Comments are by Councilmembers Llatetra Brown Esters and Susan Whitney and are not approved or sanctioned by the City of College Park.
Click here to watch the video of the City of College Park Mayor & Council Meeting held on November 19, 2024. By going to this link, you can watch the discussion of specific agenda items you are interested in. If you have questions about Council actions and discussions, please email us at lbesters@collegeparkmd.gov and swhitney@collegeparkmd.gov.
CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Mr. Young asked residents to join the city for the College Park Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day at 9am at Parkrun on the Paint branch Trail. The event is free, but you must register at bit.ly/collegeparkturkeytrot2024. He said the last day of the Farmer’s Market for fall will be November 23 from 10am -2pm. Mr. Young said there has been great attendance this year and the increase in vendors has made a difference. He announced that the city’s Winter Wonderland Holiday Event will be held on December 7 from 2-8pm on the Paza at City Hall. The event will feature vendors from Shop Made in Maryland, food and drink vendors, gingerbread competition displays and an appearance by Santa.
PROCLAMATIONS AND AWARDS
Small Business Saturday
AMENDMENTS TO AND APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Councilmember Rigg requested that action agenda items 24-G-148 and 24-G-146 be reversed (allowing 24-G-146 to be addressed first), seconded by Councilmember Whitney.
Councilmember Rigg made a motion to adopt the amended agenda, seconded by Councilmember Whitney.
PUBLIC COMMENT ON CONSENT AGENDA AND NON-AGENDA ITEMS
David Dorsch, resident – heard about the property located at 4704 Calvert Road. The city is currently renovating the house. He asked the city to sell the house because they should not be in the house renting business. He said $149,000 is being spent on repairs.
CONSENT AGENDA
24-G-149 Approval of a letter to the Maryland Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to reconsider eliminating the C8 bus route to the National Archives at College Park – Bill Gardiner, Assistant City Manager
24-G-150 Approval of modification of use of FY 2024 grant funds to Parkdale High School and approval of FY 2025 Public School Education Grants to University Park Elementary School, College Park Academy and Hollywood Elementary School – Kiaisha Barber, Director of Youth, Family, and Senior Services
24-G-151 Approval to install safety measures on Edmonston Road between Radcliffe Drive and Bryn Mawr Road – Jacob Vassalotti, GIS Coordinator and Steve Halpern, City Engineer
24-G-153 Approval of Alan Bradford as the 2024 Jack Perry Award Recipient – Yvette Allen, City Clerk
Councilmember Whitney made a motion to accept the Consent Agenda, seconded by Councilmember Esters.
ACTION ITEMS:
24-G-146 Approval of a contract with Rainbow Construction of Waldorf in the amount of $7,345,000, to conduct the Comprehensive Renovations of Duvall Field Project, Rakhmel Rafi, Grants Coordinator
Mr. Rafi was joined by representatives of KCI to request approval for the construction of Duvall Field. Rainbow Construction put forth the best proposal.
Mayor Kabir thanked the council for putting forth good questions ahead of the meeting.
Councilmember Rigg said he remembered a distinct conversation about the cost of the project being $5million dollars and is dismayed to find that it is $2 million over budget. He is trying to understand how we got here.
Ms. Bader, Director of Planning and Community Development, said there was an extensive visioning session in 2019 that worked through many of the amenities. It involved the Mayor and Council, staff, and residents of College Park. The most recent discussion was about the splash pad. We started the planning of this project in 2005. The $5 million was estimated in 2019 before COVID. Councilmember Rigg did not recall being part of the 2019 visioning session. Ms. Bader confirmed that Councilmember Rigg was part of the visioning session. She said a lot has changed since 2019, but the design has not changed. Ms. Bader has been planning director for 1 year and 6 months, and this has been a priority project. Rigg asked about cost mitigation measures, beyond the splash pad. The removal of the splash pad was the major change.
Mr. Young said there was discussion with the Council around 35% design completion and then again at 65% design completion when we had further discussion about the splash pad. At that time, there was discussion about cost. According to Mr. Young, storm mitigation measures are a lot of the cost.
Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell asked about the financing moving forward. Mr. Young said the bond bill and Project Open Space (POS) dollars will be utilized. The city will have operating costs. He added that a lot of the design was done to help reduce future burden on staff. Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell asked about the timeframe for the bond. Mr. Fields, Director of Finance, said the bond would be for 30 years and Duvall Field is to be paid for over 20 years.
Councilmember Adams asked about the amount of interest that has accrued on the bond. Mr. Field said the bond started at $5 million and has accrued about $660 thousand to date. and is now about $6.5 million. The total amount of those earnings, the bond and the $1.5 million in Project Open Space funds is about $7.175 million so there’s roughly $200 thousand difference between the proposed costs and allocated funding. Mr. Young said the $200,000 delta will be covered by the Capital Improvement Projects (CIP).
