Berwyn District Civic Association
Thursday, September 20,
2007
1.
Agenda Item 1. Roll Call for Officers.
The meeting was called to order at 8pm by BDCA President Jerry Anzulovic. Also present were officers and board members Tim
Triplett, Liesl Koch, Lori Young, Jack Perry, and Patrick Hyousse.
2.
Agenda Item 2. Minutes from Last Meeting.
Minutes from the June 2007 meeting were accepted into the permanent
record.
3.
Agenda Item 3. Welcome Back, Introductions.
Jerry Anzulovic, President of BDCA, welcomed everyone back after the
summer and attendees introduced themselves.
4.
Agenda Item 4. Treasurer’s Report. Treasurer Lori Young stated that Berwyn Day
this year made a profit of $375, which factors in the $500 donation from the
Washington Post and a $400 grant from the City of College Park, as well as outstanding
bills. Since she began as Treasurer, she
has received 10 membership fees and a donation of $150 from Strickland Fire
Protection. The current balance for BDCA
is $1,100.
5.
Agenda Item 5. Special
Community Garden
Presentation.
Christian Melendez and Kerry Fitzpatrick distributed an information
sheet on community gardens and encouraged BDCA to consider creating one for Berwyn. Melendez helped create the community garden
in Riverdale, which was built in a week’s time.
One-half of the garden would be reserved for permanent residents, the
other for students living in the neighborhood.
The University
of Maryland supports two
community gardens – one on campus near St. Mary’s Hall, the other near the
Archives. Jerry pointed out that the
only public area in the neighborhood, besides Cherry Park,
is between the old trolley tracks and Patuxent
Avenue.
What type of fencing and who would be responsible for maintenance of the
shed and paying the water bill are issues that would need to be addressed. The Board will take up the issue at its next
meeting. If we wanted to tap the
community grants program to help fund such a garden, we’d need to do so before
October 19th.
6.
Agenda Item 6. City Election
Candidates. The three candidates for the two spots on the
City Council, 2nd District, had an opportunity to address the audience.
Jack (John) Perry spoke first. He has served on the City Council for more
than years. He’s in favor of growth and
change – is afraid of neither. He has
lived in College Park
since 1969. Change is coming to College Park – “we’re in
a unique position to benefit from it.”
Although we have to to to Park and Planning, the General Assembly, and
the Prince George’s
Council to get just about anything we want, the fact that we have an active City
Council helps. There are three issues
that Jack will focus on: (i) redevelopment of Route 1 from the Beltway to the
North gate of the campus; (ii) transit-oriented development (intense
development around the Metro station); and (iii) condos (Jack likes them),
encouraging student housing as close to the campus as possible (the General
Assembly says it won’t support more student housing on campus). Jack said that he’s always open to
communication with his constituents.transit-oriented development (intense
development around the Metro station); and (iii) condos (Jack likes them),
encouraging student housing as close to the campus as possible (the General
Assembly says it won’t support more student housing on campus). Jack said that he’s always open to
communication with his constituents.
Bob Catlin spoke next. He’s lived in the metro area since 1979, in College Park since
1989. He used to think College Park looked unsightly when he had to
commute through it, before moving here.
In 1985 he moved from D.C. to Berwyn
Heights. When there, he realized that College Park was much nicer than the view of
it from Route 1. He’s served on the City
Council since 1997. There are lots of
projects along Route 1 in the works. The
East Campus project is very promising.
The City has a friend in Doug Duncan, former Montgomery County Executive
and now Vice President of Administrative Affairs at the University of Maryland. There’s talk about converting schools to
kindergarten through 8th grade, which Bob supports. Green buildings are coming to the forefront
and Bob wants to encourage that. There
are a lot of eyes on College Park
right now as a model for the future. The
City’s tax base is improving; taxes are currently relatively low.
Stacey Baca then addressed the
audience. She has been a stay-at-home
mom since 2005 and is an agent for Long & Foster. She has been very active as a community
volunteer for years, beginning with her election work while residing in Athens, Georgia. She got accepted in the Leadership Athens
program, which trains leaders, and would like to begin a similar program
here. She’s been married to Bob since
2002. She used to work on Capitol Hill
as a court reporter. In early 2006 she
joined the College Park Education Advisory Committee because of her concern
about schools, and in 2006 was elected as Chair of that committee. She has a strong commitment to the
community. She has been active in the
American Association of University Women.
