrals. The Rules and City Government Committee recommended it favorably with amendments, and I support Alderman Huntley's Amendment 1.
The Mayor has offered two further amendments, and I will be voting against both. Amendment 2 would prohibit the Council from referring any legislation to more than two committees. But some legislation genuinely spans subject areas. The Comprehensive Plan touches the environment, transportation, housing, finance, and more. On the Planning Commission's comp plan review, I spent roughly five hours across two meetings digging into the environmental goals alone with staff. That is exactly what committees are for: we divide into our subject areas, do the deep dives, and rely on each other's work instead of each doing everything ourselves. And the data show restraint is already the norm: over the past 12 years, only 71 of 497 ordinances, about 14.3 percent, were referred to more than two committees. It is rare, but when it is needed, it is needed. Amendment 3 would force any legislation referred to three committees into a joint committee of the whole. I have sat through many joint committee meetings; some work well, and some do not. That judgment should rest with the Council case by case, not be mandated in code. Forcing a joint meeting means members sit through hours of discussion outside their committee's charge, which wastes the very time the committee system exists to protect. The amendment also raises practical problems it does not answer, including quorum questions when that many members convene and no clarity on which of three chairs would run the meeting.
My deeper concern is what this does to the goal of the ordinance itself. If referrals are capped, or three-committee referrals become procedurally painful, the predictable result is that environmental review gets squeezed out or diluted whenever a bill already sits with two other committees. The committee process belongs to the Council, whose members serve on the committees, and it should stay flexible enough to do its job. I am inclined to support the underlying ordinance with Amendment 1, pending any input from you. |
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O-16-26 — Forest Conservation, keeping Annapolis ahead on trees (my ordinance). Maryland overhauled its Forest Conservation Act, and our code must conform by the state's deadline. Conforming does not mean weakening: where Annapolis already exceeds the state floor, we keep our stronger rules. The Environmental Matters Committee recommended the ordinance favorably with amendments on July 9, the Planning Commission issued a favorable recommendation, and the public hearing closed July 13. Monday is the final vote, on the ordinance and my amendments. In brief, the amendments do four things: they carry out the required state conformance updates (clear stream buffer widths of 100 feet on perennial and 50 feet on intermittent streams in place of an open-ended standard, updated annual reporting, and an effective date tied to the state's July 1 conformance deadline, so projects already in the pipeline are treated fairly); they fix a broken appeals process by making a forest conservation plan a distinct, appealable decision, as state law and a recent Maryland Supreme Court decision require, and routing those appeals to the Board of Appeals, which actually has adopted procedures; they require real public notice, published in a newspaper and posted online, when a plan authorizing tree clearing is approved, because an appeal right nobody knows about cannot be exercised (paired with a practical 7-day notice-of-intent-to-appeal window, offered at Alderman Huntley's request, so builders are not left waiting on hypothetical appeals); and they close a loophole so the small residential exemption cannot be claimed lot by lot inside a larger planned development. The full story, amendment by amendment, is on my blog. |
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R-29-26 — FY2027 fee updates: parking, moorings, licenses (Mayor Littmann). This resolution updates fees for city parking facilities and meters, moorings, rental operating licenses, and alcoholic beverage licenses. The parking changes matter most: premium downtown meters and lots go to $4.00 per hour in season, the Hillman Garage daily maximum rises to $25.50, and monthly passes increase at Hillman and the South Street Lot. Some mooring fees also rise, to $45 per day outside the main field. Here is why I am supportive. Public transit almost everywhere runs at a deficit and is subsidized by other transportation revenue; in Annapolis, our buses are subsidized by our parking fund, and our transit system still runs a persistent shortfall. These fees help close that gap and, I hope, fund real improvements to the system. The pricing is also deliberate: garages and lots farther from the center of downtown stay cheaper than the core, which encourages people to park once and stay out of the busiest blocks. And the garage fees fall mostly on visitors and non-residents who use the garages, which is a fair way to have tourists help pay for the services they enjoy. City residents keep their first two hours free at Hillman. I am inclined to support this legislation, pending any input from you. |
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Being introduced Monday (first readers)
First reader is introduction only: no debate and no final vote. Each of these will go through committee review and a public hearing before it comes back for a decision.
