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Council Preview: Tuesday Meeting Will Take On Tree Ordinance, CR Zones
Ward 5 night is Tuesday.
Due to MLK Day, this week's council meeting isn't until Tuesday. But we still wanted to give a preview of what to look out for that night. The agenda is short, but the items are significant.
Trees are always a big issue in Takoma Park and these last few weeks the debate has turned to the city's tree ordinance. The council will continue its discussion of whether residents should be able to cut down trees if they are installing solar panels. The argument against trading trees for solar is that the trees benefit the city more. The residents who want the opportunity to cut down trees to make way for solar energy argue that by keeping these trees up and having to still use Pepco for some heating and cooling needs, other trees in areas where fossil fuels are mined are being destroyed far more heavily.
The other item in the work session is a discussion of CR zones near the Takoma/Langley Crossroads. Residents in the New Hampshire Gardens area are concerned about the rezoning benefitting developers more than residents. Seven residents spoke out against the CR zone Jan. 10.
A representative for the Hampshire Langley and Takoma Langley shopping centers, spoke against the zoning as well.
The meeting Tuesday will kick off with Ward 5 night. The council will hear comments on residents' concerns in the ward represented by Ruben Snipper.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Takoma Langley and Hampshire Langley shopping center representative was in favor of the CR zones.
Thanks. We'll email you the next time we update this story.
Barrie Howard
11:13 pm on Monday, January 17, 2011
Ryan, the representative for the shopping centers was an attorney from Holland & Knight <http://www.hklaw.com/>;. His name is Christopher Ruhlen, and you're wrong; he spoken in opposition to the new zoning. This is significant because many residents in the New Hampshire Gardens neighborhood are also in opposition to the zoning recommendations, if from a different perspective. Ruhlen represented Walgreens, who own 10 acres along the east side of New Hampshire Ave, Stout and Teague, who own 2.2 acres along the west side of New Hampshire Ave, and BF Saul, who own 10 acres along the west side of University Blvd. These commercial property owners want to capitalize on the arrival of the Purple Line, which they project is 8 - 10 years away, but want to have the flexibility to re-develop small portions of their properties between now and then in order to maintain their properties. They argue complying with the CR Zone in the interim will be onerous and expensive, and they would prefer the County to maintain the existing zoning until the Purple Line arrives. Don't take my word for it, though, check out the Planning Board meeting archive from Thursday, 1/13/2011 to get the facts <http://mncppc.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2>;.
Barrie Howard
11:22 pm on Monday, January 17, 2011
I didn't code the link to the Planning Board meeting archives correctly above, so here it is again <http://mncppc.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2>;. Under the heading Archived Videos, click to expand the 2011 Planning Board Meetings in the table. Click on Watch Now or Download Video for January 13, 2011. The testimony from the commercial property owners is part of the discussion for Item 9 CR Zones Zoning Text Amendment, and you can skip right to the testimony by fastforwarding to 7 hrs 55 mins 30 secs.
Barrie Howard
11:22 pm on Monday, January 17, 2011
The link without angle brackets is http://mncppc.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
Ryan McDermott
3:09 am on Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Barrie - Thanks for all this. I made a correction in the story about the representative for the two shopping centers.