CA Board Meeting May 23, 2019
Recognition of Recipients of the Maggie J. Brown Spirit of Columbia Scholarship Awards
Maggie J Brown Scholarships awards were handed out at the beginning of the meeting. These Community Service Awards are in Memory of Maggie Brown, a former CA President and CEO. The following seniors from the named high schools received these grants:
- Yamuna Ananth, Atholton HS., lives in River Hill and is going to Columbia University
- Kate Makin, Atholton HS, lives in Hickory Ridge and is going to. Towson University
- Kevin Tu , Atholton High School, lives in River Hill, and is going to University of MD
- Morgan Young from Atholton HS, lives in Wilde Lake, and is going to Mt. St Marys’ University
- Nia Anderson, Hammond HS, lives in Owen Brown, and is going to Spellman College
- Caleb Park, lives in Long Reach, and is going to Emory Univeristy.
Resident Speak Out
Leila Marlin spoke about density where there are plans for a 55+ community to be built. The traffic is a concern. The higher density request needs to be on a non local road, not on an interior road. She asks for CAs support for changes to a ZRA. (Zoning regulation amendment).
Ruth Hughes represents Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. It is a non partisan, grassroots organization that is asking for support for the resolution and the Wear Orange Weekend in Columbia. She says we all need to stand together to save lives from gun violence. The event will take place at the plaza at Harper’s Choice Village Center. The group Moms Demand Action is on the internet and the store on the site does sell the shirts.
Debbie Lattimer spoke in support of the proclamation for Moms Demand Action.
Charlotte Churchill also spoke in support of Moms Demand Action.
East Guilford Industrial Park
The East Guilford Industrial Park owners met but we don’t have any information on the results of that meeting yet. There is a question as to who should be responsible for covenants. No one is currently handling the covenant issues. We need to see a map and learn what the boundaries are for this park. There is confusion about what the county does vs. what the covenants would cover. This all needs to be spelled out. The businesses need to better understand what is possible. When the meeting was called, all the owners were given a copy of the covenants. There are also design guidelines that will be distributed to the owners when the time is appropriate. The potential cost of enforcement has not yet been determined.
The total acreage of this park is about 340 acres. We don’t know what portion CA owns.
Inner Arbor Trust
IAT has a number of exciting things planned for this season at the Chrysalis. Be sure to check out all the festivities. This is a wonderful amenity that is growing each year, becoming a larger part of the community. There is discussion about the Downtown Cultural Arts, Merriweather, and IAT, etc all coming together under one umbrella. This will take a lot of time to do and CA would need to be involved in this process as well.
Strategic Plan for FY 2020-2024
There have been a number of opportunities for CA board, stakeholders, staff, to participate in the plan that will take CA into the next 5 years. The board vote is to support the plan that we have worked on over the past few months.
Some goals are easier than others. Some will need additional time before we can achieve that them.
Our new Mission Statement is:
Engage our diverse community, cultivate a unique sense of place and enhance quality of life.
The vision statement has a been approved as done by the group earlier.
There was further discussion about the goals and votes were taken to get to a final version of the strategic plan.
The risk management committee now has 4 board members rather than 3 serving on the committee.
The Development Tracker
There will be a pre-submission community meeting on the Lakeview Retail on May 28. This is expected to be built along Broken Land Parkway in the Lakeview parking lot.
Discussion about the drive thru eatery led to the realization that the drive thru is an anomaly because the developer’s goal is to provide an eatery in the area for the workers in the buildings located along this parking lot, so they won’t have to drive somewhere else to find food. Thus the drive-thru would not be needed. Also, there is concern that there is sufficient buffering from Broken Land Parkway so that the beauty and treed area is not destroyed by this retail strip center in the Lakeview parking lot.
On June 5 the Wilde Lake Multi-use pathway will go before the Planning Board. Howard Hughes expects to begin construction on the Twin Rivers pathway once it has been approved and all the provisions have been obtained.
The Zoning Board will meet July 24 regarding the Hickory Ridge Village Center to amend the preliminary development Plan.
The Ad Hoc Committee
We presented to the Board the first group of changes for the agenda that we are proposing for the Board.
We discussed creating the Board, President, and Staff sections of the meetings. We are asking to delineate the three parts of the meeting – because staff, president and board are interlocking.
Staff would bring information to the Board and that would be the staff portion. If it’s open space or programs, it allows the staff to have a stand out role.
The President would bring issues that need to be resolved.
The Board portion would need board action to move an issue forward.
We discussed timing for items on the agenda. The discussions often go on too long. Our meetings can end at midnight and many of us are not happy with the time wasted.
We need to behave more thoughtfully and efficiently to make the meetings better.
The committee requested a Board manual that would be given to each board member with all the policies and procedures included. The Board needs to be able to refer to this manual as needed.
This committee meets again tomorrow and will be ongoing until we feel the needed changes have been accomplished and there is satisfaction that the Board has improved.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Be safe and enjoy the warmer weather. Summer is officially here.
If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]
Our emails have changed… so please note the new email address…
Warm regards,
Nancy
Wilde Lake Village Representative to Columbia Association.