Chevy Chase Town Council Meeting

Councilmembers Kathy Strom, Lance Hoffman, and Rob Enelow

The Town Council met at the 4-H Center earlier tonight because the Town Hall was already booked. At first, it looked like this might be the most well-attended Council meeting in history but it turned out just to be bus loads of of kids arriving at the 4-H Center. Nonetheless, around forty town residents came to the meeting, mostly to comment on the proposed amendments to the Town Charter.

The public comments section at the beginning of the meeting was unusually active. Several residents expressed that the Town needs to move more quickly to adopt the new FAR (floor-to-area ratio) regulations for land use in order to help constrain the size of new homes. One couple also complained that the Town Staff was not properly enforcing existing regulations and that meetings and approvals were allowed to go forward even if the applications were incomplete despite clearly-defined rules and procedures.

One woman made a plea on behalf of herself and many other parents to improve the playground equipment in the park by the Leland Center. She suggested the Town explore various alternatives to speed up improvements as the County is not scheduled to improve the playground for a couple of years. (The Town Council discussed this matter further after I had to leave the meeting.) I spoke briefly about the hearing tomorrow on the proposed development at Woodmont East and efforts to promote a park at that site.

At several points during the meeting, residents also asked for more communication from the Council and the Town. One suggested that the Council find a way to post drafts of the minutes from the last Council meeting during the last meeting. Similar sentiments reverberated during the public hearing on the proposed Charter amendments. Residents (and Councilmembers) responded positively to a suggestion from Councilwoman Kathy Strom that short document explaining reasons for the changes be sent to town residents in advance of the next meeting.

Kudos to Mayor Linna Barnes (pictured above right) on striking the difficult balance between keeping control of the meeting and allowing an unusually high level of comment from residents and interplay between the Council, the Town Attorney, and residents which I think helped to reassure residents that most of the proposed changes to the Town Charter are relatively minor. Having said that, I think there is a consensus among many residents that communication with residents can still be improved.

This view was further reflected in the sensitivity of the Charter amendment related to regulating the ability of the public to comment at Council meeting. The Council explained helpfully that the amendment was crafted not with the intent to squelch public comment but to allow the Council to hold markup sessions where they can workout the details after public comment has occurred.

The other sensitive amendment related to the taxation of personal property. Town Clerk Andi Silverstone and Town Attorney David Podolsky unpacked the tax terms for the crowd which felt relieved when they learned that this was a tax on businesses (not personal property like cars or furniture despite the name) and that the Town had been collecting this tax for ages. In other words, Town residents were happy to learn that no increase in taxes was set to occur.

The Council then moved to consider variance requests. Councilman Mier Wolf (pictured above left) encouraged in jest one applicant to run for the Council as a former mayor had lived in her house. She demurred on the grounds that she had already served in the Wisconsin legislature (!) but expressed sympathy with the Council (which had listened patiently to an earful earlier in the meeting). At that point, I had to leave the meeting which still had many topics to review.