[RP TownTalk] 7/11 on Baltimore Avenue

[Jonathan Ebbeler]

To all interested parties:

The M-U-TC committee received the following attached letter (click on the dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vdlpftjkjctea6/6315%20Baltimore%20Letter.pdf?dl=0 )  from the applicant's attorney regarding the proposed 7-11 on Baltimore/Sheridan.

Briefly, the attorney has communicated that they will not be in attendance on 12/3 at the M-U-TC meeting and will not be revising the plans although the committee has communicated that are out of compliance with the zoning ordinance.  Their opinion is that the M-U-TC committee lacks the review authority over many of the items flagged as having compliance issues due to a recent 're-interpretation' by MNCPPC legal counsel.  For the elements that the applicant does not dispute regarding review authority, the committee and applicant  had a very circular conversation in which they agreed it did not meet the standard but what they were offering was better than nothing.  The town in recent history has held developers to higher standards than the 'you will take what we offer and be happy since something is better than nothing' point of view.

Mind you, the committee has interpreted the zoning ordinance on every case consistently for the last 10 years and does not believe that the 're-interpretation' has any legal merit.  The committee has not been given a legal opinion of why words that seem straightforward are now supposed to mean the opposite of what they say.

One could interpret the gist of the letter in that the applicant is not concerned with what our opinion is and will take up the matter directly with the Planning Board via the Special Permit process (see page 2:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/svbl10omng1lyzd/H-RiverdalePlan-Design%20Review%20Process.pdf?dl=0  ).  The special permit will require a justification statement, an actual stamped land survey, and a site plan with all existing buildings, something the committee has asked for but the applicant has declined to provide to this point (we have seen only the plat with the 'proposed' structure in place).  All municipalities and adjoining property owners will be notified and there will be a public hearing in Upper Marlboro.

If a special permit is filed and the Riverdale Park Town Council votes to deny support for the permit, the planning board must vote in super-majority (4/5) to overturn our vote.  Other towns may choose to weigh in on this matter as well.

Best,

Jonathan

Jonathan Ebbeler
Councilman, Ward 1
Chair - Economic Development
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20141126/a8807800/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 6315 Baltimore Letter.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 190892 bytes
Desc: 6315 Baltimore Letter.pdf
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20141126/a8807800/attachment.pdf>