MEMORANDUM

TO: City Council

FROM: David J. Deutsch, City Manager

SUBJECT: Status Report/Council Poll

DATE: July 12, 2007

Status Report

1. Economic Development Committee (EDC)

The Bowie EDC held their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday. County Council Member Ingrid Turner attended and expressed strong support for the City's economic development efforts. She also answered questions from the Committee members.

The task force organizing the business recognition event for May 2008 will hold a task force worksession during the August EDC vacation break to further develop their ideas.

Additionally, the EDC reviewed their list of major economic development issues from last month and identified three as the most important for them -- Melford and the businesses located or that could locate there; arts and entertainment districts as they might be used in Bowie to help Old Town Bowie or the Route 450 Main Street corridor; and the myriad of current events surrounding the Bowie Health Center and its parent company, with an eye towards fully understanding the need for access to health care. The Chairman will work on converting the top three issues into work plan topics and will have a draft schedule ready for the full EDC to review when it meets in September.

The EDC will not meet in August. The next regular EDC meeting is Wednesday, September 12, 2007.

2. Melford Traffic Information

Several months ago, staff contacted St. John Properties to request traffic information that would support Attorney John McDonough's claim that the limited road capacity of the entrance road to Melford restricted the amount of development so significantly that an employment park could not be constructed on the property. Part of the message continually given out by Mr. McDonough was that the limitations of existing Melford Boulevard help to justify "reverse commute" traffic that would be generated from a mixed-use proposal. At staff's request, an additional analysis was performed by St. John's consultant, The Traffic Group. The analysis revealed that the Melford site could support another 1,053,058 square feet of office development and 428,137 square feet of flex space before the traffic Level of Service (LOS) at the signalized Belair Drive/MD 3 intersections would fail (using the normal APF test threshold of LOS "D"). This scenario would build out the entire remaining property with only the above uses. The City's traffic consultant reviewed these findings and confirmed them. The report is available in the Planning Department if Council is interested in seeing the data.