Town Meeting Minutes
January 20, 2010
Emmitsburg Town Office

Present: Mayor James Hoover; Commissioners Clifford Sweeney, Glenn Blanchard, Tim O'Donnell, Denise Etris and Christopher Staiger, President. Also present were Donna DesPres, Town Clerk and Dave Haller, Town Manager.

Call to Order

Commissioner Christopher Staiger, President of the Board of Commissioners, called the January 20, 2010 Town Meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Approval of Minutes

The Minutes of the January 4, 2010 Town Meeting were approved as presented.

Commissioner Comments

Commissioner Blanchard issued thanks to area organizations for the youth activity offerings. Commissioner O'Donnell spoke of his contact with the state re trail funding. Commissioner Staiger met with Southgate HOA re stormwater and road concerns in an effort to wrap up developer issues.

Mayor's Comments

Mentioned the cuts in the governor's 2011 budget, the biggest being in highway user revenues.

Administrative Business

Mr. Haller responded to Commissioner O'Donnell's inquiry re street restoration after the water and sewer lines repair on Lincoln Avenue. Commissioner Staiger read the UpCounty letter of appreciation and plan for the Town's donation.

Reports:

Town Manager Report - reported on the public works department monthly activities to include a water production and consumption analysis. Commissioner Staiger discussed with Mr. Haller ongoing "wild water infiltration" concern and continuing efforts to alleviate the problematic areas. Detailed report at Exhibit A.

Police Report - Deputy Moxley went over all complaint and incident statistics for December. He sought input for his advancing effort in reformatting the report presentation and pointed out the mapping feature. Detailed report at Exhibit B.

II. Agenda Items

Mayor Hoover recommended the appointment of Dianne Walbrecker to the Board of Appeals replacing a recent member resignation.
Motion: To appoint Dianne Walbrecker to the Board of Appeals to serve the remaining seat of a resigning member.
Motion by Commissioner Etris, second by Commissioner Blanchard
Vote: 5-0 in favor

Mr. Haller sought final approval for hiring the selected applicant for the open receptionist position.
Motion - To approve the hiring of Linda Payne as receptionist at grade 3, step 2.
Motion by Commissioner Blanchard, second by Commissioner Sweeney
Vote: 5-0 in favor

Planner Susan Cipperly presented comp plan follow-up in 2 parts: revision of the zoning map and zoning code text focusing on commercial applications. The proposed recommended changes were derived from previous discussion and the water resources element: deleting HS zones to B-2, restrictive and out-of-date; CR indicator, a new zone at Memorial Park location; changing 2 R-1 properties to a B-1 designation in the northwest quadrant, allowing more commercial aspect to existing uses; assigning CR designations to OS spaces to better meet the use of those designations.
Changes to the parking ordinance 17.08.140 were reviewed to address provisions not currently addressed and to address older requirements that are excessive to include allowing pervious areas, adding a requirement table for facility of reading and adding a handicapped accessibility reference. Adding a provision for bicycle parking was discussed. Updated and simplified allowable use changes, required lot area reductions and building height increases to chapters 17.08.160 and 17.20 were reviewed with especial concern expressed to subsection 060 setbacks and 070 building height.

New Zoning - Conservation/parks
The Board reviewed the addition of chapter 17.30.010 to be added providing the new conservation-recreation zoning district intent and permitted uses.

III Public Comments - none