NAC 3 Meeting Notes — 10/10/06

Monocacy Elementary School 7:00 p.m.

Hand-outs distributed:

- Family Emergency Preparedness DVD from Stephanie Davis of Frederick City.

- NAC 3 Neighborhood Bulletin

- Rentals Unlimited Project Proposal and Site Plan

Welcome – Connie Pryor

Introduction to NAC, the board and what areas comprise NAC3

Police Department Summary

Sgt. Earl Rocca – NAC3 and NAC4 supervisor; also present Corporal Stocksdale

- The main police calls in the last couple of months have been “quality-of-life concerns,” such as parking, abandoned vehicles, etc. In Amber Meadows, there were 2 arrests for domestic issues. Amber Meadows is not considered a high crime area.

- The only major thing to happen was the culmination of the 2-month drug investigation at 1703 Country Court, which yielded drug arrests and a large amount of crack and powder cocaine. Individuals were arrested and taken out. Officer Rocca stressed that this investigation took time and police resources. He noted that, while the investigation was underway, it may have seemed to citizens that the police were not doing much in the community, but this was not the case. Trash pulls are conducted to retrieve information and evidence based on tips.

- There are a lot of parking complaints regarding trailers along Amber Drive. The only thing against City code, however, is the parking of pop-up type campers.

- Send any tips to Officer Rocca and he will forward the information and concerns to the appropriate person. He drives through the NAC3 area every night. Call immediately with any complaint. The police will always respond. Calls are prioritized. Sometimes police make their investigations in unmarked cars; they may not get out of the car if suspicious individuals are no longer around or there is no illegal activity going on. If you leave your name and contact information, the police will call with an update, if you request one. If there seems to be inadequate police response, call and ask to speak to a supervisor.

- Calls to the police took care of removing the perpetually-parked car on Amber Drive that was covered in bird droppings.

Gabrielle M. Collard – Planner for the City of Frederick

Provided information including contact information and a site plan for the Rentals Unlimited Project. Rentals Unlimited, at the “corner” of Hayward Rd. and Rt. 15, will be relocating and expanding in what is the current overflow parking area for the Board of Education. These types of projects must come before the NAC. An engineer for the project gave further details and took questions. The biggest change will be closing the access from Hayward Rd. to the current site. The existing Rentals Unlimited lot will be sold. Call or email Gabrielle with any questions or concerns.

Mayor Jeff Holtzinger

The Mayor was this month’s special guest

- The Mayor shared information about himself and his family. He was raised in Frederick and went to school at Waverly, T.J. Jr. High and T.J. High. He has 4 children who attend Frederick County Public Schools in K – 11^th grades.

- When asked what he likes best and least about his job, he said he likes best having an impact; he likes least being in the newspaper and the impact on his family.

- He expressed that he initially decided to become Mayor because he wanted the City to do a better job with infrastructure; his first priority is water. Based on his previous experience as an engineer, he knew that the City could do a better job in development review and other issues regarding infrastructure. Without this, taxpayers are negatively impacted later on.

- The City now has 3 engineers with a background in traffic engineering. However, Dr. Anis Tannir is the designated Traffic Engineer for the City of Frederick.

- Better traffic statistics are needed to do a better job advising the Planning Committee.

- The Mayor initially heard that traffic and taxes were the top 2 priorities of city residents. Taxes are affected by doing a better job with development review.

- When asked to identify his top 3 issues, the Mayor said:

1. Roads and Traffic

2. Water & Sewer – there are serious issues to resolve. He believes the City is fortune because it has a good relationship with the County Commissioners.

3. A regional park – although he realizes that we have a slim chance of obtaining this, he believes City residents should have more open space for sports, a community center and a park on the western side of town. Other areas, such as Walkersville and Middletown, have regional parks, and this type of thing is also important to City residents. The City’s recreation department has to rely on neighborhood parks, which affects the neighborhood use of those parks. He would like to get a big chunk of land for this.

- The Mayor said that the best way for citizens to have their concerns heard and recognized is to voice them. The NAC is an excellent way, but citizens should also attend the Mayor & Board meetings. It is best to present a written version of comments ahead of time, if possible, in order to keep comments at the meeting succinct and within the 5-minute time limit. However, he urged groups to have a representative speak for them because representatives have 10 minutes to present comments. People should still attend in number; the representative can ask those present to stand if they support the comments made. Too many people standing up to say the same thing make their points “lose traction.” Seeing numbers of people goes a long way. The Mayor also urged people making comments not to get emotional.

- Mayor and Board Meetings are on the 1^st & 3^rd Thursdays of each month at 7:00 p.m. in Winchester Hall. At the end there is always a comment period to open up new issues and comments. Even sending an email in advance of the meeting is very useful. There is time for public comment after each agenda item.

- Also, attending City workshops is helpful to get information and voice concerns. No votes are taken at workshops.

- The Mayor was asked about kids getting to/from T.J. High School via the Motter Street Bridge while it is under construction. Eventually, there will be 5-foot sidewalks for safe pedestrian passage. The Mayor did not know the answer and said he would have to look into it.

- Several questions were raised regarding ordinances for overcrowded and multi-family dwellings.

o The Mayor wanted an ordinance similar to the one in Herndon and Manassas, VA, but it did not go through. It is a difficult problem to determine how many individuals should be in a household.

o It is difficult to approach this from a code enforcement angle because of the work-schedule of code enforcement officers. Overcrowding and multi-family dwellings decrease property values. The mayor is working to find a way for code enforcement to be proactive. This issue, however, is complaint-driven. There is also research under way to obtain a warrant to investigate premises. A question was raised regarding having code enforcement personnel available on the weekends. The mayor said he would need to find out what the limits are and will bring up the possibility of rotating schedules. This is, therefore, a budget issue.

o A major concern is safety when there are too many people and a house partitioned up in a way that blocks escape routes. The fire chief has expressed his concern about small fires that have started in such overcrowded dwellings and the safety concerns therein.

o Someone suggested that it may also be a social services concern regarding the children.

o The rental license agreements are not the answer to overcrowding as they are more for protection against poor landlords.

o Someone else had the question of whether a housing unit has special limitations if it is designated as a Section 8 home in terms of the number of bedrooms and the number of children. The mayor expressed that it is hard to define the number of people who may live in a unit. He admits that this issue is a concern and the city is struggling to deal with it.

o Someone else expressed that we must be careful not to use such issues as safety and code enforcement for ulterior motives, such as driving out certain types of people from their homes.

- A question was raised regarding HOAs and nuisance issues. The mayor cannot enforce HOA regulations. The HOA can levy fines and put liens on the property. However, the HOA has to pay $ to keep things “on the books” and judges throw out rulings. It was expressed that we would like the city behind us for people who are not maintaining their homes. There are currently no nuisance crimes ordinances.

- A question was raised regarding repaving the 30-year old streets in Amber Meadows instead of just patching them. The Mayor expressed that this goes back to taxes. However, black-topping for Amber Meadows is scheduled for this year. He again went back to better development review – the pavement will fail to hold up if there is not a good pavement base, which costs taxpayers’ money.

- The Mayor addressed the issue of water and Ft. Detrick. The City has entered into an interconnection agreement with Ft. Detrick. They have approached the City and county regarding water needs for Ft. Detrick’s new development. Ft. Detrick gets water from the Potomac via the county. They may possibly use the existing water system infrastructure. They are looking into a study. In a drought, we cannot rely on the Monocacy supply. Ft. Detrick is looking to do it “the right way.” The only reason we [the City] can draw water from the Monocacy is because of a consent order, but we cannot rely on it for new development planning. We haven’t honored basic water supply principles in the past, and we must not make the mistake over and over again.

A certificate of appreciation was presented to the Mayor.

He thanked attendees for getting together and being involved and urged us to speak up to make things happen.

Next NAC 3 meeting

Monday 11/13, 7:00 p.m. Monocacy Elementary School Cafeteria, regarding the City of Frederick’s new GIS system. The speaker will be Matt Bowen, GIS coordinator.

To learn more: www.cityoffrederick.com at the “Neighborhood Advisory Council” link and “NAC3” sub link.