REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2006

CALL MEETING TO ORDER:

The Regular Meeting of the Bowie City Council was held on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Mayor Robinson called the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m.

QUORUM:

In attendance were Mayor Robinson, Councilmembers Brady, Conroy, Jenkins, Kroemer, Lyles and Turner; City Manager Deutsch, Assistant City Manager Fitzwater, City Attorney Elissa Levan, Members of the Staff, the Press and the Public.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG:

The Council led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION:

A. Ms. Jennie Guilbaud, 4812 Riverton Lane, member of the City’s Diversity Committee, spoke about Cesar Chavez and his non-violent activism. She said that the Diversity Committee encourages all Bowie residents to look at their community and think about ways to improve the City. She encouraged everyone to attend the International Festival, which will be held at Allen Pond Park on Saturday, October 7.

B. Ms. Debbie Sell, 2705 Birdseye Lane, spoke about the covenants on the Maryland Science and Technology Center and said she felt that the people who signed the petition in support of the covenants did so not because they were against housing on the property, but because they wanted the City to have some control over what is developed there. She encouraged residents to testify at the County Council hearing on October 19.

CITY BOARDS AND COMMITTEES:

A. Councilman Turner moved the appointment of Juernine Wright as a member of the Community Recreation Committee. Councilman Jenkins seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

B. Councilman Turner moved the appointment of John McLane as a member of the Community Recreation Committee. Councilman Jenkins seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

C. Councilman Jenkins moved the appointment of Chris Hedman as a member of the Bowie Advisory Planning Board. Mayor Pro Tem Brady seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

D. Mayor Robinson swore the new appointed members, as well as Mr. Mountaga Bah who was not present when he was appointed, into office in accordance with Sec. 92A of the City Charter. Ms. Hedman was not present and will be sworn in on October 16, 2006.

COUNCIL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Mayor Robinson announced that the International Festival would be held this Saturday at Allen Pond Park. He also extended appreciation to City Manager Deutsch and his staff for the handling of the damage from the recent storm.

CITY MANAGER’S REPORT:

City Manager Deutsch reported on the following items: 1) There was an extensive effort over the weekend to clean up the tree limbs, etc. from the recent storm; staff will continue to work into next week. He added that the estimate for labor charges was around $17,000 and the City will be incurring some disposal charges as well; rules have been suspended for picking up tree limbs, branches, etc. 2) Construction of the parks and grounds facility will begin this week; it is a 14-15 month project and will be a “green” building to meet LEEDS standards.

CONSENT AGENDA:

Mayor Pro Tem Brady moved approval of Consent Agenda Items: A. Approval of Minutes of September 5, 2006 Council Meeting; B. Approval of Resolution R-83-06, Approving a Ratification to Water Tower Lease Agreement Between the City of Bowie and New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC; C. Approval of Resolution R-84-06, Ratifying and Confirming the Contract Amendment to the Trust for Public land Sales Agreement That the Hohensee Property Shall be conveyed to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission; and D. Approval of Resolution R-86-06, Accepting Bid Proposal for Microsoft Office 2003. Councilman Jenkins seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

OLD BUSINESS:

A. Ordinance O-8-06 - Amending Chapter 17, “Park Rules and Regulations”, Section 17-2, “Rules”, To Delete a Reference in Former Subsection (ee) to Permission for Camping Upon a Property Now Under Contract to be Sold, to Set Forth Rules for the Use of the City’s Skateboard Park Facility, and to Renumber the Subsections of Section 17-2, and to Amend Section 17-5 to Refer to the Subsections of Section 17-2 as Renumbered - City Attorney Elissa Levan summarized the ordinance and said that in addition to adding the rules for the skateboard park, some other minor structural changes were made in terms of the numbering of paragraphs; the only other substantive change was to delete the use of the Hohensee property for camping since it is anticipated the closing on the sale of that property will occur soon.

Since there were no persons signed up to speak, Mayor Robinson declared the public hearing to have been held.

Mayor Pro Tem Brady moved the adoption of O-8-06. Councilman Turner seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

NEW BUSINESS:

A. Resolution R-85-06 - Bowie Variance #BV-3-06, 12700 Bermuda Lane - Ms. Elizabeth Chaisson, City Planning staff, summarized the staff report dated , a copy of which is on file at City Hall. She reported that the Council heard this case at a previous meeting and remanded it to the Bowie Advisory Planning Board (BAPB); the Board reviewed a new site plan with a 10 foot addition rather than a 14 foot addition; both the Planning Board and staff recommended denial because they still felt that two of the three criteria were not met. Ms. Chaisson concluded by saying that staff recommends adoption of R-85-06 for denial of BV-3-06.

Mr. Jude Masters, owner of the property in question, said he is before Council this evening to appeal the BAPB’s recommendation of denial of the variance. He is asking the Council to consider that the variance may not be required since the property has a 15 foot easement that puts the proposed addition 35.5 feet from the street; this would be well within the required 25 foot setback required by Section 27.442 of the Prince George’s County Code. Mr. Masters presented exhibits to the Council. He said one of the reasons for requesting the variance was to extend the bedroom to make a more suitable living area for his handicapped son for an additional sitting area and space for medical devices used every day. He summarized the Board’s findings of the second hearing, which are contained in the staff report. He said that he and his wife believe that the new reduced addition meets the three criteria for the City to grant a variance. He said they wanted their addition to blend in with the existing neighborhood and if the variance was not granted, the addition would have a very unusual roofline and the architecture would not match the traditional Levitt models in the neighborhood. He added that the variance is so small that it clearly does not impair the intent, purpose or integrity of the General and Master Plan. In closing, he said that because it is a small variance and the three criteria are met, it is requested that the City Council vote to grant the variance.