Councilmember Adams stressed the need to be transparent and include a sign on site about the money the city has invested in the project. We need to be direct and straight forward in our communication. The concern he has if $ 1.5 of POS funding goes toward this project what does that mean for other projects in the city.
Councilmember Hew said it was painful number to consider. He said he was part of discussions about Duvall Field improvements in 2009. He talked about how inflation has changed over time and the longer we wait, the longer it is going to cost. We need to move forward.
Councilmember Esters acknowledged that discussion about Duvall Field improvements began 19 years ago. She said she was concerned about the proposed cost, but recognized there were many factors that contributed to increased cost. She said if we wait any longer, costs will continue to increase. She said we need to move forward with the project and said that the area North of MD 193 deserves such a project.
Councilmember Hernandez said he put forth many questions on this item and had sticker shock. He asked whether there could be additional cost mitigation measures. Mr. Rafi said value engineering the project at this point would cost us a year.
Mr. Hoehn of KCI said he found the conversation very productive. He agreed that the cost has increased over time. He is the only person at KCI who has been part of the discussion for the past 4 years. It has been a very involved project with numerous revisions. He said in 2023 we went through the process of looking at the splash pad, audio, and the band shell. He said he would like to see the project move forward. It has the potential to be an award-winning project. He said the project can be delayed, but we will wind up with a zero-sum balance gain.
Councilmember Hernandez said he has only seen the field used for soccer, ruby and quidditch.
He asked if the field would be completely grass, and if we knew where workers would park. Mr. Rafi said parking would be in the staging area. Councilmember Hernandez asked for a list of amenities to share with residents. Mr. Rafi said the RFP is listed on the website, but he can share it. Mr. Young said staff would work on a communication tool. Councilmember Hernandez said he was supportive of the project and thinks it will be a wonderful investment for North College Park.
Councilmember Whitney said she recalled a similar conversation about City Hall and the expense of that project. The argument was made that it would create a place for community, where everyone could gather, and we have seen that happen. She thinks the same will happen with Duvall Field. It has the potential to bring people together in a different part of the city. She thanked the council and staff for their work on the project.
Councilmember Mackie asked if stormwater management would need to be done regardless. Ms. Bader said yes, it needs to be done. Councilmember Mackie said she remembered all the conversations. She said the cost does give her heartburn, but we went through the same issue the College Park Clubhouse. She thinks it is needed. Opportunities for outdoor play will help with the issue of Childhood obesity.
Councilmember Adams stated his support for the project and expressed his concern about colleagues implying there has been no investment in the city North of MD 193. He referenced improvement projects that have occurred north of MD 193 including the Hollywood Streetscape and improvements along Rhode Island Ave.
Councilmember Hernandez made the motion to approve the RFP, seconded by Councilmember Hew.
Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell thanked the City Manager and staff for their work and Rainbow contractors. She is happy to see we are here and bringing this to fruition.
Councilmember Rigg will support this project. He said we need to make sure it is used and said he agreed with Councilmember Adams concern about implications by colleagues that improvements north of MD 193 have been lacking.
Councilmember Esters acknowledged that there have been some visible improvements of late, but said she will continue to say that more improvements north of MD 193 are needed.
Councilmember Mackie asked that we continue to invest in North College Park.
Mayor Kabir mentioned the various amenities that will benefit the entire community and mentioned his own shock about the cost.
The motion passed unanimously.
24-G-148 Approval of the Program Open Space application totaling $1,500,000.00 for the partial funding of Duvall Field renovations –Miriam Bader, Director of Planning and Rakhmel Rafi, Grants Coordinator
Mr. Rafi explained that municipalities who are submitting applications for Project Open Space must submit projects that are shovel ready. The projects must have a shelf life of twenty years and be open to the public.
Councilmember Mackie asked if we have a banked amount for project open space. She also asked for clarity on whether we were asked to provide only shovel-ready projects. Mr. Rafi informed her that all projects submitted at this time must be shovel ready.
Councilmember Adams asked if there is any evaluation process that looks for past awards. Mr. Rafi said the approval process is based on deliverables. The funds are eligible for the bandshell, playground, field, etc., if those projects haven’t received funding in the past 20 years. When submitting the application, we’ll submit the RFP from the contractor. Councilmember Adams asked if there were explicit criteria or a board that reviews projects for funding. Mr. Rafi said the process is not competitive.
Councilmember Hew asked if the money is coming out of limited funding for the city. Mr. Rafi said no, POS is now a shovel-ready program, and this application should not hinder us moving forward with other projects.
Councilmember Rigg said the package indicated the due date to apply was June 4. He asked if this application would stop us from submitting other projects for this fiscal year. He asked if there were other shovel ready projects in the city. Mr. Rafi said the application for this project would not hinder us from applying for other funds, but the application deadline was June 4. He said the other projects in the city that could utilize POS funding would be Roanoke and Sentinel Swamp, neither of which are shovel ready.
