Recall Now
Please help us put the brakes on our fast changing community Many members of the Bowie City Council have been more interested in growth and tax revenue than maintaining and improving the quality of life in our unique Bowie communities. Now that council members serve for 4-years instead of 2-years they are operating in a way to support growth at any cost, putting local businesses and developer ambitions before resident’s needs.
One example of this is the resent Council decision to allow the construction of 225 apartments on the small open space behind the new Marketplace Shopping Center. On 3 January 24, 2017 the City Council voted against the findings of the Bowie Planning Department, the recommendations of the Bowie Advisory Planning Board, and over 900 resident objections. That decision shocked the bowie citizens in attendance.
Bowie citizens are empowered to recall members of the City Council, including the Mayor, who are not representing the best interest of Bowie. This action is not to punish the Council members who voted for the oversized Marketplace Apartment development. We are asking for your support to stop some members of the Council from doing the same at the Hilltop Plaza Shopping Center, Freestate (Giant) Shopping Center, Whitehall … see development plan to add more
The Marketplace Apartment development is a good example of how not to do growth in Bowie. The Council pushed the developer to clean up the mess at the Marketplace site. The City gave them land, zoning deviations, and a stack of money to build on the site. The City did not communicate with the impacted neighbors for the first three years of the project. They worked with the County to avoid formal zoning changes and fast tracked an alternative to add Apartments to the site, without citizen input. Over the last few years citizens have had little backing from most Council members to stop or rightsize the Marketplace apartment project.
We only have one or two chances in a century to impact real change on a site like the Marketplace. To date we have lost out on the appealing Bowie Main Street vision of an upscale destination with “unique character and sense of place.”
The 2006 Bowie and Vicinity Master Plan envisions a mixed-use activity center which includes the Marketplace. The plan paints an attractive picture with active commercial and residential components. It also sets forth a policy that “…development of Bowie Main Street not adversely impact the character of the existing residential neighborhood.” A key strategy of the plan is to “…transition in building density and intensity from more intense uses located at the core of Bowie Main Street along MD 450 to less intense uses along the edge, adjacent to residential neighborhoods. Well they had 10 years to get it right, they got it wrong, and the developer plans to make it worse.
The Bowie Planning Department recommend disapproval of the plan for the proposed residential component of the Marketplace and came up with correct decisions involving:
1) excessive density for both the available space on-site and the proximity to the adjacent residential neighborhood (recommending only 100 units);
2) excessive vehicle traffic on city streets that do not meet current City and County maximum service volume; and,
3) excessive scale, mass and bulk of the proposed building being incompatible with both the existing detached residential homes and the new Market Place retail buildings, which will adversely impact the character of existing neighborhoods
Some City Council members felt an obligation to the developer that went so deep that they rejected;
922 citizen signatures on a petition to stop the additional traffic gridlock from a large apartment complex;
professional City staff recommendations for less density, lower traffic, and compatibility with the character of existing neighborhoods
The unanimous project disapproval of the good Bowie citizens who make up the Bowie Advisory Planning Board.
We ask your help in removing selected Bowie City Council members under the provisions of Bowie City Charter, Sec. 32A.
Recall: 1. Mayor Frederick G. Robinson
2. At-Large Councilmember James Marcos
3. District 2 Councilmember Diane Polangin
4. District 3 Councilmember Courtney Glass