Wheaton Urban District Advisory Committee
Mid-County Regional
Center, 2424 Reedie Drive< Wheaton MD 20902
Meeting Minutes,
Tuesday January 13, 2015
Members Present: Devala Janardan(Chair), Tom
Stanton(Vice-Chair), William Moore, Derry Goberdhansingh, Carlos Perozo, Leah
Haygood, Rick Kessler, Dan Thompson
Staff Present: Ana Lopez van Balen, Director, Mid-County
Regional Services Center
Guests: Andrew Rollo, resident. Randall Spandoni,
resident. Henriot St. Gerard, MCCAB.
Laura-Leigh Palmer, resident. Marian Fryer, resident. Richard Madaleno, MD
State Senator
Call to Order: 6:33pm by Chair Devala Janardan. A review of the December minutes
followed. A motion was made and passed
to approve the minutes without changes
Community
Concerns: Andrew Rollo, resident,
asked about status of Westfield movie theater.
The status was unknown.
Marian Fryer requested a copy of the meeting minutes and
received it. It was noted that the Blog
had not been updated in some time.
Devala agreed to look into updating it.
Old Business: A copy of a draft of a letter to the
County Executive in support of Westfield in their development negotiations with
WMATA was distributed and discussed by WUDAC.
After discussion a motion was made and passed to send the letter as written.
Special Guest: Ana
Lopez van Balen introduced Senator Richard Madaleno and this was followed by
member and guest introductions.
Richard continued with a brief background on himself and
then participated in a question and answer session with WUDAC members. Some
topics included the Purple line, budget impacts, and Arts and Entertainment,
especially how it relates to Wheaton’s A&E designation. During the discussion all members weighed in
on why they felt the Arts were important to Wheaton. Frequently mentioned was the need for venues
and an identity for Wheaton.
Senator Madaleno then left for another engagement and the
discussion continued, led by Chair Janardan.
He stated that the A&E committee needs to follow up on leads
presented by Sen. Madaleno, specifically mentioning Hyattsville and
Petworth. A report will be made at our
February meeting. A motion was made and
passed to send a thank you letter to Sen. Madaleno.
Directors
Report: Ana Lopez van Balen noted
that she has been working with MCCAB on a presentation on Redevelopment plans,
including topics of frequently asked questions and assistance for small
business, etc. The Wheaton website will
be the voice for this. She also informed
WUDAC that she had met with Latino businesses last week to encourage them to
get involved with the Small Business Assessment.
Ana passed out a copy of a letter of support for the NEA
“Our Town” grant written by the Wheaton & Kensington Chamber of
Commerce. She believes we have a strong
chance to get the grant this year.
Ana briefly spoke of the status of the Library design. It’s over budget and needs to go back to
committee. Lastly, she brought up that
she was working with Westfield on a problem with shopping carts that are
leaving the mall and being abandoned in surrounding neighborhoods.
Adjourn: 8:06pm