She got her Bachelor’s in Sociology in Virginia.
College Park
is in a state of active transition – she wants to encourage participation in
the political process by all citizens.
Steve Brayman, mayor of College Park, was in
attendance and was asked to address the audience. His seat may or may not be contested – it was
unknown at the time of the meeting. He
has raised the bar on the work ethic. He
has been very proactive in redevelopment of the Route 1 corridor. He wants better retail there. The East Campus development will be good for College Park. As for student housing, the closer we can put
it to campus, the better for transportation, and the more our neighborhoods
will be preserved. Safety remains to be
an issue – even though crime in College Park is lower
than in the rest of the County, it’s unacceptably high for College Park residents. The City had been considering “buying”
contract officers, but a consultant recommended that we contract P.G. County
officers by the hour instead. The
parking garage was on his wish list when he first became mayor; it was put in
the budget and has gradually gained a lot of support. We need to make sure that downtown College Park continues to
thrive once the East Campus development is realized. The mayor graduated from the University of Maryland in 1983 – he met his wife
there. In 1991 he moved to College Park. In 1997 he was elected to the City Council,
and in 2001 was elected as Mayor. He has
worked for the city of Rockville
for 16 years. Under his leadership, we’ve
had a real presence in Annapolis and College Park has
positioned itself to be a real player.
The candidates took questions from
the audience. Several issues were
raised. One was the retail area on Berwyn Road. We’re fortunate to have Smile Herb Shop. The sidewalks and lights are an improvement,
but as long as Alvin, the owner of much of the property, is willing to keep so
many of the properties vacant, our hands may be tied. The City has authority over “blighted”
properties, but since the properties along Berwyn Road meet code, our hands may be
tied. Mayor Brayman brought up the
possibility of eminent domain, but said that that remedy isn’t popular with the
citizenry. Someone stated that the City
isn’t proactive enough regarding “dumpy” properties. Jack Perry said that if the neighborhood
prospers, someone will look at the commercial strip here and want to use it
better than it’s being used now. Someone
asked why we can’t have codes that require a minimum level of landscaping,
etc. New development has to meet higher
standards. The City doesn’t have zoning
authority. One member of the audience
asked the candidates to state what project(s) in particular he or she would put
their efforts behind. He used as an
example the landlord problem College Park and
how Bob Catlin had spearheaded the effort to make College Park less desirable for absentee
landlords. The Mayor said that
Councilman Eric Olson (District 3) is the go-to person to talk about retail for
the area – that he has been particularly involved and successful as
Councilman. Stacey Baca said that she
wants to stabilize single-family neighborhoods, making the neighborhoods more
desirable to live in. She wants to
improve the schools – the library at Paint
Branch Elementary
school is a shame – the shelves are almost bare
of books. The Mayor said that Eric Olson
is to thank for getting Route 1 improvements moved up from #6 to #4 on the
County’s priority list. The “private
driveway” that the University is trying to get built is estimated to cost, if
built, over $200 million. The University
doesn’t want the Purple Line to come to campus unless it will be
underground. Jack Perry wants to promote
bike-riding more. Businesses along Route
1 used to be against its redevelopment – now they’re more supportive of the
effort. College Park needs to study school
capacity. More people are moving to College Park, but are
many of them children? We don’t know –
we need to find out. Someone noticed
recently that there are only a couple of bike locks outside University
View. Stacey Baca said that there’s a
consortium on campus that’s looking at that issue. Bob Catlin said he was recently in Gainesville for a
conference where “town-gown” issues were addressed. He said these issues are particularly intractable.
7.
Agenda Item 7. Halloween and October Bonfire.
We will discuss at the next meeting how to avoid the problems that
occurred last Halloween with kids that were too rowdy and disrespectful. The Oktober Fest Bonfire will be October
20th.
The meeting
was adjourned at 10:00 pm.
Meeting Attendees: