Before I get into the details about this Monday’s Council meeting and let you know about things that may be of interest, I wanted to remind you about the first virtual Ward 7 Town Hall meeting, coming up this Tuesday, March 9^th, from 6-7:30 pm. Mayor Gavin Buckley will be our special guest for the first half hour, and we will both give you updates on things in the Ward and City and answer any questions you may half. After that we are welcoming Eileen Fogarty with the Maritime Advisory Task Force, who will tell us about the work the task force is doing, which could greatly impact Ward 7’s industrial maritime district (i.e. the area down Edgewood Rd on the west side). I’ll paste the login information for the Zoom meeting below.

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

Next Council meeting – 3/8/21 (agenda)

This Council meeting is starting at 7pm and will be televised on local cable, Facebook, and the City website (www.annapolis.gov). Due to COVID-19, our meetings are now being held virtually. http://www.youtube.com/CityofAnnapolis http://www.facebook.com/CityofAnnapolis

Anyone needing reasonable accommodation to be able to participate in a public meeting held by the City of Annapolis should contact Regina Watkins-Eldridge at 410.263.7942, by MD Relay (711), or by email at [email protected] at least five days prior to the meeting date to request assistance.

If you would like to submit or give public testimony, you can do so at http://www.annapolis.gov/testimony.

Public hearings

There is no legislation up for a public hearing at this meeting.

Legislation being introduced on First Reader

• O-7-21 - Short Term Rental Licenses - For the purpose of requiring special exception approval for a new non owner-occupied short term rental license in the R2-NC, C1, and C1-A conservation residence districts; requiring special exception approval for the transfer of any existing non owner-occupied short term rental license in the R2-NC, C1, and C1-A conservation residence districts; providing definitions; providing for the waiver of special exception approval for certain individuals; and generally related to short term rental licenses.
• R-4-21 - Annapolis Ward Boundary and Redistricting Commission - For the purpose of establishing a Commission that the City historically forms after each federal decennial census to reevaluate the boundaries of its wards; and generally relating to said Commission.
• R-5-21 - Itinerant Merchant Sales in the Historic District - 2021 - For the purpose of authorizing hawker, peddler, and itinerant merchant sales in the Historic District in conjunction with certain special events during calendar year 2021.
• R-6-21 - Non-Profit Vendors During Fall 2021 Boat Shows - For the purpose of authorizing sales by certain vendors in the City Dock area of the Historic District during the Fall 2021 U.S. Sailboat and Powerboat Shows.
• R-7-21 - Annual Reports - For the purpose of receiving the combined annual reports of the Annapolis committees, commissions, boards, and authorities.

Legislation on second reader (i.e. final vote)

• O-51-20 - Maryland Emancipation Day - For the purpose of supporting the establishment of November 1st as Maryland Emancipation Day; and generally relating to Maryland Emancipation Day. This legislation will be withdrawn by the sponsor. I believe it is due to the fact that this legislation does have a fiscal impact, and given our very large pandemic-related budget deficit, we have to be careful about doing anything that has a cost attached to it.
• O-46-20 - Public Health and Safety - For the purpose of removing obsolete provisions; authorizing the Department of Public Works to establish regulations governing garbage and refuse; reassigning certain enforcement powers to the Deputy City Manager for Resilience and Sustainability; creating definitions; clarifying procedures and penalties concerning commercial solid waste collection and contract approval; and generally relating to public health and safety. This legislation adjusts our code regarding when commercial solid waste can be set out or picked up, and empowers staff to make some regulations regarding solid waste. I do have an amendment that was approved by committee, to place the enforcement of our foam ban in the hands of the Public Works Department rather than the Deputy City Manager for Resilience & Sustainability. If the amendment passes I intend to support this legislation, pending any comments from you.
• O-49-20 & R-65-20 - Drug-Loitering Free Zones - Repeal - For the purpose of repealing certain provisions of the Annapolis City Code concerning loitering in Drug-Loitering Free Zones. We were informed by the law office that this part of the code is unconstitutional and so we will be repealing it. I intend to support this legislation, pending any comments from you.
• R-2-21 - Non-motorized Wheeled Vehicles on Sidewalks - For the purpose of encouraging the Maryland General Assembly to amend State law to allow non-motorized wheeled vehicles on sidewalks by default; providing amendment language; and generally relating to non-motorized wheeled vehicles on sidewalks. I’m inclined to support this, pending any comments from you.
• R-3-21 - Council Compensation Commission Recommendations - For the purpose of receiving the Recommendations of the Council Compensation Commission; and scheduling a Public Hearing on the Recommendations of the Council Compensation Commission. What this Resolution does is accept the findings/recommendations from the Council Compensation Commission, which is required to be formed every 4 years by the Charter. This Resolution accepts the recommendations and work from the Committee, it would NOT implement the pay increases. In order to implement increases, the Council would need to introduce a separate Ordinance doing that. If we end up needing to lay off staff or reduce the pay of staff, I highly doubt any Ordinance authorizing an increase for the Council would be passed, let alone introduced. The report recommends that the Mayor’s salary stays the same and that the Council receives minor increases (few hundred dollars) over the next few years. Pending any comments from you, I’m inclined to accept the findings of the Commission, though I’m not likely to agree to any pay increase unless the City’s fiscal outlook improves.

Update

Ward 7 Town Hall

I would like to invite you to our first virtual Ward 7 Town Hall event, coming up on Tuesday, March 9th, from 6-7:30pm. We will be having two special guests: the Mayor Gavin Buckley and Eileen Fogarty, with the Maritime Advisory Task Force.

6pm - I will kick off the evening along with The Mayor providing you with updates on some City and Ward issues, and then launch into a general Q&A session. 

6:30 - We will then hear from Eileen Fogarty, chair of the Maritime Advisory Task Force. This task force was put together to update our maritime zones. As you may know, we have specific zoning districts along our waterfront that are intended to preserve our maritime character. They were created to ensure we don't just get upscale residential housing along the waterfront. Instead, they ensure a majority of a property in these districts is dedicated to a maritime use, such as a marina, maritime clients at a commercial center, or in our case in Ward 7, dedicated entirely to a maritime industry. We have the only Waterfront Maritime Industrial (WMI) district in the City, which takes up a large portion of the zoning along Edgewood Rd. It has been many decades since we've updated this zoning, and this task force set out to make such recommendations to the Council. The importance is that there are property owners who want to weaken these standards; they want to be allowed to have more non-maritime uses on their properties, such as restaurants or non-maritime tenants. In some cases this may make sense (to allow Marinas to be more competitive, for example), in others it may not. Since this impacts such a large portion of our Ward I thought it would be important to inform everyone about this and to help Eileen get your thoughts. 

7:15 pm - If time allows we can have another open Q&A just for me at the end, if needed.

7:30pm - we'll call it a night.

I hope to have a second town hall in April or May and have Planning & Zoning staff come out and talk about the Annapolis Comprehensive Plan, which may be proposing some changes to the zoning in various parts of our Ward, which I think will be important for us to discuss. 

Here is the login information for March 9th: 

When: Mar 9, 2021 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Town Hall with Alderman Savidge March 9 2021

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84033174020
Passcode: TOWN09

 If you would like to join by phone, please email me with your phone number and I will send you the call-in number.