New Chevy Chase Town Council's First Meeting

The Chevy Chase Town Council met last night. Mayor Linna Barnes called the meeting to order at 7pm. Here is a totally unofficial account of what happened.

Public Comments
Strongly opposed to the tearing down of the home next door at 44th and Willow, Deborah Vollmer called for a new moratorium on teardowns, asked that the Council figure out something to do about private sales to builders, and closed by raising the specter of rats.

Rose Miller spoke about the regulation of traffic at Chevy Chase Elementary and handed in extensive written comments. Diane Dorfman said she sighted a fox on Walsh Street. Willie Blacklow asked about the status of the left-turn arrow at the traffic light on Connecticut at Rosemary. (Thanks to everyone who congratulated Al and myself on our election during their comments.)

Swearing In, Election of Officers, and Committees
Town Clerk Andi Silverstone swore in myself and Al Lang as new councilmembers, and Kathy Strom for a second term. The Council then unanimously elected Kathy Strom as mayor, Rob Enelow as vice mayor, Linna Barnes as treasurer, myself as secretary, and Al Lang as community liaison. Each councilmember will also serve as a liaison to one Town committee: Kathy to Community Relations, Rob to Environment, Linna to Land Use, myself to Long-Range Planning, and Al to Public Services.

Recognition of Former Council Members
Members of the Council spoke about Mier Wolf and Lance Hoffman. Lance was lauded for his efforts on the water ordinance and other areas. Linna proposed that Mier's long service be recognized by naming a Town park after him in the near future. Rob said that Mier had gotten him to run for the Council and spoke about how much Mier has down for the Town. I mentioned that I hoped the civility and respect with which Mier treats everyone would continue on the new Council. Kathy said she had spoken with Mier and hoped that he would stay active in the Town. Al talked about how he had gotten to know both Lance and Mier during the recent election and respected both men.

Finances
The Council approved the new tax rate. The property tax rate for FY09 was set at a level to collect the same amount as money as FY08, a gentle decline in taxes if one takes into account inflation. The budget was also approved quickly with no changes. The Town Manager posted the budget narrative online, a practice I hope will continue. The Council discussed revisions to the permit fee and performance bond schedule and will hold a public hearing on them at the next Town Council meeting.

Sidewalks
After presentation of current sidewalk options for Thornapple and Oakridge, Town Manager Todd Hoffman agreed to see if 3.5 foot sidewalks met ADA and other legal requirements. He also will get the engineer to draft a plan for a new option for Oakridge which will take the space required for a sidewalk partially from the street and partly from the right-of-way.

The existing options take all the space from the street resulting in the elimination of parking on one side of the street, or from the right-of-way requiring the construction of retaining walls. Public Service Liaison Al Lang will hold meetings with residents on Thornapple and Oakridge on the various options for the proposed sidewalks. The Council agreed to move (or remove) trees in the path of the proposed sidewalk on Thornapple now since trees are more likely to survive replanting in spring than in summer.

Speed Humps
Like many other Councils before us, we foundered on the issue of speed humps. Public Services Chair Bill Pritchard presented the proposed new speed hump policy which suggests data-driven guidelines for the new speed humps. Al and Rob worried that the guidelines might exclude speed humps from areas where they were needed. Linna and I thought the guidelines were useful because the Council would have more data (e.g. how many cars are speeding and by how much) before choosing to install a speed hump, though their installation would ultimately remain a Council decision (read: political question) and the Council could override the guidelines. After much debate, it was discovered that Bill's version was slightly different than the version being examined by the Council, so it was thought wise to hold off on a final decision until we are all literally reading from the same page.

Time Limits on Variance Approvals
After discussion, four members of the Council agreed that variances should expire after a certain point unless the work was carried out. Al Lang opposed the change as unneeded since the problem had only occurred on a few homes. Homeowners will have one year to pull the permit and begin the work envisioned under the variance and then another year once the permit is issued to complete the work with the Town Manager and Mayor able to grant extensions administratively for good cause. The Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed code changes.

Jane Lawton Memorial
I was pleased that my first formal motion on the Council was to embody the unanimously expressed sentiment that the Town Hall should be named in honor of Jane Lawton--Kathy and Linna seconded the motion simultaneouly. Mier Wolf had first proposed this idea on the previous Council. The Town Hall is rented from the County, and County Councilwoman Nancy Floreen has promised to lead the effort at the County level to make the change.

The Council then adjourned (five minutes early!) into executive session.