Council Passes 2012 Budget, But Not Without Changes

After two full-day worksessions and multiple amendments, the College Park City Council passed the $14 million 2012 budget at Tuesday's city council meeting.

There were five amendments made to the proposed budget before the council approved it by a vote of 6-2. Councilmembers Jack Perry (Dist. 2) and Robert Catlin (Dist. 2) voted against the budget.

Below are summaries of the five amendments made to the budget, plus one proposed amendment that did not pass:

1. An amendment to reinstate the Lackawanna Streetscape project for FY 2012:

This amendment was proposed by Councilman Patrick Wojahn (Dist. 1). When the 2012 requested budget was being prepared, Wojahn said, it was expected that the Lackawanna Streetscape Project, made possible by an $18,500 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, would be completed by June 30 of this year. Since it has not been completed, this item was added into the 2012 budget.

The Lackawanna Streetscape Project will enable the installation of environmentally friendly infrastructure like rain gardens, bioretention facilities, pervious pavement and the like.

The amendment passed unanimously.

2. An amendment allocating $1500 to hire a facilitator who will conduct a visioning session for the Route 1 corridor:

This amendment was proposed by Councilwoman Christine Nagle (Dist. 1) to help the city - and city stakeholders - develop a "strategic vision" for the redevelopment and revitalization of Route 1.

Asked how a "visioning session" would differ from the city's existing Route 1 Corridor Sector Plan, Nagle said that the session would not be a study so much as an opportunity to brainstorm projects that the city could begin to implement.  

Councilman Patrick Wojahn (Dist. 1) agreed on the merits of the visioning session, and added that he interpreted it as an effort to "flesh out" the concepts laid out in the sector plan.

"The sector plan says 'We want green space on Route 1," Wojahn said. "The sector plan doesn’t say where we should have green space on Route 1.”

The amendment passed by a vote of 7-1. The sole opposition came from Councilman Perry, who said he did not support another "study."

3. An amendment to remove all mention of the acquisition of No. 1 Liquors from the budget:

There has been much ado about the city's plan to buy up No. 1 Liquors and convert the space into a small park.  Bowing to pressure from residents, the council voted in favor of removing this item from the budget. Readers can expect a full story on this issue to follow in the coming hours.

The amendment was passed with six councilmembers in favor, one abstention and one vote against.

4. An amendment reallocating funds from paving the western portion of the Rhode Island Ave. access road to instead pave the dead end block of 49th Street:

Councilman Wojahn said residents have been complaining for years about flooding on 49th Street south of Hollywood Road. Because the city used to simply pave over old roads without first tearing them up, the curbs near 49th Street have become very shallow. As a result, water frequently comes over the curb and floods the area.

This year, the State Highway Administration has restored enough of the city's highway user revenue funds that the problem can be addressed. Wojahn said that this issue was more pressing to residents than repaving the Rhode Island Avenue access road, which would cost roughly the same amount. On this basis, Wojahn asked to have the streets reprioritized in the budget.

Councilman Perry raised the point that the city engineer has an established "pavement management plan" with which that the council need not meddle. However, Councilwoman Nagle pointed out that the system doesn't account for circumstances like this one.

“As councilmembers, I don’t think we should turn a blind eye to the fact that residents are experiencing flooding as a result of a simple paving problem that we can remedy by passing this amendment to the ordinance tonight," she said.

The council passed the amendment by a vote of 6-2, with Councilmembers Perry and Catlin voting against.

5. Councilwoman Stephanie Stullich (Dist. 3) introduced an amendment to divide the $3000 allocated to the "Buy Local" and "Shop College Park" campaign and marketing efforts into two separate items: $950 will go toward membership in a national alliance of local independent businesses, and $2050 will go toward cementing an alliance of locally owned and independent College Park businesses.

Stullich said the alliance, which is called the College Park Neighborhood Business Alliance, is still in its nascent stages but is rapidly gaining momentum. Based on written responses from this year's Resident Satisfaction Survey, many residents indicated that they would like to see more local business move into the neighborhood.

Stimulating and supporting the city's existing businesses is a sensible starting point, Stullich said.

Councilman Wojahn pointed out that of the businesses that have shut down in the city, 80 percent have been independently owned.

“You don’t hear about CVS closing down ... you hear about Street Tacos closing down, and the Berwyn Café closing down," he said. "It’s almost all local business. I think we need to do whatever we can to support them and encourage people to patronize those businesses. They’re what give us our local flavor here in College Park.”

Councilwoman Nagle said that though she supported the idea of encouraging local business, she was unsure that it was up to the city to determine which national organization College Park's businesses should ally with.

Ultimately, the amendment passed with six members in favor, one abstention and one against.

6. Finally, Councilman Perry attempted to eliminate $25,000 allocated for the development of a Hollywood Community Center, saying that the Lakeland Community Center was sufficient.

“I think there’s a racial motive here, but I don’t know that many will admit it," Perry said, apparently referring to the fact that Lakeland is a predominately black community. "We have a very fine, efficient community center in Lakeland. It’s well utilized and it’s well run. Now I hear that they want to have a community center in north College Park," Perry said.

Other members of the council disagreed, saying that north College Park was hurting for a community center of its own. Councilwoman Nagle said residents shouldn't have to commute to enjoy the perks of a local rec center.

“Route 1- we all know how bad it is," she said. "The reason that the residents in north College Park don’t want to go down Route 1 has nothing to do with racial overturn. It’s the fact that they don’t want to spend an hour traveling on that road to work out for 20 minutes. Or to play a game of pool.”

“Nothing has come to north College Park except Public Works and a compost pile," she went on. "I think it’s time that something come to north College Park that the residents want.”

The amendment was shot down by a vote of 6-2.