Chevy Chase Town Meeting

Yesterday was a busy day in the Town of Chevy Chase. We voted to elect two members of the Town Council--returns are still pending--and held the annual town meeting.

Kudos to Sue Hill and the other members of the town election committee along with the town staff for making sure that the elections ran like clockwork. Under their leadership, the Town extended election hours earlier in the morning. The elections were also widely advertised, including signs posted by the entrance to the Town reminding people to vote.

All four members of the District 18 state legislative delegation (Sen. Rich Madaleno, Dels. Jane Lawton, Ana Sol Gutierrez, and Jeff Waldstreicher) spoke at the Town meeting about the recent legislative session. Sen. Madaleno touted the major success of Del. Lawton, a former mayor of the Town, in sponsoring the major piece of environmental legislation which passed this year. Karen McManus came to represent Rep. Chris Van Hollen's office.

The chairs of the Town's five committees reported to the Town. Community Relations Committee Chair Monica Medina explained that her committee was recruiting block party captains to help organize block parties around the Town. Interested residents should contact Belinda Wilborn at the Town offices.

Environment Committee Chair Joan Rood outlined how her committee is working on ways to enhance the Town's tree canopy, including providing new incentives for planting new canopy trees. The Environment Committee is also seeing if the Town can participate in the County's proposed RainScape initiative through which the County would help residents figure out how to absorb more storm water on their property. Finally, the Committee is working on developing a Town noise ordinance since the County's ordinance is unenforced.

Land Use Committee Chair Julia Miller said that her committee has assisted a Town in hiring a company to figure out how to use the new authority that the state has granted it to regulate land use as well as the setback ordinance. Presumably, this means that the Town will consider taking a more aggressive approach toward regulating development and redevelopment in the Town once their company produces its report.

Long Range Planning Committee Chair Pat Burda reported on the many matters being followed by this committee, including the efforts by yours truly to track development in Bethesda, including the potential of projects at Woodmont Ave. and Bethesda Ave. to close both Woodmont Ave. and access to the tunnel under Wisconsin Ave. for long periods. The committee is also trying to get the 4-H center designated as legacy open space and buffer open space around the west edge of the Town. In addition to also monitoring Purple Line developments, the Committee is also considering potential changes to the governance structure of the Town.

Public Service Committee Chair Bill Pritchard rounded out the committee reports with his committee's efforts to improve public services, including efforts to get PEPCO to work to reduce the number of power outages in the Town.

Treasurer Lance Hoffman delivered a lightening fast report and extremely thorough report on the state of Town finances. The good news is that revenues from the Town's share of the state income tax are up dramatically over the past few years, enabling the Town to both improve services, run a surplus, and set aside money to purchase open space or for capital improvements. The amount of revenue collected from the property tax has remained stable due to consistent reductions in the property tax rate. The budget is available online and I think (and hope) that Lance plans to post the excellent graphs from his powerpoint there as well.

Mayor Linna Barnes then conducted a hearing on the proposed budget and the tax rate. Most discussion focused on the Town's potential expenditure of $250,000 to assess the impact of the proposed light-rail on the Town, or least examine the state study. Many people spoke on both sides of what turned out to be the issue of the day. John Barnes led off the discussion with a firm statement lauding the Council's approach on this and other issues, urging the Council to "get on with it."

I argued that it is appropriate to place a place marker in the budget for this expenditure. The new transportation would allow more development and density at both Chevy Chase Lake and Bethesda which could have an enormous impact on traffic on Connecticut Ave. and Wisconsin Ave. and the Town. At the same time, there is no ridership study indicating how many people the Purple Line light rail would carry and thus that this is a wise capital investment--a point brought home even more strongly by David Steeds.

Opponents politely pressed for a study which would represent all viewpoints, or argued that the study was unnecessary as the state plans to spend substantial amounts on its own study. Several proponents of the expenditure, including Pam Browning and Terry Banks argued passionately that the Town should fight to protect the existing trail as valuable and beautiful green space which would be destroyed by the light rail.

No doubt more will be heard at the hearing on the issue to be held at the Town Hall on June 6th. I hope the discussion is as civil as it was last night. While people testified on the budget last night, the budget will not be finalized by the Town Council until after the hearing.

After setting the town tax rate at 2.3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation (a rate that the people of Chevy Chase Village can only envy as their pay many multiples of that for their independent police force), Mayor Linna Barnes adjourned the meeting.