TO: City Council
FROM: David J. Deutsch, City Manager
SUBJECT: Status Report/Council Poll
DATE: October 26, 2006
Status Report
1. Church Road Meeting
The County held a public meeting Monday night, October 23rd, regarding the
proposed improvement to the intersection of Church Road, Woodmore Road
and Mount Oak Road. The meeting was held at Mount Oak United Methodist
Church. County staff gave a presentation on the proposed alignment.
Currently, this intersection jogs between Mount Oak Road and Woodmore Road. The new alignment eliminates the jog and forms a single four-way intersection, which will be controlled by a traffic signal. This improvement will include double left-turn lanes to accommodate high volumes of traffic. There will be curb, sidewalk and a five-foot bike lane on each approach. These improvements will only be built within the limits of the intersection work.
The project is expected to go to bid in the Fall of 2007. There were some questions from attendees on the status of the project to straighten the "S" curves to the south on Church Road. However, the focus of this meeting was only the intersection work.
2. Twelve Oaks
Following Council’s approval of Resolution R-64-06 annexing the Twelve
Oaks subdivision, the City immediately received a Petition for a referendum
from those opposed to the annexation. Staff is in the process of verifying
the petition and determining its validity.
State law also requires the City to conduct the referendum in the area to
be annexed. Seeing that there is no facility within the Twelve Oaks subdivision
to
conduct the referendum, the City is seeking guidance from the State Board
of Elections.
3. Melford at Marriott Stakeholders Meeting
A second Stakeholders Meeting was held at City Hall on Tuesday, October 24th
to review additional information and address changes to the proposed site plan
for Marriott at Melford, a proposal for three (3) hotels located on Pod 2A
of Melford (formerly the MSTC). Eight (8) residents attended the meeting.
Pete Mellits, the engineer, and Bob Greenberg, the architect, discussed the changes to the site plan as a result of the first Stakeholders Meeting held in September. The current site plan is more detailed, showing the actual building footprints, grading, parking, landscaping and topographic elevations. Mr. Mellits and Mr. Greenberg clarified the phasing of the hotels, the parking ratios, and the elevations of the hotels in relation to the existing roadways, particularly Old Crain Highway. They further explained how a potential problem with a left turn movement into the site will be alleviated. Also, at the request of a resident, they indicated they would consider relocating a dumpster currently shown adjacent to (but elevated from) Old Crain Highway and installing additional landscaping to screen a drainage facility at the northwest corner of the site.
The applicant intends
to file a Detailed Site Plan for this project by late October or early November.
Staff will schedule BAPB and Council hearings
once the County Planning Board date is determined. The Conceptual Site Plan
for the entire Melford site is scheduled on the County Planning Board’s
agenda for November 30th.
4. Bowie Hosted Business Journal Presentation
The City, in partnership with the Greater Bowie Chamber of Commerce and
the Baltimore Business Journal, hosted a one hour morning session on Wednesday
to help City businesses use the Business Journal as a lead and information
source to increase sales for their businesses.
5. Bowie Home-Based Businesses Surveyed for Incubator Study
A survey was mailed this week to 532 home-based businesses asking them to
go to a web-based survey site and answer some questions about their business
and the services they need to grow. A copy of the letter is attached.