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CA-3-26 — Expanding the Charter’s Preamble (my legislation, co-sponsored by Alderwoman Allsup-Johnson). The Preamble is our Charter's opening statement, and today it speaks only to the administrative mechanics of self-government. Every ten years, a commission of residents reviews the Charter, and the 2021 Charter Revision Commission's first recommendation was to strengthen the Preamble with a modern statement of purpose. This charter amendment carries out that recommendation. It keeps the original language and adds a second paragraph committing the city to fair representation, protecting residents' human, civil, and voting rights, a safe and healthy environment, public safety, caring for the Chesapeake Bay and the natural systems we depend on, and preparing for climate change and rising seas. A city's charter should say what the city stands for. There will be a public hearing before any vote, and I welcome your input. |
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O-21-26 — Resilience Authority governance changes (Mayor Littmann). The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, the first two-jurisdiction body of its kind in the country, funds and builds projects that protect us from flooding and climate impacts. The County amended its side of the partnership in June, and this ordinance conforms our code to match. Two changes are worth understanding. First, membership: today the 12-member board must include three city residents appointed by the Mayor and nine county residents appointed by the County Executive. The ordinance replaces those requirements with a single rule that at least 10 of the 12 members be county residents. The Mayor would still appoint three members, but they would no longer be required to live in the city. Second, the director: the Authority's board, rather than the County Executive with the Mayor's concurrence, would appoint and oversee the director, with the County Executive and Mayor providing advice and recommendation instead. I am working on some amendments to this one; they are still in development, and I will share details as they firm up. |
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O-22-26 — Extending the Art in Public Places transition (Mayor Littmann). In February, the Council temporarily dissolved the Art in Public Places Commission and moved its duties to the Planning and Zoning Director during a restructuring, with a six-month limit that runs out August 23. This ordinance would stretch that limit to 12 months because the restructuring legislation is not finished. I am not yet convinced this extension is necessary: my reading is that if the temporary ordinance simply expires, the existing city code governing the commission comes back into effect on its own. I have asked the Office of Law to clarify, and I will have more to say when the restructuring ordinance itself, O-14-26, returns. On that note: O-14-26 will not get a final vote Monday. Committee review was not completed, so it comes back in September. I am working through all of the public comments and testimony we have received and will bring my proposed amendments then. |
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R-23-26 — Collective bargaining agreement, AFSCME Local 3162 (Mayor Littmann). This resolution submits the negotiated agreement with the city's clerical and technical employees' union for Council ratification, covering fiscal years 2027 and 2028. Introduction only; the Council will take it up for a decision after review. |
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Community Updates
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Serve your city: 30+ openings on boards and commissions
Our boards and commissions are where residents roll up their sleeves: reviewing plans, advising the Council, and shaping decisions before they ever reach a vote. Right now the city has more than 30 open seats, including on bodies central to the work I care most about. If you have ever thought about getting involved, this is the moment. Current openings:
| Board or Commission |
Open seats |
| Transportation Board |
6 |
| Human Relations Commission |
5 |
| Environmental Commission |
4 |
| Annapolis Conservancy Board |
4 |
| Recreation Advisory Board |
4 |
| Commission on Aging |
3 |
| Audit Committee |
2 |
| Civil Service Board |
2 |
| Affordable Housing & Community Equity Development Commission |
1 |
| Police & Fire Retirement Plan Commission |
1 |
| Port Wardens |
1 |
Several other boards also have individual terms expiring this year. Apply online at the city’s boards and commissions application, or call the Boards and Commissions Office at 410-263-7997 with questions. If you are a Ward 7 resident thinking about serving, reach out to me; I am glad to talk through which board fits your interests.
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Young Latin artists: design the next Around Each Corner cover
The City’s Hispanic Liaison is looking for the cover artist for the 2026 Around Each Corner youth poetry book. If you are (or know) a Latin artist ages 15 to 20 who lives or studies in Annapolis, submit original artwork by August 12. The selected artist is featured on the official book cover and in the City Hall Latin Art Gallery during Hispanic Heritage Month. Questions and submissions: [email protected] or 667-270-3025.
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No Harm resource pop-ups continue through the summer
The Mayor’s Office No Harm program is touring neighborhoods with free community resource pop-ups: health, education, employment, youth programs, housing, and financial resources, plus family activities and food, all 3 to 6 PM. Remaining stops: Newtowne Drive July 30, Bywater August 6, Annapolis Gardens August 20, Clay Street August 27, and Bowman Place September 3.
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State funding for energy upgrades in lower-income households
The Maryland Energy Administration is accepting applications for its FY27 Residential Energy Equity Program, which funds energy efficiency upgrades, solar, and efficient appliances for low-to-moderate income residents. This round totals nearly $41 million statewide. Applications come from local governments and registered nonprofits (not individual homeowners), so if you are part of a community organization that serves lower-income households, this is worth a look: applications are due October 1, and MEA is hosting an online walkthrough of the program and application portal on Thursday, July 30, at 10 AM. Details at the Maryland Energy Administration site.
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Thank you, as always, for your engagement.
— Rob
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