WORK SESSION OF THE GREENBELT CITY COUNCIL
held Thursday, March 3, 2005, for the purpose of holding a
stakeholder meeting with the Greenbelt East Advisory Committee.

Mr. Goldberg called the meeting to order at 7:42 p.m. in the Hunting Ridge Community Center.

PRESENT WERE: Councilmembers Leta M. Mach, Edward V. J. Putens, Rodney M. Roberts, and Mayor Judith F. Davis. Councilmember Konrad E. Herling arrived at 8:10 p.m.

STAFF PRESENT WERE: David E. Moran, Assistant City Manager; and Kathleen Gallagher, City Clerk.

ALSO PRESENT were Sheldon Goldberg and Judith Thompson, GEAC; Derek Thompson, Windsor Green; Dorothy Pyles, Greenbriar; Charlene MacAdams, Greenwood Village; Herta Dietrich-Pristoop, Greenspring I; Kay Moomey, Hunting Ridge; John Savoy, Greenspring I; Fred Gasper, Lakes at Greenbelt Village; and a resident of Hunting Ridge.

Following some GEAC business and the addition of “animal control” as a topic for the agenda, Mr. Goldberg turned the meeting over to Mayor Davis for the discussion of items with the City Council. The following agenda items had been proposed by GEAC, and the City Manager had provided brief written updates on each in a memo.

1. Playground Agreement: Mayor Davis said that only three entities want to sign the agreement: GHI, Greenwood Village, and Windsor Green. She had there had been discussion of whether an additional staff member might need to be hired and that the playgrounds and the staffing would be discussed in Council’s budget work sessions. Mr. Moran specified those would be the Capital Projects and Public Works budget work sessions, respectively.

2. Post Office: Mayor Davis said the ground had been broken. There was discussion of the site clearing that had occurred. The Mayor said two stores, the Coop and the Mini-Mart, had expressed interest in serving as a contract postal unit (CPU) for Roosevelt Center. Mr. Putens noted that Congressman Steny Hoyer deserved a great deal of credit for facilitating the processing of permits, which had become stalled in the county bureaucracy.

3. Greenbelt East Traffic-Calming Project Status: The Mayor said Council had approved the traffic-calming plan at its meeting on Monday. She added that upon meeting with Greenbriar again, Celia Craze had eliminated the striping of Hanover Parkway and Mandan Road (north of Greenbelt Road) into two lanes and had kept only the speed humps. The Mayor said Delegate Ross had asked whether the City would be lowering the speed limit on Mathew Street or not. Mr. Moran said he believed so but would need to check. Ms. Moomey praised the workings of the Hunting Ridge roundabout. She said there was still a concern with the timing of the merging of the three lanes to one lane on Hanover Parkway southbound; she said it was awkward and happened too abruptly. The Mayor suggested writing a letter to Ms. Craze describing the problem. The Mayor also said the plan that was approved would now result in a continuous sidewalk on the west side of Hanover from Greenbelt Road to Good Luck Road.

4. Metroland/Greenbelt Station Status: The Mayor said the developers had requested a reconsideration of their previous plan by the County Planning Board in order to avoid having to start over on their submission. There was discussion of a flier that had been sent out regarding a public meeting to be held on March 9, a date on which the Greenbelt City Council would be unavailable.

5. Springhill Lake Redevelopment: There was discussion of various aspects of this proposal, but the Mayor emphasized that no decisions have been made about anything.

6. Sunrise Property/Forest Preserve Task Force: The task force is continuing its work and will eventually consider specific parcels about which to make recommendations to the City.

7. Electric Power Aggregation: The Mayor said the bill to allow municipal aggregation had been defeated by one vote, with the result that the topic is dead for this year. Council-members said there had been many misunderstandings and misrepresentations regarding what the bill would have meant to municipalities.

8. Newspaper Vending Boxes: A staff-level meeting has occurred. The topic will eventually come back to the elected officials of the cities involved.

