Wheaton Urban District Advisory Committee
Mid-County Services
Center, 2424 Reedie Drive Wheaton MD 20902
Meeting Minutes,
Tuesday February 11, 2014
Members Present: Henriot St. Gerard(Chair), Devala
Janardan(Vice Chair), Marian Fryer, Jeannette Feldner, Mirza Donegan, Dan
Thompson, Tom Stanton, Nadia Sesay, William Moore
Members Absent: Luis Bonilla, Rick Kessler
Staff Present: Ana Lopez van Balen, Director, Mid-County
Services Center. Pete McGinnity, Manager
of Business Development DGS
Guests: Adam Fogel, Staff to Councilmember
Navarro. Chris Gillis, Staff to
Councilmember Levanthal. Phil Normandy,
Brookside Gardens. Brooke Farquhar, Dominic
Quattrocchi, Bill Dwyer, Stephen Chandlee and Mary Bradford of Maryland-National
Capital Park and Planning
Call to Order: 6:07pm by Chair Henriot St. Gerard,
followed by introductions. A motion was
made and passed to approve the January meeting minutes with a correction of a
member’s last name. A couple of community concerns about potholes, crosswalk
painting and burned out streetlights were addressed. Henriot the passed the meeting to
representatives of the Park Dept
Park and Planning
Discussion: Brooke Farquhar discussed the possibility of events at Veterans
Park and awareness of connectivity of Urban District to Wheaton Regional Park.
Phil Normandy spoke of renovations to Brookside Gardens
which would be starting in about a month.
Some regular events have been cancelled but believes Garden of Lights
will go on. They will be discouraging car traffic because parking will be so
limited during renovations. He is
working on the Master Plan for Wheaton Regional Park.
A discussion followed about traffic during the Garden of
Lights and ways to alleviate that. Also
discussed was the Master Plan for the park.
Some additional comments from the Park and Planning staff included the
desire for a Beltway sign for the park, the need to connect Metro, the
interconnectivity of the Urban District to the park and the idea of how solving
these issues could go a long ways toward making Wheaton a destination.
Next, Brooke turned the discussion towards Veterans
Park. Chair Henriot St. Gerard stated
that we noted the limited use of the Park during our Walking tour. We would like to leverage the asset. Marian
Fryer informed the group that they used to have concerts and dances there and
with new residents that would be a good area to have activities.
Mary Bradford, director of the Parks Dept, noted that if you
provide the content they can provide the venue.
She agreed that urban parks needed lights, paths and seating. She took questions from WUDAC members on
event sponsorships, budgeting and emphasized the fact that the Park is a buffer
between the Urban District and the residential neighborhood behind. She stressed that it is important to show up
for budget hearings! She hopes to come
back to form an advisory group.
Council Update: Henriot then passed the meeting to Adam
Fogel, staff to Councilmember Navarro.
Adam informed WUDAC that the Council was briefed by the Dept. of General
Services on the problems that historic preservation would add to the Wheaton
Youth Center Project. Those problems
included the cost, $7-8 million, and the take away of needed green space. There will be a public meeting on Feb. 13th
at 7:00pm at the Wheaton Rec Center.
Councilmembers Levanthal and Navarro oppose the historic preservation
designation and want the project to go forward.
Lastly, Adam mentioned legislation introduced by Councilmember
Navarro. Bill 13-14 would favor local
businesses in a tie vote for County procurement contracts and Bill 14-14 would
require employers seeking County business to provide health insurance to
employees
Chris Gillis, staff to Councilmember Levanthal, announced
that the Arts and Humanities Council is thinking of coming to Wheaton. WUDAC should send letter to support project
Chair Report: Henriot
informed WUDAC that WRAC is transferring their business award program to
us. He led a brief overview of the
Awards and the selection process. The
Executive Committee will vet the nominees.
WRAC will offer nominations as well.
Discussion followed on how best to get input into this process.
Directors
Report: Ana Lopez van Balen reported
that there will be a meeting of the Wheaton Regional Park Citizens Association
at the Saddlebrook Center at 6:30pm Wednesday.
MCCAB is soliciting
nominations for their awards for Citizen of the Year and Civic Organization of
the Year to be presented at the Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner on April 30th. She also noted that MCCAB would like to work
jointly with WUDAC on towing and
Bike-sharing issues.
The Façade Improvement Program has had 4 property owners
express interest. Ana also mentioned
that the Big Belly(trash compactor) contract was still several weeks away from
completion. Also, the Night Time Economy Task Force had a meeting with County
Executive Leggett. Ana also noted that
they got a response back from the Transportation Dept. on our letter concerning
Town Square issues. She handed members a
copy of the response.
Sub-Committee
Reports:
Design: Dan Thompson shared that the committee work was
focused on our goals of a walkable Wheaton.
We would like to have an event in conjunction with civic organizations
for businesses and would like to develop a brochure to help businesses become
compliant and recognize businesses that make progress. We would like to reach out to Transportation
and other County Departments and have a joint sub-committee meeting with economic
sub-committee to develop content.
Economic: Discussed
possibility of a pop up event at Veteran’s Park, maybe around the 4th
of July or Irish Celtic theme for later.
They will build a relationship with the VFW.
Two letters were submitted for review : Avalon Bay and the
Rec Center. After discussion, motions
were made and passed to send both letters, the Avalon Bay letter with slight
changes and the Rec Center letter with no changes.
Devala Janardan made a motion for the Chair to testify at
the hearing for the Historic Preservation of the Youth Center. The motion passed.
Adjourn: 7:36pm