At its first meeting of the new year Monday, the Annapolis City Council heard from two experts on the status of various resiliency projects as a $50 million City Dock redevelopment plan gets underway.
Dan Nees, a senior fellow at the University of Maryland in environmental policy, and Joanne Throwe, president of Throwe Environmental, who both serve on a working group comprised of city officials and other stakeholders, and who are contracted by the city to work on local resiliency efforts, shared with the council a brief overview of their work in developing plans to address the city’s needs.
The working group identified short-, intermediate- and long-term priorities in the city to address climate change.
“I think all of you know, given where you live, what the issues are,” said Nees, who authored a 2018 paper on assessing and financing resiliency efforts in Annapolis.
The next step is developing an outreach program to educate the public about resiliency, said Throwe, a senior fellow at the University of Maryland public policy school. She pointed to other counties including Charles, Anne Arundel and Queen Anne’s, that have also begun to address resiliency. A draft of a public outreach plan is expected in the coming months.
“You are not alone in this. I don’t know of another city that has taken leadership on this issue,” Throwe said.
The update comes as the City Dock Action Committee is expected to deliver on Tuesday a final report and recommendations to the council on the proposed redevelopment that is expected to take four years to complete. The committee is a collaboration between the city and Historic Annapolis.
“We have delayed for so long that we no longer have the luxury of time,” Buckley said during his opening statement Monday.”We can’t afford not to act.”
Meanwhile, plans to replace Hillman Garage have already begun. The city is currently considering proposals to replace the aging parking garage, one of which will be chosen on April 3.
Once construction on Hillman is complete, what will follow is a multi-year effort to remake City Dock to include among other amenities, a resiliency system that would raise the dock by 6 feet and span from Newman Street around the harbor to connect with a similar flood barrier at the Naval Academy. Some downtown business owners are optimistic about the project, while others have expressed some misgivings about the effects it will have parking.
To pay for the ambitious project, city and county officials are working with state representatives, including state Sen. Sarah Elfreth, D-Annapolis, to introduce legislation in the Maryland General Assembly that would create a statewide resiliency financing authority to help fund projects like the one at City Dock.
When Alderman Fred Paone asked how much the project is expected to cost, Nees said, “No one knows,” but the fact that the city is beginning to consider the cost is the first step.
“What’s exciting about Annapolis is they are starting to think about finances,” Throwe said. “They are not putting their head in the sand.”
Public hearings scheduled Monday
Also on Monday’s agenda was a public hearing on, O-39-19, a bill that would allow accessory dwelling units — known by many less formal names such as granny flats or in-law suites — in all zoning districts where single-family homes reside.
The property owner would be required to live on the premises and maintain proper permits. The accessory dwelling unit would not exceed 1,000 square feet, according to the bill, which is co-sponsored by councilmembers DaJuan Gay, Marc Rodriguez and Rob Savidge.
The bill would require an additional parking space for the accessory unit.
In a Dec. 17 memo, acting Planning and Zoning Director Sally Nash recommended the council approve the bill as it meets the recommendations for affordable workforce and middle-income housing laid out in the 2009 Annapolis Comprehensive Plan.
Nash wrote in a Dec. 31 staff report: “Attached and detached ADUs all have the potential to increase housing affordability (both for homeowners and tenants), create a wider range of housing options within the community, enable seniors to stay near family as they age, and facilitate better use of the existing housing fabric in established neighborhoods.”
Some members of the council, including Alderman Ross Arnett, D-Ward 8, and residents have voiced concerns that the bill could have unintended consequences.
Eastport resident Frieda Wildey wrote in an email Monday that accessory dwelling units could be used for short-term rentals.
“While I do support the affordable housing aspect of ADUs, I am concerned about those ADUs being constructed and made into Short-term Rentals in our popular Eastport Peninsula neighborhood,” Wildey wrote.
More than three hours into the meeting, the council issued a final vote on legislation to tax and regulate short-term rentals, O-26-19, passing by a vote of 5-1.
Mayor Gavin Buckley, Arnett and fellow bill co-sponsor Sheila Finlayson, D-Ward 4, Paone, R-Ward 2, Gay, and Rhonda Pindell Charles, Ward 3, voted in favor of the legislation that would limit short-term rental licenses to one per person and require property owners to apply for a license prior to listing their property on platforms like Airbnb and others.
Savidge, D-Ward 7, issued the lone nay vote. He has indicated he will introduce legislation to add a primary residency requirement to apply for a short-term rental license. The requirement was removed from O-26-19.
Alderwoman Elly Tierney, D-Ward 1, is recused from the proceeding because she owns and operates a bed and breakfast, and may not cast a vote. Rodriguez, D-Ward 5, was not present Monday.
Two resolutions that lay out the fees and fines related to O-26-19 also passed.
During more than an hour of public comment, many speakers offered support for R-51-19, a resolution to rename the Annapolis police department building after former police Joseph S. Johnson. They praised Johnson, who served as the city’s top cop from 1994 to 2008.
Bishop Craig Coates, an Annapolis police chaplain and Johnson’s nephew, urged the council to pass the resolution “not in his memory but in his honor because he is still living,” Coates said.
The resolution passed after an amendment was introduced by Tierney and approved by the council to include language that moves an existing plaque honoring former police chief Anthony Howes who served before Johnson to a prominent location in the police station.
Others gave their thoughts on short-term rental legislation before the final vote.
Susan Margulies, an Annapolis resident, urged the council to vote down O-26-19 pointing to a bill making its way the Anne Arundel County Council that will issue a 7% hotel tax on short-term rentals in the county.
“You should vote it down and you will get your tax revenue anyway,” she said.
Julann Donnelly, who owns a home in the historic district, asked the council to pass the bill calling it “far from perfect, but it’s a start,” she said.
The council is due to hear public comment on O-40-19, which would amend the capital budget and Capital Improvement Plan to allow the city to spend more than $5 million to build a new public works facility on Hudson Street.
Buckley announced a $2.2 million acquisition of a 6.88-acre site days prior to a Dec. 9 council meeting when the council gave initial approval to the bill.