9. Lien Law: There has been no legislation proposed on this topic this year.

10. Greenbelt Theatre Remodeling: Plans are still in preparation. The Mayor said the lobby, entrance, and bathrooms are targeted for work, and it is expected to be unnecessary to close the theater during these renovations. Mr. Herling announced a GATE film festival to showcase local film work that will be held in the theater on Veterans Day weekend this fall. Ms. Dietrich-Pristoop said the two-hour parking limit was a problem for longer films, but others said there was generally enough untimed parking. Ms Mach pointed out the two-hour limit does not operate after 9 p.m., so those spots can be used for evening movies.

11. Public Works Building: The Mayor said the City is still working its way through the permitting process but hopes to have all the permits by June. Mr. Moran noted that even if that happens, however, the project will still have to be sent out to bid, and it is not certain when work would actually begin. Mayor Davis added that along with this project will come the restrooms for Buddy Attick Park.

12. Budget Issues: Mayor Davis said the City Manager had warned that this would be another difficult year, since expenditures continue to grow faster than revenues. She reviewed the federal and state funding that had been cut or modified. There was discussion of how City revenue from commercial property works. Mayor Davis said input from residents was very important to enable Council to know how people felt about increasing taxes versus cutting City services. She said although there was never an automatic assumption on either the City Manager’s or the Council’s part that taxes should be raised, generally it was found that residents did not want services cut. She also added that County Councilmember Peters was being very active in getting funds from the county surplus to support City projects, including the skateboard park, as well as consideration of a new firehouse.

The potential redevelopment of the former nursing home site into condominiums was discussed, and this led into a broader discussion of the need for affordable housing in the City. Mr. Herling added that this was a matter of concern with both the redevelopment of Springhill Lake and the development of Greenbelt Station.

13. Pedestrian Issues: Mr. Thompson said they had discussed a cluster of topics under a rubric they thought of as “the pedestrian experience.” It was clarified that street lighting was done by Pepco, with other lighting being controlled by the individual associations. Ms. McAdams identified a problem area on the Greenwood Village side of Mandan Road between Hanover Parkway and Greenbelt Road. She said at night, especially in spring and summer, the street is often too dark for pedestrian safety because the trees form a canopy below the level of the lights. She asked if the City could look at it at night to see if some tree trimming could be done. She added that it is brighter on the Glen Oaks side.

Regarding sidewalk repairs, Mr. Putens said Public Works staff does a survey each year to determine highest priorities for sidewalk work; he encouraged anyone with problem areas on City sidewalks to let Public Works know. He asked Mr. Moran when Public Works would next survey sidewalks. Mr. Moran said he would find out.

Ms. Dietrich-Pristoop cited problems with litter on the asphalt paths in the vicinity of the bridge over the creeks behind the park. She said the trash cans probably had not been emptied in a year, and people put bags in them from dog-walking. Mr. Putens said this was not City responsibility and that the problem lay with Greenbrook Village. He said that as president of the Greenbrook Estates homeowners association, he had sent their employee to clean that area up and had then billed Greenbrook Village. He said they were trying to work it out, but he encouraged people to write complaints to Greenbrook Village. Mayor Davis said it sounded as though there might be violations of City code occurring as well.

There was considerable further discussion of trash and litter. Mr. Thompson asked about placing trash cans on light poles as is done in England. It was explained that these are not City poles, and Mayor Davis said the problem with placing more City trash cans meant more City staff to empty them. It was stated that most of the neighborhoods have occasional litter pick-up and trash collection. Mr. Putens strongly encouraged GEAC to work on coordinating this effort throughout Greenbelt East, with the idea that the City could be approached subsequently if there was a role for the City to play. He said it was exactly this type of joint effort that GEAC was established to help facilitate.

Other items: the timing of the crossing light at Hanover and Greenbelt has been improved, giving more time to cross. Snow shoveling is the responsibility of the adjacent property-owner. Residents want the police to be more visible; Ms. Pyles suggested that more visible neighborhood watch groups would also be helpful. Mr. Putens encouraged all the Greenbelt East neighborhoods to participate in the annual National Night Out on August 8.

14. Animal Control: In response to a question from Ms. Dietrich-Pristoop, Councilmembers said residents could call the City’s animal control officer, Susie Hall, to arrange for disposal of dead animals.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Gallagher

City Clerk

City of Greenbelt, Maryland
City Offices, 25 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770
Phone: 301-474-8000 FAX: 301-441-8248