City Council Meeting, 8-1-2016 - Larry Swank

City Council Meeting, 8-1-2016

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION:

1. Tameka Washington, 12502 Scarlet Lane — Spoke against the proposed developments behind Marketplace and on the Jesuit property.

2. Fran Longwell, 12611 Safety Turn — Spoke against the proposed apartment complex behind Marketplace, it will increase the numbers of crimes in the City.

3. Albert Succi, 12209 Malin Lane — Spoke against the proposed apartment complex behind Marketplace; concerned with increased traffic and overcrowding of the schools.

4. Larry Swank, 12506 Scarlet Lane — Spoke against the development of the apartment complex behind Marketplace, would like Council to consider a smaller number of units for the building.

I am Larry Swank, a 40-year resident on Scarlet Lane, which is on the southwest boarder of Bowie Main Street.

I need to bring to the attention of my elected representatives two actions that I think the City Council must address regarding development activities at the Marketplace center. I will be brief.

Item 1 - On background, the 2006 Bowie and Vicinity Master Plan envisions a mixed-use activity center that includes the Marketplace. The plan paints an attractive picture of active commercial and residential components. It directs (policy) that development of Bowie Main Street does not adversely impact the character of existing residential neighborhoods.” A key strategy of the plan is to “consider a 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.

WE HAD 10 YEARS TO GET IT RIGHT - WE GOT IT WRONG - AND WE ARE ABOUT TO MAKE IT WORSE

You only have one or two chances in a century to impact real development change.  We have lost out on the appealing Bowie Main Street vision of an upscale destination with “unique character and sense of place.”  In my opinion, we now have just another suburban strip mall.

I believe this misfortune was the result of not telling the developer what the city expected and not involving the community early in the project. The city has been playing “bring me a rock” with the developer on the residential component.  Given the fact that that we do not have much space left for an apartment development at the market place, and the location is next to an established neighborhood, we must now require a very low density construction plan from the developer to be in compliance with the stated goals and policies of the master plan.

The developer has elected to ignore key components of the plan in development of the commercial component of the Marketplace. The developer agreed with the city to “… redevelop the Marketplace in accordance with particular concepts contained in the 2006 Bowie and Vicinity Master Plan.”

I am requesting that the City Council, with citizen input, develop more detailed parameters for the residential component, establishing upper limits on the number of units, building height, and design components (such as balconies on units overlooking the adjacent single family residences).    

Item 2. The city has allowed the construction of a public safety hazard in the Bowie Main Street area at the intersection of MD 450 and Superior Lane. The new Marketplace pedestrian walkways along MD 450 and Superior Land just dump people onto the Shell gas station property with no sidewalk or signal-controlled safe crossing across MD 450 or Superior Lane.  The Master Plan calls for providing street crossings marked by special materials, count-down crossing lights. Curb bump-outs, or other “safe crossing” measures at intersections.   

Recommend the City Council direct the City Manager to correct this real-and-present danger as soon as possible. Please do not accept a response that it is “in the works” Ask why it was not planned go with the installation of the Marketplace sidewalks.   

Tameeka Washington - June 2016 Statement

“Residents ask questions like “why is the city even considering this?” “What about the impact on the schools and the traffic?”. And then they almost always say to us, “thank you for circulating the petition and standing up for us.”

The residents [...] felt like their city representatives did not care about their concerns. ”

— Tameeka Washington

Good evening. My name is Tameeka Washington and I live at 12502 Scarlet Lane.

I would like to discuss the proposed apartment building to be constructed behind the Market Place Shopping Center.

Belair Bowie was designed in the late 1950s as a community of single family homes and townhouses and has largely remained so for well over 50 years. For all Bowie residents living north of Route 50, this proposed building will forever change the basic character of our community. I and my neighbors have circulated a petition and have more than 300 signatures from residents in Section B to Section Y. And we will keep canvassing until the public hearing is scheduled. When speaking to the residents about this proposal they ask questions like why is the city even considering this? Where are they going to put it? What about the impact on the schools and the traffic? And then they almost always say to us, “thank you for circulating the petition and standing up for us.” The residents who signed the petition said they felt like their city representatives did not care about their concerns. In speaking with the developer, Mr. Brian Berman, he has shown great disdain for this community and has used words like nonsensical and emotional to address our issues. In the past few weeks he has also installed perimeter lighting that flashes bright searing light into the houses on Scarlet Lane from sunset to sunrise. At first, I thought they were just testing the new lights, but it’s been going on for so long that I’m beginning to think it’s retaliatory for our efforts to stop this apartment building. We cannot have a company that has so little respect for our community and our values having such a negative impact on our city. We all know that no one will pay $2,000 a month to rent an apartment, which means the rents will drop and crime will rise. Mr. Berman will be long gone working on his next project when this happens, while the impact to Bowie will be irreversible. The proposed apartment building also does not fit into Bowie’s Master Plan. The Master Plan calls for parking areas to be located to the rear of the buildings, which is not the case with this apartment. It calls for buildings to be appropriately sized to the site, conform to the proposed land use density, and support the character envisioned for the area. It does none of those things. The surrounding community is almost entirely single family homes. The proposed building would be the largest structure of any kind within a 3-mile radius of Bowie Market Place. The City Council also needs to seriously consider the adverse effect such an increase in population will have on the quality of our children’s education. Classroom size remains a serious problem in many Bowie schools, including Bowie High School and Benjamin Tasker. The planned population increase would only exacerbate this problem. The residents of Bowie do not support the proposed 285 unit apartment building. As our representatives, we ask that when this proposal comes before you, that you immediately reject it. Thank you for your time. http://fw.to/MAPSfyT (link to Capital Gazette article)