Councilmember Hernandez asked if charging fees for field usage would hinder the grant. Mr. Rafi said that would only apply in instances in which the park was made unavailable to the public. Were that to occur, the city would need to notify the Board, and the time during which the park was inaccessible would not count toward the grant’s twenty-year-usage requirement.
Councilmember Whitney asked if the POS funding would be used to cover everything in phase two of the project. Mr. Rafi said they will need to know cost breakdowns for each amenity before deciding which ones to include in the application. Whitney said that it sounded like some public areas of the park would be open regardless of how the field is being used.
Councilmember Rigg asked about the mitigation strategy if the application is not accepted? Mr. Rafi said that we are more than likely to receive the funding. Mr. Young said we would look at the CIP and the budget.
Councilmember Hew made the motion, seconded by Councilmember Esters. The motion passed unanimously.
WORKSESSION DISCUSSIONS
Follow up discussion on draft language to amend the City Code (Chapters 125, 141 and 110) to prohibit the storage of certain types of furniture in the front yard – Jatinder Khokhar, Director of Public Services and Stephanie Anderson, City Attorney
Mr. Khokhar said staff made changes to the ordinance to reflect the interest of the council.
Councilmember Rigg thought when we first discussed changing the language it was to ensure that tables would not be used for drinking games in the front yard, rather than simply addressing storing the tables out of sight. Ms. Anderson said this may have been a mistake and said the intent was to prevent the tables or surfaces from being in the front yard.
Councilmember Rigg asked if there was a need to amend the fees and penalties section. Ms. Anderson agreed that there was.
Councilmember Adams said he has an interest in understanding “visible from the street and those in vehicles.” How would that be considered by code officials? Mr. Khokhar said Code will consider if a person driving by can see and observe this behavior and a person walking by can view such behavior. Councilmember Adams asked that we not be overzealous. He used an example of someone with a fence that covers the view of their yard. Ms. Anderson said the intent was to reference visibility.
Councilmember Mackie asked if trash cans in residents’ driveways would cause a code violation. Ms. Anderson said right now, as drafted, it would prohibit leaving totes at the end of their driveways.
Councilmember Mackie said she does not support the requirement that totes be stored at the rear of the property. She does support not allowing residents to play drinking games, which makes the city look trashy. She said indoor furniture outside provides housing for rodents. She does not think folks should be allowed to leave totes outside for 5 days.
Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell said it would be hard to support something so prescriptive.
Councilmember Whitney does not recall agreement that we would put limiting language about indoor furniture in enclosed areas. She does not agree to putting forth language we did not agree to previously. She said she was ok with not allowing drinking games to occur in the front yard or to be stored in the front or side yards where they are visible. She is ok with not requiring totes to be at the rear of the property. Mr. Khokhar said there was a discussion about indoor furniture being left outside even with a covering because it would be exposed.
Councilmember Hew does not like corn hole and trampolines to be permanently stored in the front yard. As for trash toters, he thought the rules had always been that the bins can be out 24 hours before and after trash collection. It seems like we’re relaxing it. As for storage, he doesn’t want them stored near the curb or near the front of the house in full view. As for indoor versus outdoor furniture, he said a lot of residents have covered, screened-in front porches with wicker furniture.
Councilmember Hernandez asked about the possibility of increased workload on code staff. Mr. Khokhar does not believe it would cause a burden on the workforce. Councilmember Hernandez agreed with Councilmember Whitney’s concern about restriction on furniture on an enclosed front porch. He has concerns about us taking a HOA stance about what is done on residents’ property. We need to give property owners the benefit of the doubt. He suggested 3-4 days to move totes.
SGA Liaison Otte asked for clarification on fees and penalties, she asked how students (renters) are notified about the violations. Mr. Khokhar said there are a variety of ways Code Enforcement engages with residents, like knock and talk. Deputy SGA Liaison McDonald asked for clarity on Chapter 125-10 and the objective. Councilmember Rigg said he has worked with residents over several years to ask them not to partake in unsightly drinking games. However, that has not worked, and he thought it required changes to the City Code.
Ms. Anderson said she was still looking for guidance from Council on the language. Councilmember Rigg suggested that we separate the discussion into three buckets.
Ms. Anderson said that other cities she has worked with have explicitly referenced beer pong tables.
Mayor Kabir asked that we revisit the discussion regarding the use of indoor furniture outside. It was suggested that we require 48 hours for totes to be moved from the curb.
Affordable Childcare Partnerships and Grants – Bill Gardiner, Assistant City Manager
Mr. Gardiner said Councilmembers Whitney and Adams brought the idea of affordable childcare to council. He said the city partnered with the University of Maryland to develop a daycare center and provided space for residents. Recently, there was a letter sent to the delegation asking for the review of the childcare ratios.
Councilmember Adams thanked city staff for their overview. He said he was supportive of the options put forward and acknowledged the taskforce put forth by Councilmember Whitney.
Councilmember Whitney said Councilmember Adams summarized the options which were not solely reliant on legislative session. She mentioned another option to encourage home-based childcare and providing start-up kits on how to develop legal childcare centers and connect families.
Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell mentioned that the Department of Education office has information that can be provided to starting a home-based day care center. She said the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) would be glad to come to the table, Education Advisory Committee (EAC) talked about childcare and disseminating information to residents, the CPCUP should also be brought to the table. There may not be a need to create a task force when we can rely on the EAC.
Councilmember Hernandez thanked Councilmembers Adams and Whitney. He said he started asking questions and he realized that the regulations are in place for a reason. He said we have many different experts, and his recommendation is to interview daycare providers’ front offices and educators themselves. They will know this field best. He asked if there were partnership opportunities with non-profits we could pursue and said we should engage with parents who have children in childcare system.
Councilmember Esters acknowledged the input from Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell and her experience and said that Mr. Hernandez made the argument for a taskforce.
Councilmember Mackie suggested reaching out to the EAC and asking about their thoughts before assigning this to a new task force. A resident of asked about the approximate value of the lease for the Calvert Road daycare property.
Councilmember Rigg said he was ambivalent about the childcare taskforce. He thinks if we want to make childcare more affordable, we should just subsidize childcare.
Councilmember Hew said childcare and child development is important, and he is in full support of a taskforce.
Councilmember Adams said the state has a childcare subsidy program and the average applicant receives $9,000 per child. The national average for childcare cost is 7% of income, yet many folks are paying about 20%. He said he agrees with the formation of a taskforce.
Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell said she does not believe we need a taskforce. She asked that we have the EAC do the work if they have capacity, and, if not, that we create a taskforce to discuss the subsidizing childcare and what it would take.
City staff will reach out to the EAC to see if this is something they wish to take on.
REQUESTS FOR / STATUS OF FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Proposal to create protocol for annexation of property into the College Park.
COMMENTS FROM THE MAYOR, COUNCIL, STUDENT LIAISON OR CITY MANAGER
Councilmember Adams mentioned his recent attendance at the National League of Cities (NLC) conference where he learned a lot. He mentioned a presentation of best practices to identify the cost placed into the city that highlights investment. He said he has a copy of an outstanding presentation done by Greenbelt Mayor Emmet Jordan. He said Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell was recognized for her service to NLC.
Councilmember Mackie said she went to the COG Chesapeake Bay Commission where there was a conversation about the recent election and the impact on environmental issues.
Mayor Pro Tem Mitchell mentioned her attendance at NLC, where she attended the big city mayor round table to talk about various topics.
Mayor Kabir said he and Councilmember Hernandez testified about staffing issues at the fire department. He also joined Councilmember Esters and Whitney on a recent meeting held at the Branchville Volunteer Fire Department about that topic.
Councilmember Whitney said she recently attended the city’s quarterly Public Safety meeting where there was discussion about safety this time of year. She asked residents not to leave their keys in the car with it running, saying many cars are stolen that way every winter.
Councilmember Esters told students and those working in higher education to hold on as we get closer to the end of the semester. She wished students well as they prepare for finals.
Councilmember Hew learned a lot from the fall Maryland Municipal League (MML) conference. He said he will be graduating from the Parks and Planning course.
Councilmember Hernandez said he was asked by Congressman Ivey’s office to sit on the nomination committee for service academies.
SGA Liaison Otte wished UMD students Happy Thanksgiving and good luck on finals.
SGA Liaison McDonald thanked everyone for welcoming her and being so gracious.
Mr. Young reminded residents and students about the availability of resources in the city to deal with the stressors of life, Care Solace. He said the Mayor and Council should use tonight’s discussion about the approval Duvall Field as a precursor for the upcoming budget session. Costs are going up for the things we do each day.
ADJOURN
Click here to see the full agenda for the City of College Park Mayor & Council Hybrid Meeting on December 3, 2024, when it is available. Tune in, show up or share your thoughts/concerns about the following anticipated Consent Agenda and Action Items, and Workshop discussions proposed to be on the agenda that may interest District 2 residents. Please contact us as soon as possible if you need accommodations to participate in a meeting, including language translation:
Presentation:
- College Park City-University Partnership Community Preservation Trust
- Elementary School Bus Stop Safety in the City of College Park
Consent:
- Approval of agreements with Care Solace, Attick Towers, and five food service delivery organizations
- Approval of the 2024 Jack Perry nomination
Crackling fire to keep you toasty
Cider to sip and savor
Classic s’mores for a sweet treat
Arts & crafts sponsored by CPAE
The College Park District 2 Digest 