Councilmembers Kroemer, Brady and Jenkins said they supported the request for a variance. Mr. Masters responded to a question about the need for the addition and said he has a 26 year old mentally retarded son whose bedroom is currently upstairs; his situation is deteriorating and they wanted to move him downstairs in the house so that it would be easier to care for him.

Councilman Jenkins said that this is one of those occasions where Council is called upon to exercise judgment. He said he was impressed by the good faith effort of the applicant in terms of trying to reduce the size of the exception and is also impressed that the applicant made the effort to blend the addition to the house in order to make it blend with the overall architecture of the house and the neighborhood; the BAPB and staff has to go by the letter of the law and the Council has the opportunity to add a degree of judgment to that and still remain within the context of the law. Mr. Jenkins said he felt, in this instance, in view of the handicapped son, there may well be an undue hardship on the property owner; given the relatively small size of the exception, felt the third criteria would not impair the integrity of the General Plan or Master Plan. He then moved to approve Resolution R-85-06 and to direct staff to write a new resolution. Councilman Conroy seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

B. Preliminary Plan #4-01535 - Dixon Property - Councilman Turner asked for clarification on his role with respect to this matter and asked for a determination whether or not he could participate in the discussion and vote. He said that a Preliminary Plan of Subdivision is not reviewed by the County Council or the District Council. City Attorney Levan said it depends on what Council intended when it used the word “employer”; Council will need to clarify what they intended; whether or not there will be other applications that pertain to this property that relate to the Preliminary Plan is uncertain.

Councilman Lyles moved that the Council move forward on this matter and allow Councilman Turner to vote. The motion died due to lack of a second.

Following further discussion among Councilmembers on this matter, Councilman Jenkins moved that the Council concur in Mr. Turner being able to participate in the discussion and vote on the Dixon Property Preliminary Plan #4-01535. Councilman Conroy seconded the motion and it carried with a vote of 6-0 (Turner - abstain).

Ms. Elizabeth Chaisson, City Planning staff, summarized the staff report dated September 26, 2006, a copy of which is on file at City Hall. She displayed a PowerPoint presentation that showed a location map, the realignment of Church Road, zoning of the subject property as well as surrounding properties, the green infrastructure network, and the Primary Management Area (PMA). She reported that staff had initially recommended that the Plan be disapproved because of the issues of access to Church Road, as well as the issues regarding on-site Tree Conservation and PMA impacts. Ms. Chaisson then said that the new Plan shows another entrance and a cul-de-sac so all lots on the west side of the property now have access off the interior streets and none of them have direct access on to realigned Church Road; the access across the wetlands is still unresolved, but County staff is recommending that the Plan be approved based on the condition that “prior to signature approval of the Preliminary Plan the lot layout shall be revised to show access across the PEPCO easement and the elimination of the crossing of the wetlands; if prior to permit application the applicant receives a letter from PEPCO denying across the easement, then the layout may be revised to show access from Church Road for Lots 7-22 and the wetland impact is considered approved, the TCPT shall show minimization of impact of impacts associated with this crossing.” She said that staff’s conditions of approval are found on Page 11 of the staff report and staff is recommending the same condition with regard to the crossing of the wetlands (Condition #6). She concluded her report by summarizing the rest of the staff conditions.

Mr. Ronald Skotz, Chairman of the Bowie Advisory Planning Board, reported that the Board found the ingress and egress onto realigned Church Road was extremely dangerous, especially with the growth in the area. He said the Board is pleased that the concept of the cul-de-sac has been brought forward. He said the second issue concerned the impact of the wetland area. Mr. Skotz reported that the recommendation for disapproval at the time the Board reviewed this issue seems to have been alleviated.

Mr. Wayne Caples, Washington Management Development, said that they have a history with the City of Bowie and have worked on other projects with issues and have been able to work through them and come to agreed upon decisions. He said that with regard to the subject plan and the issues that have been raised, they have made some planning revisions, in particular, the redesign of the circulation on the proposed Church Road realignment; they have had discussions with PEPCO and requested clarification on whether they will or will not grant an easement under the power line and are still waiting for a response. He then reviewed the staff recommendation and conditions.

Councilman Jenkins pointed out that Mr. Caples, in reviewing the conditions, seemed to embrace those that the County proposed but disregarded the conditions asked for by the City. He said he had no intention of voting for approval unless Mr. Caples tells him that he is or is not going to embrace the conditions.

Mr. Caples responded that Conditions 1, 2, 3 and 16 are consistent with County policy; the applicant disagrees with Conditions 4 through 15.

Councilman Turner asked if there had been discussion of annexation of this property as part of the review. Mr. Caples responded that detail has not been discussed but they know the City of Bowie would like to see this project annexed into the City at some time in the future.

Since there were no persons signed up to speak, Mayor Robinson declared the public hearing to have been held.

Councilman Turner moved for denial of Preliminary Plan #4-05135 because of the potential negative impact on the PMA with respect to the design as submitted, the uncertainty of the PEPCO easement issue, the improvements on both realigned and existing Church Road are a concern, and the BAPB recommendation of denial. Councilman Conroy seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

COUNCIL COMMENTS:

Mayor Robinson announced that Council met in Executive Session on September 25, 2006, for the purpose of discussing legal matters with counsel.

ADJOURNMENT:

Mayor Pro Tem Brady moved to adjourn the meeting. Councilman Jenkins seconded the motion and it carried unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Pamela A. Fleming, CMC
City Clerk