Council minutes, Jan. 2008

SECTION 5 OF THE VILLAGE OF CHEVY CHASE

MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING

Date: January 8, 2008

Time: 7:30pm

Place: Chevy Chase Village Hall, 5906 Connecticut Avenue

Present: Margy Abbott; Peter Gray; Frances L. Higgins; Ira Rosenbaum; Linna Barnes, Council member Town of Chevy Chase; 3 Section 5 residents

1. Minutes

Ira moved that the December 11, 2007, Council meeting minutes be approved as presented. Margy seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

Linna, mayor of the Town of Chevy Chase, said that the Town of Chevy Chase contracted with Jakubiak, Inc., a town planning consulting firm, to provide the Town with data and recommendations to assist their Council in its efforts to control building projects. She said that the Town is in the process of creating an ordinance which will limit the ratio of lot size to living space. She will send a copy of the proposed ordinance and other pertinent information to Kevin Bromberg and he will send a copy to Section 5’s Council. She said that their Council plans to meet more often than the regularly scheduled monthly Council meetings so that they can have an ordinance enacted by the end of April.

Margy asked Linna if in looking back over the actions that the Town has taken over the last two or three years, would it do things differently if the Council could turn back the clock and start again. Lenna said that prior to contracting with Jakubiak the Town Council had done four things: 1) enacted property setback requirements more stringent than the County’s, 2) enacted a tree ordinance, 3) enacted a storm water management plan, and (4) created a construction protocol for building projects. She said that she believed those actions laid the groundwork for employing Jakubiak.

Peter asked if Andrew’s proposal for a storm water management ordinance would be included in the proposed chapter 9 concerning building. Margy said that she thought an ordinance for storm water management should be considered separately from chapter 9 Building. The Council agreed to consider the storm water management proposed ordinance separately rather than include it in chapter 9 which will be sent to the residents. Peter asked if the Council should send a copy of the 1923 Rules and Regulations with the proposed chapters. The Council agreed not to send a copy of the 1923 Rules and Regulations with the proposed chapters; however, if a resident contacts the Council and asks for a copy of the material from which these proposed chapters were derived, the manager will send a copy.

It was suggested that the Council adopt the County’s variance process rather than enact the variance process which is included in proposed Chapter 9. It was explained that if the County grants a variance to a Section 5 resident and Section 5 has its own variance procedure which is more stringent than the County’s, Section 5 might be forced to take legal action against the resident to enforce its own more stringent variance procedure. The Council decided to include a copy of the proposed variance procedure in proposed Chapter 9 and make a decision at the February meeting to enact its own variance procedure or adopt the County’s. Margy moved that the Council send a copy of the proposed chapters: Chapter 1 General Provisions, Chapter 3 Finance, Chapter 5 Health and Sanitation, Chapter 6 Animals, Chapter 9 Building, Chapter 11 Noise Control, and Chapter12 Code Enforcement Officer, and an accompanying letter explaining the contents of the chapters and the reasons for proposing these ordinances to Section 5 residents by January 16, 2008. Peter seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

The Council discussed repealing the 1923 regulations and replacing them by adopting the appropriate Montgomery Council ordinances. In addition, Peter said the following amendment to the Code, enacted by the Council on February 1, 2007, be repealed, since this provision would be superceded by the functions of the Code Enforcement Officer.

It was decided to discuss storm water management at the February Council meeting.

Margy said that Section 5 has collected $2,200 from residents for the holiday collection and has given this money to the employees of the Montgomery County Sanitation and Recycling, Inc., Section 5’s trash hauler. At this time last year Section 5 had $250,000 in State income tax money and this year it has received $228,000.

Margy said that the last Council minutes which have been placed on the web site are the June minutes. She also said that if the Council is not placing the minutes on the web site, then it should mail them to the residents. The manager will call Farooq who has been managing the web site and asked him to help the manager locate someone to manage Section 5’s web site.

There were no permits issued this month. Peter asked if the resident at 7403 Brookville Road has contacted Section 5 about remedying the fence at that property which was installed out of code. The manager will contact the next door neighbor and ask if he will apply for the installed fence because it is located on his property.

The manager completed the forms for the 2010 U.S. census. These forms had the addresses which the Census Bureau said were located in Section 5. It was necessary to determine if the lists were accurate. The Chevy Chase Historical Society has asked the Council if it may purchase a list of Section 5 addresses from Section 5’s printer so that the Society may send a new brochure providing information about the Society. The Council agreed to allow it to do this. Martin Luther King’s birthday will occur on a Monday this year, a recycling collection day, and the recycling center will be closed. The manager will arrange with the trash company so that it will collect recycling on a subsequent day that week and will send a flyer notifying the residents of this extra collection. The Council decided not to employ a shredding truck to shred paper free of charge for Section 5 residents.

The next Council meeting will be Tuesday, February 12, 2008, at 7:30pm at the Village Hall, 5906 Connecticut Avenue.